Sunday, October 4, 2009

H1N1 and Congress

The Hill reports that anyone in Congress, all staff included will be given the option to get H1N1 vaccinations withing two weeks. They state:

"The Capitol’s medical authority stressed that every lawmaker and staffer who wants the swine flu vaccine will eventually be able to get it once the doses begin to arrive on the Hill over the next couple weeks.

Immunization was one of many preventive tips that a staff physician with the Office of the Attending Physician (OAP) gave to a room of about 50 staffers and Capitol Hill employees on Friday, adding that if they do fall ill with flu-like symptoms, the Capitol Police can’t force them to leave work, but they should go home...

While the OAP has planned for the worst-case scenario of more than 300 Capitol Hill staffers, officers or members of Congress – or 2 percent of Capitol Hill’s working population – contracting the H1N1 virus at a time, they do not believe that it will be that bad."

The corollary to this is that it appears that the rest of us will be getting the short end of the stick. It reminds me of the book, "Restaurant at the End of the Universe". Adams' tale, where the only survivors are the middlemen. Yet if Congress makes it and we all perish who will they tax?

Where did the old adage, "Women and Children first!" go?