posted October 18, 2004 11:15 PM            

Monday, Oct. 18, 2004 7:46 p.m. EDT
Hillary Blasts Bush on Vaccine Shortage

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton is blasting the Bush administration for the flu vaccine shortage, despite her own role in causing the crisis with her health care reforms in the 1990s.

"They're more interested in tax cuts for the rich than for flu shots for everyone who needs them," Clinton railed Monday afternoon at a press conference at New York's Ryan/Chelsea-Clinton Community Health Center.

"This administration has their priorities wrong," she added. "And we've really paid a big price for their negligence."
But according to the Wall Street Journal, though Hillarycare as a whole crashed and burned in 1994, the former first lady was able to change the laws governing the manufacture of vaccines.

And the results have been disastrous.

During last fall's flu vaccine shortage, the Journal noted:

"The reason for today's shortage - as well as seven previous preventive vaccine shortages since 2000 - is that there are just five vaccine makers. This lack of suppliers is partly thanks to Hillary Clinton, who as first lady turned government into the majority buyer of vaccines and pushed prices so low as to make business unsustainable."

In July 2003 the Journal noted that the problem goes back to 1993, when Mrs. Clinton's "Vaccines for Children Program" was first implemented.

The vaccine crusade was being pushed at the time by Mrs. Clinton's Children's Defense Fund mentor Marian Wright Edelman - even though U.S. child vaccination rates in the early 1990s were considered relatively high by medical experts.

But that didn't stop Sen. Clinton and her "reformers." She pressured Congress to back her plan in a bid to make vaccines more available to poor, uninsured and underinsured children. In the process she turned the government into the major purchaser and distributor of vaccines.

Not only did Sen. Clinton's reform fail to result in any noticeable increase in childhood vaccination rates, it managed to drive down financial incentives for private companies to develop and produce vaccines.

A year after the Journal's report on Sen. Clinton's crusade, the number of manufactures producing flu vaccine has declined to just two.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/10/18/195206.shtml

posted October 18, 2004 11:28 PM              

Which makes this: "Hillary cause of Vaccine shortage" and untruth... and exageration... a *ahem* lie.

"Health officials said they had been warning for a decade about the risks and said the closure of Chiron Corp's . British vaccine plant in Liverpool, costing the United States half its anticipated flu shot supply, had always been a clear possibility.

Warnings aside, a crisis could be at hand if this turns out to be a bad influenza season, said Dr. Arthur Kellermann of the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta."

"Over the last three and a half years, the Bush administration has ignored a series of flu vaccine warnings and recommendations from the Government Accountability Office, the Institute of Medicine (news - web sites), and others," California Rep. Henry Waxman

"Health and Human Services spokesman Bill Pierce pointed out that last year, Congress only appropriated $50 million of $100 million that the administration had asked for to help companies switch to better and more efficient ways of making influenza vaccine, a process that takes months and hundreds of millions of specially raised chicken eggs. " http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=571&ncid=751&e=3&u=/nm/20041018/hl_nm/health_flu_dc

"In a conference call arranged with John Kerry's campaign, Vilsack claimed that a 2001 report from the federal government's General Accounting Office warned of potential vaccine supply problems. It mentioned specifically the risk of having too few manufacturers of flu vaccine and outlined concerns about contamination risk, he said.

Vilsack also claimed the Bush administration ignored specific information in August 2003 concerning quality control problems at the British plant owned by Chiron Corp.

British officials earlier this month unexpectedly shut down the plant, cutting the United States' supply of flu shots in half.

"It is beyond belief that this administration would have ignored the warnings in 2001 and ignored specific concerns in 2003 as it relates to this particular threat," Vilsack said." http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041017/NEWS09/410170343/1001/NEWS

There are lots of people/things to blame JW.

Once again, the left is at fault for all that is wrong with the world.

You're really begining to sound like a broken record.

posted October 19, 2004 12:18 AM            

The government cannot compel any company to make anything...violates their rights you know.

Neither can the government compel any company to make and sell any product at any particular price.

Neither can the government compel any company to spend money on research to develop any new product or one specifically directed at any particular problem...in the case of vaccines.

You forget yourself LS...and so does Hillary who caused the damned mess then whines about Bush. Typical leftist. Their ideas don't work in the real world and always blow up in someone else's face.

What you're hearing now from Hillary is an attempt to cover her own $ss. When Hillary took all the profit out of research, production and sale of vaccines, the pharmaceutical industry said in effect....screw you and quit the business.

posted October 19, 2004 12:38 AM              

My God, these posts get more ridiculous by the day.

Newmax is a yellow journalistic ( and the term journalistic hardly fits here) rag and only someone who is intellectually challenged would believe the garbage they put out on the internet.

It is so obviously biased and unreal.

Hillary Clinton responsible for the lack of flu vaccines. heee heeee heeee heee heee heee

Note to Hillary:
Don't take responsibility for it, Hillary. Dubya doesn't take responsibility for anything, why should you?

posted October 19, 2004 12:54 AM            

Stop reading before you do yourself an injury. Why read it anyway, you can't separate fact from fancy.

If you had a clue about how business works, perhaps you would understand why there are no new entries into the vaccine business and the others left. But like Hillary, you're clueless when it comes to the profit motive.

Isn't it just awful that businesses will not just do the right thing and produce products below their actual costs or better yet, at no cost at all...absolutely free, because after all, it would help people. Business is evil...don't you agree Mirandee?

posted October 19, 2004 01:23 AM              

Mirandee, why do you read my posts? I know they upset you so, as the truth always does with those living in fantasy land.
Stop reading before you do yourself an injury. Why read it anyway, you can't separate fact from fancy.

Why do you read my posts jwhop when they obviously upset you? Pot-Kettle-Black to the rest of it. Besides, when you title a post "Hillary cause of vaccine shortage" I couldn't help but wonder how you linked Hillary Clinton with all this. Oh yeah, she mentioned it in a speech so Newmax had to blame her for it. Cause God knows the "Prez" isn't responsible for anything that happens in this country.

Actually I was amused by this post, jwhop, not upset.

During the last debate Bush explained the lack of flu vaccine and said nothing about Hillary Clinton. He did get the facts wrong though.

Who Blocked Vaccine?

Bush: Bob, we relied upon a company out of England to provide about half of the flu vaccines for the United States (sic) citizen, and it turned out that the vaccine they were producing was contaminated. And so we took the right action and didn't allow contaminated medicine into our country.

Wrong on Flu Vaccine

It's not true, as Bush claimed, that "we took the right action" in blocking "contaminated" influenza vaccine from entering the US.

Actually, it was the British and not the US that blocked shipment. The British Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, according to an Oct. 6 news release, suspended the license of Chiron Corp., the manufacturer of approximately 50% of the U.S. supply.

In fact, the Bush administration seems to have been caught by surprise when Chiron Corp. notified the US Center for Disease Control Oct. 5 that the company wouldn't be shipping the vaccine due to the British action. The US Food and Drug Administration didn't begin an investigation until five days later, according to an FDA news release .

It's also not clear how much of the vaccine is actually contaminated. The British agency said it suspended Chiron's license because of "concerns of possible microbial contamination." And the FDA news release refers to "findings concerning the contamination of some lots."

posted October 19, 2004 03:34 AM            

Execution proceedings will be held in an appropriate fashion, reminiscent of those golden years of the Times of the Renaissance days, like of the days of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette!

posted October 19, 2004 10:23 AM            

Leave it to the Kerry crowd to suggest there was nothing wrong with the vaccine and it should have been accepted.

Hillary Clinton set in motion a train of events culminating in the reduction of vaccine manufacturers in the United States.

Hillary Clinton is a leftist ideologue, blinded by her hatred of the profit motive, as are Marxists everywhere.

This vaccine disaster can and should be laid directly on her doorstep and Hillary should resign her Senate seat for placing Americans in jeopardy.

posted October 19, 2004 11:22 AM              

You Bush supporters have to blame someone for Bush's stupidity and the fact that he doesn't have any idea of what is going on in this country or any grasp on reality at all. So it might as well be Hillary Clinton. She should be punished anyway for being a strong, intelligent, outspoken woman. How dare her!

No one is against corporate profit. It's good because it keeps people working. It keeps America strong in the world market. However, corporate GREED is not good. Not when corporations are in league with government officials and rape the economy as they have done under Bush's administration. Reagan claimed to be against the government interfering in business. Deregulation was his thing. However, being the hypocrite that all Republicans are, he was not against business interfering in government. He was as much owned by the corporations as Bush is. Bought and paid for as are all politicians today. Republican and Democrats.

If anyone is Marxist in ideology it is you and the Bush conservatives jwhop. You do not promote democracy at all. You would ban people who exercise their First Amendment rights of freedom of speech to speak out against Bush's policies in Iraq and this country. You attack and label any newspaper or broadcast station that try to present the American people with both sides of the issues if anything they say does not paint Bush in the best light while, hypocritically cheering them on if anything they say or broadcast puts John Kerry in bad light or puts Bush in a good light. John Ashcroft goes after and prosecutes reporters for not divulging their sources and that is their constitutional right to do so. The Bush administration is not a conservative one. It is a radical regime. Fascist and Marxist in it's ideology.

Like any good Bush "conservative" you only invoke the Constitution's First Amendment when it applies to your free speech. Then you deny the First Amendment right to those that oppose you. You want CD's banned in record stores for music artists opposed to Bush policies, you want movies banned when actors and actresses speak out against Bush policies, any fellow citizen who speaks out against Bush you label "unpatriotic" and "Marxist liberals." You want CBS's license revoked for the piece that "60 Minutes" did but Sinclair Broadcasting should be allowed to broadcast the film against Kerry because it is their constitutional right. So don't tell me that Kerry supporters are the ones who are Marxist. Not when Bush and his supporters are against anything Democratic and fair unless it suits their agendas. You are all a bunch of hypocritical, dictorial, anti-democratic, unpatriotic, Theocracy promoting Marxists.

You seem to like labels. There is few for you. And hey, if you can label so can I. If you have First Amendment rights of freedom of speech so do I. It's only Democratic, jwhop.

posted October 19, 2004 12:01 PM            

If, the government wanted to establish a lab somewhere to do the research to get the formulations right to produce the various vaccines, I wouldn't object...in the public interest, IF there were insufficient public corporations to insure a steady and necessary flow of those vaccines to meet the public need.

However, as is usual for leftists, you cite greed, as the motive for the pharmaceutical companies abandoning the manufacture of vaccines in America.

You have not the shortest leg to stand on in your diatribe against the profit motive or Capitalism Mirandee.

Those corporations are public corporations, owned by shareholders who are pension funds, money managers, mutual funds and private individual investors. As such, they owe a "legal" "fiduciary" duty to produce the best return on invested capital they can manage.

That doesn't include staying in or initiating a business division that is both "high risk" from the point of lawsuits because anyone having an adverse reaction to the vaccine will find an ambulance chasing lawyer like John Edwards and sue them OR engaging in a business where the federal government is the majority purchaser of the product and therefore sets the prices...not market prices mind you, but a form of price fixing by government which precludes a decent return on invested capital WITH the attendant legal liability too.

Hillary Clinton set that in motion in the 90's and corporations said "up yours".

So Mirandee, if you actually work somewhere, I'll be happy to set your salary or hourly wage...I'll make the decision for you as to what your time and work is worth and believe me, you won't like the value I put on your endeavors.

If you like that idea, then you would appreciate what Hillary Clinton did for the pharmaceutical companies.

Now Mirandee, do you wish to tell me "up yours", I'm not working for what you think I'm worth, OR do you wish to condemn Hillary for saying the very same thing to the pharmaceutical companies?

It appears you are wrong again Mirandee...because it's the leftist radicals of Kerry's and the leftist crowd in Kerry's corner who are attempting to stiffle the free speech and freedom of the press rights of Sinclair. You're making a habit out of this, now aren't you?

Why is it always the left who say they champion freedom of speech and freedom of the press, then do everything in their power to shut anyone up who disagrees with them?

Free speech for a Marxists only means free speech for them. All others please shut up or we'll use every effort to shut you up.

posted October 20, 2004 03:32 AM              

Why is it always the left who say they champion freedom of speech and freedom of the press, then do everything in their power to shut anyone up who disagrees with them?

Jwhop, you and all Bush supporters that I have encountered do the VERY SAME THING you accuse Kerry supporters of doing. We "liberals" never tried to silence you as you did us when we protested and spoke out against Bush's war. We never called you unpatriotic for excercising your freedom of speech. We don't call you Marxist's and it was the Republicans who gave liberal a negative meaning. There is nothing negative about liberal in thought. Nothing negative about being conservative in thought either. Go back and read all your posts and you will see the hypocrisy in your words just now. Why do you have to keep dividing people into camps? We are all Americans. We are not the enemy.

quote:

...because it's the leftist radicals of Kerry's and the leftist crowd in Kerry's corner who are attempting to stiffle the free speech and freedom of the press rights of Sinclair. You're making a habit out of this, now aren't you?

Once again you have missed the whole point of why what Sinclair Broadcasting is doing is objected to, jwhop. Exercising their freedom of speech is their right as it is Michael Moores or any other American citizen. They are free to do that. No complaints about freedom of speech here. It is the WAY they are going about it that is not only objectable but loathesome to anyone with the slightest concept of democracy.

I will run this by you one more time jwhop and see if it sinks in but I doubt it will. Neither John Kerry nor Michael Moore presented their films on free air waves broadcasting in prime time by pre-empting scheduled shows. They did not present their films in a way that could be considered by many people to be propaganda being forced down their throats. Their movies were either in theatres where people who wanted to see them PAID to view them or on pay per view cable TV. In Kerry's case his film, "Going Up River," was also distributed free on the campaign trail and through his web site to anyone who requested and wanted them. What Sinclair Broadcasting is doing amounts to a 45 minute, free ad for Bush's campaign. An illegal campaign contribution by a company that already reached the maximum monetary donation allowed by law to a candidate running for office. Candidates are supposed to pay for their campaign ads and the stations that broadcast them are - if they have any sense of fair play and decency and respect for their viewers who keep them in business - present the opponents story as well. That way - the way it should be in a democracy and not a facist dictatorial society - the voters can make their choice for President based on their knowledge of all the facts and having heard both candidates views. It is only showing respect for their viewers and respect for democracy to do that. MOST mainline broadcasting companies do try to balance things out. Of course when they do that Bush and his supporters label them the "liberal media." Then turn around and accuse the other party and it supporters of doing what they are doing.

You refuse to see the difference because...well...because you don't want to see.

Quik that was very wrong for that Rock The Vote person to tell you that. Whoever he/she was they missed the whole point of what they were supposed to be doing which is to try and get more people to register to vote regardless of who they voted for.

However, if you are like jwhop , Quik, and lump all the Rock The Vote people together and judge the actions of one person as representing the group on the whole then that is unfair. There are good and bad in all groups and all organizations and everywhere you go in society.

I don't think all Republicans are bad people, crooks or whatever. I have even voted for a couple Republicans in my time. But I'm sorry, I have to say that all the staunch Bush supporters I have encountered seem to think just as he does and say the same things he does like robots. They totally ignore, as if blind or brainwashed or something, any evidence to the contrary. It reminds me of the followers of James Jones. It's scary. It's unreasonable and closed minded to dismiss anything as lies that does not come from the Bush administration or news sources that are biased and partisan to Bush. And no one can reason with these people. They have stopped thinking for themselves. Then they say we are the ones that are misguided or "living in fantasy land." Yet all evidence if you look around you and see what is truly going on in this country and the world points to the opposite of what Bush says it is. Yet you don't see it!!!! It's weird. Really, I'm trying to understand the phenomenon.

But what we see is a country divided and a world divided now. This election campaign has proven that it is a divided country. Who did that? The liberals? The only thing that changed on 9/11 is that the United States joined the rest of humanity. We were attacked on our own shores by terrorists as every country in Europe has experienced. That should have united us with the rest of the world. Under a good leader it would have. Instead we became a nationlistic, go-it-alone and to hell with the rest of you country. Instead of saying God Bless America we maybe should be saying God Bless the World. Because we joined the suffering of the rest of the world on 9/11. That alone should have united us with the rest of humanity.

If Bush and his administration has worked to divide the people of this country and divide us from the rest of the world it must be because it suits their purpose. And if you think about it when you divide it is easier to conquer.

posted October 20, 2004 03:37 PM            

I utterly reject your assertion that it is Bush and Bush supporters and not Kerry and Kerry supporters who are trying to shut everyone up who disagrees with them. Story below.

Kerry Kool-Aid drinkers marching in lockstep off the cliff.

Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2004 12:30 p.m. EDT
Kerry Campaign Stops Pennsylvania Showing of 'Stolen Honor'

Michael Moore has been running around the country for months showing his anti-Bush film.

But when a local theater in Pennsylvania tried to show the new film "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal," the Kerry campaign and lawyers friendly to it caused the theater owner to stop its showing.
Editor's Note: Get your copy of "Stolen Honor" and find out why John Kerry is afraid you and millions of Americans will see it – also find out how to help "Stolen Honor" – Click Here Now.

"Stolen Honor” was to have been shown Tuesday night at a local theater in Jenkintown, Pa., near Philadelphia.

The documentary features 17 POWs who say Kerry's anti-war actions in the early 1970s prolonged the war and their captivity.

Apparently, the Kerry campaign sent out an urgent e-mail last week to supporters asking them to protest the showing.

After being threatened with litigation, the theater owner decided not to show the film. Local Philadelphia radio station 1210 WPHT 1210-AM had been sponsoring the event.

"Former Swiftees and POWs were to be given the red carpet treatment, the whole nine yards," wrote Chronwatch.com in an e-mail it posted to its site.

"They just announced - within the hour - that the premier here is cancelled because the theater was threatened with litigation. Is this what free speech will look like under a Kerry administration if he gets elected?" Chronwatch asked.

Maybe.

We hear that Carlton Sherwood, the producer of "Stolen Honor,” showed up outside the theater last night to hand out DVD copies of his film.

Pro-Kerry protesters also showed up and started to get physical. Police were called to quiet their protest.

Sherwood's Red, White and Blue Productions is considering a lawsuit against the Kerry-Edwards campaign for improperly interfering in the showing of the film.

posted October 20, 2004 04:07 PM              

Hilary, my goodness, how about Rummie and artificial sweeteners? Got those through quick enough didn't he?

posted October 20, 2004 04:15 PM            

Rummie got artificial sweeteners through fast enough?

posted October 20, 2004 06:19 PM            

It's exactly the same reason there are insufficient manufacturers of vaccines. Shortages due to price fixing by government taking over the vaccine programs. Government intervention into business activities are almost always a disaster. In this case there are probably going to be some deaths this winter because of it.

Yet, the proponents of government run healthcare attempt to shift blame and point fingers at the President...apparently for not knowing that a foreign supplier, representing a large percentage of the ordered vaccine had somehow contaminated their stocks.

It is the failed policy of government taking over vaccinations, ordering the supplies and setting the price they pay that drove most of the suppliers out of the business.

That isn't going to be fixed with more of the same. When market forces set the price for vaccines and everything else, there will be sufficient supplies and sufficient producers to make whatever is needed.

The history of government run healthcare is one of shortages, declining quality, declining healthcare practitioners, declining facilities and long waits for treatment.

A shortage of vaccines is to be expected and Hillary pushed through the acts of Congress which ushered in government involvement in vaccinations for the at risk young and the at risk elderly.

While being responsible for up to 1 billion dollars of research, clinical trials and paperwork leading up to approval by the FDA, there is no guarantee the vaccine will ever be approved. Add to that, the fact that in any medication or vaccine, some will be allergic or have some adverse reaction to it and there is no current shield of legal liability for the producer...no matter how effective it may be for 99% of the population and you have the worst of all possible worlds for vaccine producers.
Add to that the government being the largest buyer for the vaccine, therefore effectively fixing the price and you have all the conditions in place for providers to say enough and focus on other products.

Those on the left call that greed. I call that government interference in the business markets and bungling by the Clintonistas and Hillary Clinton when the results of their programs were predictable and have now come to pass.

posted October 21, 2004 12:10 PM            

Conversely, what if he did, what if he could? Is there sufficient time for one or more of those producers to gear up, produce an untested, unapproved vaccine and get it to the market in time to do any good for the current year?

That too, is a loser, in more ways than one.

posted October 21, 2004 12:11 PM              

It's all the left people. They're all wicked. They all do bad things for the country.

I've never ONCE read anything decent come from you concerning the left.

I have NEVER once heard you chastize the right.