Flu Emergency

The government runs the flu vaccine program. The vaccine is "distributed free".

Predictably, there are chronic shortages.

I have to agree with Donald Tabor's assessment:

Had the government simply stayed out of the way, there would be adequate supply in the United States, and it would only have been necessary for the CDC to issue recommendations for priority, leaving it to health care providers to see to it that those who needed the vaccinations most got them first.

We're now to the point where Obama has declared the swine flu to be a national emergency. The purpose of the declaration seems to be to allow doctors to cut through federal red tape:

For instance, federal rules do not allow hospitals to put up treatment tents more than 200 yard away from the doors; if the tents are 300 yards or more away, typically federal dollars won't go to pay for treatment.

I urgently hope to somehow make it through
this scary and unnecessary
emergency of flu.