I have long claimed that only the poor are stuck with free enterprise, while the rich get all the benefits of socialism. Every once in a while, however, the extremes to which these people consider themselves entitled above the rest of us just boggles the mind!
News that US swine flu vaccines, meant to be prioritized for the nation’s most vulnerable, are being distributed to Wall Street firms such as Goldman Sachs sparked uproar Thursday. The New York Department of Health said Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have applied for supplies of the H1N1 vaccine and are eligible because they are large employers with in-house clinics.
With H1N1 vaccines often scarce and populist anger already raging at Wall Street for last year’s financial meltdown, the news triggered furor.
Anna Burger, secretary-treasurer for the largest US health care union, the SEIU, said it was "obscene" that powerful and wealthy private organizations got vaccines when "at-risk Americans are either waiting in line for hours or getting turned away.
"Last time I checked, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have not prioritized Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and other Wall Street executives over the rest of America," Burger said.
Democratic Senator Chris Dodd, from Connecticut, declared he was "stunned."
"It is shocking to think that private firms would be prioritized ahead of hospitals when the vaccine supply cannot meet the demand," he wrote in a letter to US Secretary of Health Kathleen Sebelius… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Alternet>
In my condition, the GOP flu could kill me. I fit the high risk criteria. I cannot get a shot, because my doctor cannot get vaccine. What gives these pigs the right to move to the front of the line? I want a name. I want to know who is responsible for dispensing this vital resource based on net worth instead of actual need? I want that person to join the ranks of the unemployed today!
Then I want those Wall Street pigs regulated until they beg for Vaseline to sooth their back passages. Since their action proves they have no regard for our very lives, they cannot be afforded even the most miniscule leeway with which to enrich themselves at our expense!
11 Responses to “Sit Down. You’re About to Feel Angry!”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
It's happening everywhere, private clinics are circumventing the rules, without technically breaking them, to get their hands on the vaccine, then administer to vaccine to anyone with $20, instead of the priority groups like pregnant women, young kids etc., in Canada NHL team the Calgary Flames jumped to the front of the line, can't have major league sports disrupted, but Wall Street firms getting them first is just sickening.
Same thing happened with the Calgary Flames hockey team. At least the person in their health ministry who made the decision to give to the team first was terminated.
You can terminate whomever made the GS decision and they will be found a job by Blankenfein somewhere in the bonus pool.
I'd be interested to know how many members of congress and the executive and judicial branches had to wait in line for the H1N1 vaccine.
Tom, you most likely though having a compromised immune system are of the right age to have an immunity to this strain of flu from previous exposure. get the seasonal shot and wash your hands a lot.
It's too late for me since my son and I are suffering from H1N1 right now. But when I saw this yesterday, I almost threw a candle jar at the television.
I have to laugh (darkly) at the thought that anyone doesn't already assume that the Big Boys are able to buy anything they want.
NOW!
They bought the American taxpayer didn't they?
And it was easy.
Why would the procurement of a little bit of vaccine bother their ethics?
What I'm thinking now is what they bought to ensure their safety from the upcoming throng in the streets.
One more Saturday night.
S
TC! [You made me LMAO with 'soothe their back passages…']!! Your point is well made. I congratulate you on just having a doc! It is unfair… welcome to corp Pharma America, huh? Personally; I prefer to build my immune system sans viral shots. (Have you read the ingredients? OMG!)
However; very sincerely…email me your shipping addy and I'll send you an essential oil blend of tea tree, eucalyptus, myrrh and mugwort to assist you through the flu season. You vaporize it in your environment and it WILL reduce your susceptibility in catching dread virus'. [It's the way European hospitals keep virus from spreading…] Good post!
True, Holte. I know there's hankey pankey going around, but this is just too much.
Thanks Mark. I have, I do, and I shall.
Robert, I'm so sorry to learn that your family has been hit. Please take care of yourselves, and you all shall remain in my thoughts and prayers.
Suzan, I know they get whatever they want, whenever they want it, and at my expense. This is just rubbing our noses in it. as an advocate of Gandhi, Thoreau and King, it is my hope that we can achieve change without violence.
Gwen, please don't laugh it off! We may need it!! 😉 I just might take you up on that kind offer.
When I saw this on the news last night, I was shocked. I was going to do a post about it. It reminds me of J. Bruce Ismay, the manager of the White Star Line, who climbed into one of the liferafts on the "Titanic" and was saved, while all the other men when down with the ship.
Some people just think they are more "special" than others.
Both my daughters have had it now. I haven't had an actual good night's sleep in a couple of weeks; I siesta for a few hours in the daytime.
But to the point of this post….. this won't go on forever, TomCat. Sh*t like this is precisely what makes Lenins and Maos start looking attractive to people.
Stay as safe as you can.
Your posting delivered on its title. I'm angry. OHSU (hospital and medical-research complex here in Portland) hasn't even been able to get enough H1N1 vaccine yet for all its doctors and nurses — some of whom may need to work with flu victims, or be around people who are vulnerable. And it's going to these guys instead?
This is a microcosm of much of what's wrong with the current health-care system. It needs to be widely publicized.
Jolly Roger raises an interesting point.much of our military keynesianism was based on keeping the masses employed after WW2.I suppose those at the top realized Americans don't have what it takes to rise up like citizens of other nations hence offshoring jobs and unionbusting.
The only ones out in the streets are the teabaggers who are demonstrating against healthcare and public spending and taxing the wealthy,so as to insure worse lives for themselves and their children.
I went with my cousin to check on his father-in-law during the 1990's LA riots.Before we got the hell out we watched awhile. The Mexicans would break into stores,everyone would then stream in to loot.after a while the Brothers would clear the place out and firebomb it, then everyone would move on. So the ghettos can explode at any time.
The teabaggers are congenitally unable to work with people of other complexions though.
Hi Josie. I'm sorry you didn't post on it. It would have been a good one. Congrats on being number 12,000.
JR, I'm so sorry to hear about your daughters. You raise a good point. Abuses from both sides of the spectrum give rise to extremists from the opposite side.
I hear you, Infidel. I live a 15 minute bus ride from OHSU.
Oso, that's enlightening indeed. With tea baggers, it's comedy. In the 60s, it was riots. Sadly, if the level of rage felt by the mainstream reaches a certain level, it's a revolution. That scares me. Historically positive revolutions (Kerensky, 1914) have a way of being overtaken by something as bad as as or worse than the previous status quo (Lenin, 1917).