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9/18/2009

Death Panels

Today in the Boston Globe there was a seemingly innocuous item that clearly confirms the worst fears of neocons and their brethren skinheads who protest loudly against what they call the government takeover of health care because it would enable Obama to kill your grandmother legally.

The title of the piece "Seniors largely spared of swine flu threat" reported by AP (of course) was cynically designed to allay the fears that seniors (generally defined as those age 65 and above) might feel about the threat level Orange PANDEMIC THAT IS SWEEPING THE GLOBE.

The body of the story consisted mostly of quotes from the un-informed ramblings of geezers who just wanted somebody to talk to. But if you read it carefully (as your humble scribe is wont to do) there was one statement that jumped out like a zombie in a horror flick:

"Federal guidelines call for the new H1N1 vaccine to be given first to pregnant women, those who live with or care for children 6 months or younger, health care workers, people age 6 months through 24, and people with chronic health problems or compromised immune systems. Only after shots are offered to those groups will the vaccine be available to healthy adults 64 or younger. After that, seniors, age 65 or older, would be eligible."

Despite the fact that this is badly written prose, the message is crystal clear: this is exactly the sort of health care rationing that conservatives say leads down the slippery slope to the feared Death Panels. If they can do it with flu vaccine, they can do it with knee replacements and vitally-needed medicine like Viagra.


This kind of healthcare policy, based upon scientific medical research of potential risk is obviously one of Obama's stealth weapons to kill old people and further his Socialist Agenda.

4 comments:

Rick B said...

I'm not sure what you object to the most: the attempt to rationally administer a limited resource to maximize its benefits to society as a whole, or the fact that rich people won't be able to buy their way to the head of the line? You also missed the reasoning behind this plan: seniors have a greater resistance to this flu due to past exposures, and thus are the least susceptible to its effects. So would you give the vaccine to a rich geezer who probably won't get sick anyway and let a pregnant mother go uprotected? The free market is not always efficient or equitable.

erica said...

I'm in favor of leaving them on an iceburg myself. why waste a syringe?

DEN said...

RickB - I object to the Viagra panels

George W. Potts said...

I disagree ... the [truly] free market is, by definition, efficient, but, yes, Rick it is not always equitable. That is why our politicians most often seem to be able to skim the cream off the top.