The Centers for Disease Control have published guidelines for rationing the swine flu vaccine that will be available this fall. Priority is to be given to anyone under 25, people between 25-64 who have existing health problems, pregnant women, people who have contact with infants, and medical personnel.
Isn’t there a missing category there? One that traditionally is encourage to get immunized against the flu?
Oh, they’re mentioned:
…once vaccine demand among younger age groups has been met, programs and providers should offer vaccination to people 65 or older.
My grandfather swears by Preston’s Invigorating Tonic though, so he should be good to go.
h/t Wesley J. Smith at First Thoughts
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At the Beginning of The Year Meetings a few days ago, the school nurse hipped us to the flu 411; apparently it’s the young’uns, up to age 25, who are most susceptible, and that for once the seniors are not as at risk to H1N1. If that’s so, then it makes sense that they’re the last in line for the shots.
Eh. A little shady. Swine flu is no more worse than any other type of flu. You heard me, no more deadly. There is plenty of information on that out there, including from the CDC. So you’d think elderly would still get first dibs. Reading this though makes me laugh out loud and cry on the inside.
The rationle basically says, “Young adults are stupid and won’t take precautionary measures, therefore we need to vaccinate them so they don’t infect everyone. Elderly people sit at home anyway and are unlikely to spread the flu so they go last.”
Wouldn’t this whole thing go away if people stopped injecting themselves with bacon?
From what I heard, anyone born before 1958 or so probably has an immunity because the H1N1 is closely related to the flus they had back then. Then other strains became more dominant, and that immunity wasn’t useful until the Mexicans managed to breed a stronger version.
It does seem that the elderly are less likely to contract this strain of flu. But who is at more risk once they get it? These guidelines call for a healthy 25 year old to receive precedence over anyone 65 and over.
If it’s true that those born before 1958 or so have an immunity, why isn’t the age cut-off 50 or so?
Stop trying to rationalize things Mike!…we’ve got old people we need to bump off.
Please clear that with me first.
The real problem is probably that us older folks have been exercising our immune systems since childhood. It’s the kiddies, with their anti-germ soaps and antiseptic lifestyles and general hypochondria who are susceptible, being the immunological equivalent of a couch potato.
On the other hand, it could be a ploy by The Community-Organizer-In-Chief’s H1N1 czar to “reduce the surplus population” just as the estate tax goes back up…
My mom and dad were good examples of what healthy living ain’t gonna do for you. They ate BACON (for emphasis) and eggs and meat and potatos and butter and cooked in lard for close to 80+ years. Dad died at almost 89 and mom made it to 97. Healthy living and immunizations are for wimps!
But if they would have stuck to tofu and egg beaters your mom might have made 98.
As Jacqueline O’Nassis is claimed to have said when she learned she had terminal cancer, “All those sit-ups for nothing!”