Lars Larson: The Vaccine National Emergency
So President Obama, if it’s really a national emergency why aren’t your daughters immunized against it?I understand we’re supposed to stay “hands-off” when it comes to the President’s family. The fact is, the man drags his family around everywhere with him and here’s the hypocrisy I see in his latest move.
President Obama announced that the H1N1 influenza virus is a national emergency, and it may be. Some of the predictions are that millions of people will get it and hundreds of thousands will be hospitalized. An awful lot of people, maybe as many as 90,000 will die. That would be a national emergency in my book.
If so, I’d like to know why the United States government has crippled the ability of the vaccine industry to produce the vaccine. More to the point I’d like to know this, since the Centers for Disease Control have said all children six months to 18 years should be vaccinated, why is it the President now says his daughters have not been?
“For more Lars click here”
“For more Lars click here”
Though if you would have read the news story, you see it says "The White House physician applied for and received the vaccines through the DC Department of Health, "using the same process as every other vaccination site in the District.""
And your evidence for this claim is what exactly?
(And of course, in that context, "government" = "liberals". When conservatives are in charge, big government arguments are null and void.) Try and get the rules straight!
The last time I can remember a conservative being in charge was Reagan. He got plenty of flack from conservatives for TEFRA, the tax increase of 1986 where the Democrats promised two dollars in spending cuts for every $1 of tax increase. Conservatives said he said it was a foolish bargain, they were right. Reagan went to his grave with his standing retirement joke upon greeting any US politician "have I gotten my two dollars in cuts yet?"
Blame the Trial Lawyers for Vaccine Shortages
by Stephen Moore
10/29/2004
This year's flu vaccine shortage is turning into a public health crisis. As many as ten million more Americans are expected to get the flu this year because of the shortage, according to the group Corporate Wellness. The cost to the economy from lost work time due to sick days is expected to exceed $20 billion. Americans are worried and furious. A recent Associated Press poll found that more than half of Americans believe that their own health or the health of a family member will be imperiled as a result of the influenza vaccine shortage. Even more maddening are the waiting lines to get the vaccine. This is what we might expect in the old Soviet Union, but not from our health care system here in America. The Wall Street Journal reports that other vital vaccines are also at risk. We could soon face a catastrophic shortage of vaccines to combat measles, chicken pox, tetanus, polio, and other life threatening diseases. Here are the facts behind this public health crisis. In the 1960s and 1970s the United States had 26 vaccine manufacturers. Now we are down to just four. There is now only one vaccine manufacturer for each of the aforementioned diseases. The explanation is politicians and trial lawyers. Drug companies can't make profits from producing vaccines any longer because of the issue of product liability lawsuits. In 2002 the entire global vaccine manufacturing industry had roughly $6 billion in sales. But in that same year trial lawyers sought $30 billion in damages against the industry in just one lawsuit. The damages sought by the lawyers were five times larger than the entire industry's net income. And there are now over 350 similar lawsuits pending. So the trial bar has destroyed a critical medical industry. Congress has the power to fix this crisis. Why haven't they? The answer lies with the massive political clout of the trial lawyers. Last year President Bush and Congress tried to shield American manufacturers from frivolous lawsuits and cap damages, but the legislation was squashed by the trial lawyers. The trial lawyers are the number one special interest contributor to the Democratic Party and to many Republican candidates, too. This year lawyers have donated some $100 million to federal candidates. Senators John Kerry and John Edwards have both tried to pin the blame for the vaccine shortage on George Bush's lapel. Recently, Kerry charged: "How can we trust George Bush to protect us from bio-terrorist attacks when he can't even get us a flu vaccine?" But wait a minute. Senators Kerry and Edwards sided with the trial lawyers and opposed the very legislation that could have averted the influenza vaccine shortage. And guess who two of the largest recipients of trial lawyer largesse in the entire Congress are? This year Kerry has received $21.7 million from lawyers and Edwards received $11.5 million. These Senators and more than 200 others in Congress voted with deep-pocketed lawyers over the health needs of children and the elderly, who need the flu vaccine most. Members of Congress will return to Washington a few weeks after the election for a "lame duck" session to complete unfinished legislative business this year. We'd say--and we would venture to guess that most Americans would heartily agree with us--that the most important "unfinished business" is to protect our public health and our access to life saving vaccines. The first action should be to vote on a Vaccine Liability Protection Act to ensure that the current shortage of a vital vaccine never happens again.
Who Owns the Demcorats?
Campaign Contributions to Democratic Candidates by Industry
Lawyers/Law Firms
$101,808,298
Securities & Investment
$32,277,924
Real Estate
$29,250,980
Health Professional
$19,785,057
Education
$19,508,786
Hollywood
$16,388,809
Insurance
$8,951,477
Oil & Gas
$3,339,874
Source: www.opensecrets.org
Mr. Moore is HUMAN EVENTS' economics correspondent and an economist at the Cato Institute.
Could you please explain, Lars, exactly how the US government has "crippled" the vaccine industry? Or is that just another statement you pulled out of your arse, like the claim that Obama's kids haven't been vaccinated?
What we need is a faster vaccine-making technology than the antiquated process involving chicken eggs that we use now. But there's little profit in making vaccines, so the drug companies won't invest in developing such technology. They're too busy developing new pills for erectile dysfunction and insomnia.
Of course not. Being a conservative means never having to say you were wrong. When confronted with a mistake you just throw in a few red herrings, beat up a straw man or change the subject.
In September 2005 he emailed a "Katrina timeline" that he claimed to be from the New Orleans Times Picayune. There were several entries that looked fishy that I could find nowhere on the Time Picayune's website. I emailed Lars for the source within the Times Picayune for the timeline, and he was unable to provide one. It appeared that he either made it up, or someone else had made it up and he had forwarded it without checking it.
I brought this to the attention of KXL management, and they were indifferent. "We believe Lars" was their response. No indication of the real source for the timeline.
In most of the jobs I've had in my life, if I made stuff up and passed it along as the truth, I'd get fired. But in the world of right-wing radio, it's a ticket to success.
Name the conservative Senators and Representatives who voted against the USA PATRIOT Act.
Of course Lars won't acknowledge that he erred. He rarely does that. He makes stuff up, and his bosses (at OC and KXL) don't care.