posted on Jul, 15 2009 @ 10:52 AM
I think the government health officials are walking a fine line right now. They can either make the vaccination mandatory for the at-risk populations,
which will cause cries of "why did you do this?" when a side effect occurs, or they can do nothing, which will cause cries of "why didn't you do
anything?" when the flu kills a portion of the at-risk population. If they made it optional, people would cry foul because the vaccines would
disproportionately go to the wealthy, as they typically go to physicians with shorter wait times and better supplies, rather than the county/state
health department.
Like I said, it's a fine line. Personally, as a health and science professional, I think it's great they are providing this vaccine as a free
service to children and the elderly. There is little risk in an inactivated-virus vaccine (or, in the case of FluMist, an attenuated virus vaccine),
so I don't see what all the fear is about.