"I'm sorry that this is becoming a political issue. This is really a health issue." - Dr. Julie Gerberding, CDC Director, October 18, 2004 [CNN].
Dr. Gerberding was expressing her disgust with the discussion of the flu vaccine shortage during the 2004 Presidential campaign.
She is right - a person's choice to purchase a flu vaccination is a health issue. Unfortunately, federal bureaucracies like the CDC, HHS and FDA have warped this health issue into a political issue...with predictable results.
One Flu Over the Cuckoo's Nest In the case of the flu vaccine, the answer is clear: The market protects us. After all, it was Chiron Corp., the manufacturer of the vaccine, which discovered that some of its vaccine batches had been contaminated with bacteria. - Michael Tennant, October 20, 2004 [Strike the Root]
As go vaccines, so go pharmaceuticals? In 1994, First Lady Hillary Clinton led an effort to enact the Vaccines for Children program. As a result, the government now purchases 60 percent of all pediatric vaccines through "government negotiated prices." - Grace-Marie Turner, October 19, 2004 [Galen Institute]
Something to think about when you get the flu this winter ...federal bulk purchase of vaccines at government-controlled prices has made the U.S. vaccine market a market that few drug companies want to be in. - Michelle Malkin, October 9, 2004 [MichelleMalkin.com]
The Flu Scare Game First, the media begins its usual role as hysterical government press secretary, uncritically trumpeting the same cooked numbers about the coming flu epidemic. - John Keller, October 9, 2004 [LewRockwell.com]
Government and the Flu: A Short History Thus, the latest flu vaccination debacle is not about good health, preventative medicine, or protecting people from communicable diseases. It is about the aggrandizement of the state, period, and the threat of an influenza outbreak is simply the hook that government officials use to expand the powers of the political classes. - William Anderson, January 2, 2004 [Mises]
Federal Policies Have Decimated the Vaccine Industry If Democrats (and some Republicans) get their way, the flu vaccine shortages will soon spread to medicines for other diseases, says Robert Goldberg, director of the Manhattan Institute's Center for Medical Progress. - December 17, 2003 [NCPA]
Political Pox It is important for the public to be informed and not be totally reliant upon government sources of information about health, vaccines, medicines and nutrition, which may be influenced by commercial or political forces. - Bill Sardi, September 28, 2002 [LewRockwell.com]
We’ve Got Those WMDs Right Here The modest-sounding Anthrax Vaccination Immunization Program (AVIP) in its current form is the brainchild of William Cohen, but has its roots far back in the First Gulf War. - Brian Cohn, June 28, 2003 [LewRockwell.com]
Ailing vets point to forced vaccinations The VA tells them their health problems are imagined, the veterans say. They've applied for disability compensation but have been turned down repeatedly. - Mike Wynn and Johnny Edwards, September 16, 2002 [The Augusta Chronicle]
Deadly immunity When a study revealed that mercury in childhood vaccines may have caused autism in thousands of kids, the government rushed to conceal the data -- and to prevent parents from suing drug companies for their role in the epidemic. - Robert F. Kennedy Jr., June 16, 2005 [Salon.com]
Too Few Vaccinations? It's hard to believe, but a "panel of experts" says so, and they recommend the obvious: another federal program to force insurance companies to cover them, and more federal money to ensure universal vaccination. - R. Cort Kirkwood, August 6, 2003 [LewRockwell.com]
Autism, vaccine link considered An epidemic of autism and other brain problems in American children is linked to vaccines, say doctors, activists and one member of Congress who met in Chicago over the weekend to discuss the disease. - Mark Benjamin, May 6, 2003 [UPI]
US Government Asks Court to Seal Vaccine Records Attorneys for the Bush Administration asked a federal court on Monday to order that documents on hundreds of cases of autism allegedly caused by childhood vaccines be kept from the public. - Todd Zwillich, November 27, 2002 [Reuters]
The Autism Epidemic A true free market in health care would not have led to the deadly combinations of state mandates in vaccines, state-licensed providers who are protected and the denial by the guilty parties of any damage that they have inflicted. - Randall Schultz, January 30, 2002 [Strike-the-root.com]
A Pox on Government Vaccines! One of the modern hero-myths the State has cultivated about itself is that government vaccination programs drastically reduced some common communicable diseases in the twentieth century. For decades, the government has required certain vaccinations for entry into schools, and most parents have passively submitted to the inoculation of their children. - Timothy D. Terrell, April 2001 [Mises]
Stop stifling debate, critics warn government The government's £3m campaign to persuade parents to take their children for MMR vaccination looked as though it could backfire yesterday, as critics argued that the government was out to stifle debate over controversial claims that it could be linked to autism. - Sarah Boseley, January 24, 2001 [Guardian]
Shots in the Dark Who should decide which vaccinations children receive? - Sue A. Blevins, July 1999 [REASON]
Shots in the Dark The saga of the Vaccines for Children program. - Robert Pollock, November 1994 [REASON]
