Demanding Answers for Missouri's H1N1 Vaccine Shortage

Posted on 2009-11-03 by Roy Blunt

If you've wondered what might be the result of government-controlled health care, look no further than Washington's response to the breakout of H1N1. The onerous regulatory and legal environment in the United States has placed our most vulnerable in danger. The federal government has clearly failed to meet a basic responsibility to move quickly to ensure the availability of H1N1 vaccines.

Recent reports suggest that the Administration’s response on H1N1 has fallen short, leaving many Missourians, including school districts, with no way to vaccinate the most vulnerable. Missouri’s Department of Health and Senior Services last week reported that it only has 28 percent of the H1N1 vaccine that it needs.

Overseas manufacturers, particularly in Europe, are creating H1N1 vaccines at a much faster rate because they don’t contend with the same inflexible regulatory environment that our domestic manufacturers face. Only now, as flu season hits, do we find out that we don’t have enough H1N1 vaccines to treat the most vulnerable Americans. The American people expect the federal government to protect them in the face of a pandemic.

Now we have learned through news reports that the Obama Administration is placing accused terrorists at Guantanamo Bay ahead of the many vulnerable Americans to receive H1N1 vaccinations.

It’s outrageous that in Missouri, expectant mothers, children and others vulnerable to the H1N1 virus do not have access to the vaccine, and our tax dollars are funding vaccines for accused terrorists detained at Gitmo.

If the Obama Administration has enough vaccines for terrorists, then I suggest they send these doses to Missouri, where many vulnerable people are still at risk.

If the current administration cannot manage what is a basic responsibility of the federal government, how can they be expected to micro-manage doctor-patient relationships? Is this what we can expect from government-run health care?

I serve on the House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Health, which exercises oversight over public health and pandemic preparedness. We are asking tough questions that some do not want us to ask and we are demanding answers that Missourians deserve to know.

Republicans are not the only ones raising these issues. Democrats too have expressed concerns about the Obama Administration's response to H1N1. Senator Joe Lieberman criticized the Obama Administration's missteps in estimating available doses of the H1N1 vaccine which he correctly stated has undermined distribution efforts and availability.

I had hoped my opponent Robin Carnahan would not attempt to insert politics into this public health issue, but unfortunately she has. Her Washington allies are trying to intimidate us because we've questioned how the Obama Administration has handled this crisis. They've issued false attacks about my support for funding for the H1N1 vaccine. Of course I supported the funding, but I will not be blackmailed into supporting the excessive spending of the Obama Administration including spending more than $100 billion in taxpayer dollars to bail out foreign countries through the International Monetary Fund.

While her liberal allies attack me for raising questions about the government's preparedness for H1N1, Robin Carnahan has been silent. She obviously doesn't have a problem with the Obama Administration's mishandling of this issue. I knew there were big differences between us when it came to basic issues. I am disappointed that my concern about the mishandling of the H1N1 response versus her rubber stamp of whatever the Obama administration proposes or does is turning out to be another.

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