Welcome to government-run health care! I, with my two young children, recently waited for 3 hours to get
their H1N1 flu vaccine. While the Wood County Health Department did an admirable job in handling the
crowd of about, I would guess, 600 people, it might be a foreshadowing of things to come under a
government run system.
I had a scheduled appointment with my children’s pediatrician to get our vaccine (both seasonal and
H1N1), but they did not have any doses. They had ordered it, but they did not know when (or if) it would
arrive. I have always been happy with my pediatrician’s ability to administer our annual shots and to
handle special vaccinations in any unusual outbreaks, but they, it seems, were not allowed to help us
this year. I would have gladly paid the co-pay at my doctor to have an appointment and get the shots and
not have to stand in line and hope they had the inject able vaccine my daughter needed when I got to the
head of the line.
The bulk of the doses have gone to county health departments. This is fine in a crisis, and for those
without a primary physician, but we could have avoided long lines, time off work and school, lots of
expense for the health dept., etc., if some doses would have been made available to local doctors.
Pregnant women, waiting in line for hours because their OB’s do not have vaccine. Children and those in
"high risk" groups standing for hours just doesn’t make sense if at least some of this could
have been avoided.
But the government wanted to control this process so they sent the doses to the agencies they wanted to.
I guess the only good thing about this system is that it is free, right?
Jennifer Schuerman
Pemberville