Guantanamo Bay detainees are set to receive swine flu vaccines. Fears of the swine flu aside, we are having a shortage here on the main land of the United States. Some people desperately want their children immunized, yet we’re throwing the vaccine at these guys? This is ridiculous.
From Yahoo! News:
Health officials have recommended that people in high-risk groups receive the swine flu vaccination first. There has been heated debate in several U.S. states about where prisoners should fall in the pecking order of vaccine recipients.
A spokesman for Physicians For Human Rights, an international medical group, said there are “certain basic obligations the U.S. has to its prisoners,” and that vaccinations for influenza fall into that category.
“The fact that many prisoners within the U.S. don’t get timely access to basic health care doesn’t change the obligation of the U.S. to prisoners at Guantanamo,” Dr. Scott A. Allen of the rights group said in an e-mail from Rhode Island. “We should work towards securing H1N1 vaccine for all at-risk populations, and not towards lowering a public health standard for certain unpopular groups.”
We should be working towards an H1N1 vaccine for everyone, Doctor, but until then, we should be giving it to people who aren’t criminals. On the bright side, however, not everyone has their heads buried in the sand on this one:
More from Yahoo!:
The top House Republican, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, told CNN’s “State of the Union” show on Sunday that he does not agree with the H1N1 vaccination plans for detainees at Guantanamo.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea. The administration probably didn’t think it would be very popular either; that’s why they announced it on Friday night,” Boehner said.
This is a travesty.
