We Will Inject Our Swine Before Our Time

We bail ’em when dey’s failin’; they be sailin’ when they should be jailin’… The seeming slogan of the United States of Goldman. And we have a global outbreak of the Pandemic H1N1/09 virus – a/k/a the swine flu. It’s killed between 1,500 and 2,000 Americans to date and infected tens of thousands of others, impacting 48 of the 50 states. So clearly, the government has made sure that their very scare supply of flu vaccine has gone to the most vulnerable, right? “[T]hose with asthma, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, children with neurodevelopmental conditions, or persons who are pregnant or have a weakened immune system. There are small subsets of patients, even among young persons previously healthy, who rapidly develop severe pneumonia, typically 3 to 5 days after initial onset of symptoms. Deterioration can be very rapid, with many patients progressing to respiratory failure within 24 hours, requiring intensive care and ventilation support.” Wikipedia. They got the vaccine first, right? Not exactly.

You see, it does matter how much money you make, what you do for a living and whether you are in one of those fields of endeavor that the government believes to be more important than the value of the average American, even if such “average American” happens to be in a high risk “swine flu” category – those who face serious complications or even death. If you work on Wall Street for one of those exceptionally high-profile financial institutions, particularly if you are a big revenue-generator in a company that took federal bailout money, apparently the government doesn’t want to lose its investment in your overpaid body.

The November 6^th Los Angeles Times: “‘Why is it that so many Americans have had to wait in line and then been denied the vaccine, and others can just walk in and get it?’ said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. ‘People might die because people at a lower risk got the vaccine instead. How does some rich 50-year-old banker at Goldman Sachs get a vaccine that a pregnant woman or a healthcare worker in Los Angeles can't get?’… New York City health officials have had to defend the distribution of H1N1 vaccines there after reports that Wall Street firms were among the first to receive shipments… Vaccines are supposed to be directed to five priority groups: pregnant women, people ages 2 to 24, healthcare workers, caregivers of babies under 6 months old, and those ages 25 to 64 with chronic health conditions that put them at increased risk of complications from the flu.”

There is another answer, of course. America has the best healthcare system in the world… if you can afford it. Don’t let those negative infant death statistics and medical horror stories about those who have become one of this nation’s 46 million without health insurance get you down. If you had enough money, you could access the best healthcare system in the world. OK, there have some private groups, like the Kaiser Permanente hospitals here in California, that got some of the first shipments too, but what really does not appear to be happening is a rationing of the vaccine, until supplies can expand, to those at risk. Wanna name names? DailyFinance.com and AP (Nov. 6^th) did: “But at least those 175,000 Wall Streeters are mortal, right? Sure -- except that hundreds of Wall Street employees will be able to reduce their risk of infection from H1N1... How so? Some of the biggest Wall Street banks -- including Goldman Sachs Group (GS) and Citigroup (C) -- will be receiving the swine flu virus before you, according to The Associated Press.” Hey, they promise it will only be for their high risk employees and dependents! Did I tell you the one about the Easter Bunny and the tortoise?

The government tells us that shortages in H1N1 vaccine may mean that even those most at risk might see relief until the end of December. In the meantime, how many of these high risk candidates will have funerals before then or spend weeks if not months in the hospital with lots of them in intensive care? But no worries about our Wall Street bankers; they should be in great shape when sailing season returns in the spring. Life’s like that in the United States of Goldman.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I am outraged too!