I have to say I'm having a hard time building up class outrage over this story. Perhaps the Wall Street firms should have thought about the PR a bit more, but the article states that the vaccine went to many businesses and institutions that have on-site health staff. The idea that it's "the rich" taking from "the workers" is a bit melodramatic. People on Wall Street work too. If it had gone to the SEIU offices instead, that would have been okay?
Not okay. The guidelines on who gets it first are VERY clear, and people of normal working age are low on the list. Infants first, then kids and people who work WITH kids, then on to the general population.
I was working in a town hall yesterday, in a small-ish town that has a retired cardiac surgeon as its Director of Public Health. Doc is a very intelligent man, with a great sense of humor and I have never even seen him in a slightly grouchy mood.
Until yesterday. He was LIVID about this.
The simple fact is, there is NOT enough H1N1 vaccine available to inoculate even a percentage of those who should get it. For people who are low on the priority list to intercept it and prevent it from going where it is most needed is scandalous. Yes, they claim they gave it to their workers who are "at risk," but there's no proof. More to the point, why are THEIR at-risk workers (if that's who really got the shots) more valuable than anyone else in the at-risk population? Why couldn't those people go stand in line at a flu clinic like the rest of the unwashed masses?
Doc had just come off a three-day marathon of giving flu shots. The town has two retired doctors in the health department, and they both worked tirelessly to administer the vaccine FAIRLY. I don't blame him at all for being apoplectic.
Just another example of the elitism of the "Me first" generation.