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Prisoners to get precious swine flu shots before you

Renae

Renae

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Prisoners to get precious swine flu shots before you - BostonHerald.com

Thousands of state inmates will get coveted swine-flu vaccinations weeks before law-abiding Bay Staters - who foot the bill for prisons - have a shot at protecting themselves, state public health officials have decided.

The prison pampering has one lawmaker questioning the con-voluted flu preparation.

“I can think of a number of populations that are more needy and vulnerable than prisoners,” said state Sen. Mark Montigny (D-New Bedford), who co-chairs the legislative committee on public health.
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Or is the Boston Herald not big enough for this forum, if so move it to 2.0. Looks like it's not just Texas this is happening, and I happen to agree with the State Sen on this one.
 
Ethereal said:
Do you know how hard it would be to contain the spread of swine flu in a prison?
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I don't really care to be honest.

Limited amount of a vaccine, I give it to productive, law abiding members of society first, not second behind criminals.

Is that mean to the prisoners... yeah I suppose so. But frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.
 
MrVicchio said:
I don't really care to be honest.

Limited amount of a vaccine, I give it to productive, law abiding members of society first, not second behind criminals.

Is that mean to the prisoners... yeah I suppose so. But frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.
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It's far easier to isolate and treat individual cases of swine flue amongst vulnerable demographics than it is to quarantine and treat an entire prison because the population has swine flu. Do you have any idea how much money that would cost in terms of enforcement and medical care? It's simply a matter of practicality.
 
Ethereal said:
It's far easier to isolate and treat individual cases of swine flue amongst vulnerable demographics than it is to quarantine and treat an entire prison because the population has swine flu. Do you have any idea how much money that would cost in terms of enforcement and medical care? It's simply a matter of practicality.
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It's simply a matter of protecting those that have earned and deserve protection over those that do not.
 
MrVicchio said:
It's simply a matter of protecting those that have earned and deserve protection over those that do not.
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Nobody has "earned" anything by virtue of managing to not be in prison. The government is the one paying for the swine flu vaccine, it is responsible for protecting public health, and it will have to deal with any eventual outbreaks. If the government concludes that it's most effective to provide the vaccines to pregnant people and children, it can do so. If it decides to include elderly or nursing home patients, it can do so. if it decides to include doctors, teachers, bank tellers, or prisoners, it can do so.
 
RightinNYC said:
Nobody has "earned" anything by virtue of managing to not be in prison. The government is the one paying for the swine flu vaccine, it is responsible for protecting public health, and it will have to deal with any eventual outbreaks. If the government concludes that it's most effective to provide the vaccines to pregnant people and children, it can do so. If it decides to include elderly or nursing home patients, it can do so. if it decides to include doctors, teachers, bank tellers, or prisoners, it can do so.
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Someone believes in Government saves us all don't they... oh yes they do, it's YOU!


Anyway, the discussion is on a vaccine that's SCARCE being provided to prison inmates over the rest of society.

Not the greatness that is government saving us. You can start that thread if you wish.
 
Is it cheaper to vaccinate a prisoner for swine flu, or to treat them for swine flu?

I think vaccinating prisoners is probably a net gain as far as taxpayer's cost. The vaccine is cheap.
 
MrVicchio said:
It's simply a matter of protecting those that have earned and deserve protection over those that do not.
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So, you'd rather thousands of prisoners get swine flu than have to treat four or five serious cases in free society? Have you considered the fact that:

People get out of prison everyday.

People work at prisons, and those people have families.

Prisons are extremely dangerous and difficult to manage WITHOUT a swine flu pandemic.

The medical costs associated with treating thousands of prisoners for swine flu would be enormous.

The logistical and operational complications of treating and quarantining thousands of prisoners.

None of that concerns you?
 
Ethereal said:
So, you'd rather thousands of prisoners get swine flu than have to treat four or five serious cases in free society? Have you considered the fact that:

People get out of prison everyday.

People work at prisons, and those people have families.

Prisons are extremely dangerous and difficult to manage WITHOUT a swine flu pandemic.

The medical costs associated with treating thousands of prisoners for swine flu would be enormous.

The logistical and operational complications of treating and quarantining thousands of prisoners.

None of that concerns you?
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How many prisoners have swine flu? How many outbreaks in prisons have been reported?

Can't think of any off the top of my head, I CAN however think of a number of school outbreaks on the top of my head... but hey, what if a bunch of convicts got swine flu, ZOMG!

Better treat them before we treat law abiding folks, what if....
 
BTW I understand your point. A prison is a breeding ground for disease simply by the sheer number of people involved in close proximity.

HOWEVER, I also have a serious problem with vaccinating prisoners before the general populace due to a scarcity of recourse. I stand on principled grounds in this. In an ideal situation there would be enough to go around, however there is not, thus I would not waste this resource on prisoners.
 
MrVicchio said:
Someone believes in Government saves us all don't they... oh yes they do, it's YOU!
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I'm confused as to how you arrived at this conclusion based on my post.

I don't think government is "saving" anyone. I think that the government is making a decision about efficient allocation of its resources, one that they're fully entitled to make. You're not disagreeing with that fundamental fact, but are instead arguing about how those resources should be allocated.


MrVicchio said:
How many prisoners have swine flu? How many outbreaks in prisons have been reported?

Can't think of any off the top of my head, I CAN however think of a number of school outbreaks on the top of my head... but hey, what if a bunch of convicts got swine flu, ZOMG!
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And this couldn't possibly be due to the fact that a news story about swine flu in a school will grab more headlines than a story about swine flu in a prison.
 
Prisoners get all kinds of medical treatment that other Americans don't have the government pay for. They get a gold standard of care, all at taxpayer expense. That, in fact, is one argument in favor of a national health system.
 
MrV... you already created another thread on this very issue, one in which you were swiftly defeated. Is that why you are trying again, thinking that people won't notice?

Prisoners aren't the only people in prisons. There are staff and visitors. In a closed communal space like a prison, disease would spread much more rapidly and place everyone who interacts with the prison at high risk, which in turn directly affects population external to the prison.

In modern times, prisons are a prime vector for getting ill, along with, ironically, hospitals. They are the first places to be offered vaccinations, usually. I think if you dig a little deeper, you will also find that prison staff have been offered the vaccinations as well.

You fail.
 
People still bitching about this? It's the flu, ok. It already came through my lab, I've seen people get it. It sucks for about a day or two, then you're done. Just like any other flu. Prisons are crowded, however, and the spread of infectious disease can be quite rapid. Then you have to deal with an entire prison population which is sick. Money and time which could have been saved. On the outside, it's easier to avoid cramped conditions found in a jail and have access to other forms of healthcare to help with the flu. That's it.

Besides, if you want to prevent the flu, all you have to do is drink PBR. The swine flu came through my lab, most everyone in my lab got it. Me and another did not. But we drink PBR. In fact, all the people I know who drink PBR have not gotten the swine flu. QED.
 
Ikari said:
People still bitching about this? It's the flu, ok. It already came through my lab, I've seen people get it. It sucks for about a day or two, then you're done. Just like any other flu. Prisons are crowded, however, and the spread of infectious disease can be quite rapid. Then you have to deal with an entire prison population which is sick. Money and time which could have been saved. On the outside, it's easier to avoid cramped conditions found in a jail and have access to other forms of healthcare to help with the flu. That's it.

Besides, if you want to prevent the flu, all you have to do is drink PBR. The swine flu came through my lab, most everyone in my lab got it. Me and another did not. But we drink PBR. In fact, all the people I know who drink PBR have not gotten the swine flu. QED.
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I just drank a Pabst Blue ribbon and puked:mrgreen:
 
Ikari said:
Besides, if you want to prevent the flu, all you have to do is drink PBR. The swine flu came through my lab, most everyone in my lab got it. Me and another did not. But we drink PBR. In fact, all the people I know who drink PBR have not gotten the swine flu. QED.
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Heading to the maternity ward with 3 kegs of PBR. Will report back.
 
Isn't this Swine Flu vaccine obamination proof positive of what government health care would be like? Last March, didn't they promise us 40 million vaccines?

I mean, it's not like they didn't have any warning this was coming. We've been hearing about it for over a year now.
 
MrVicchio said:
I don't really care to be honest.

Limited amount of a vaccine, I give it to productive, law abiding members of society first, not second behind criminals.

Is that mean to the prisoners... yeah I suppose so. But frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.
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You are forgetting, though, that an outbreak of swine flu in a prison won't affect ONLY the prisoners. It will affect "law abiding members of society" as well.

Guards.
Teachers.
Maintenance workers.
Food service workers.
Police.
Lawyers.
Visiting family members (including small children).
etc.

There are more law-abiding people coming and going through prisons than you realize. If you don't act in a proactive way to ward off an outbreak in a prison setting you are putting a great number of people (and the families and communities of those law-abiding people) at risk.

Yes, it is very important to give swine flu immunizations to prison inmates.
 
MyOwnDrum said:
Prisoners get all kinds of medical treatment that other Americans don't have the government pay for. They get a gold standard of care, all at taxpayer expense. That, in fact, is one argument in favor of a national health system.
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I don't know which state you are referring to with this "gold standard," but it is far from universal. Most prisoners get relatively poor treatment, due to lack of funding, lack of willing medical personal (who can earn more money in the private sector), lack of ability to freely transfer a sick patient to a better doctor elsewhere, and lack of ability of the guards to adequately determine and report illnesses of inmates.

Trust me on this one, prison health care is far from a "gold standard." If THAT is what we have to look forward to with Obamacare, then I'm scared.
 
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