Here’s a question: Who do you American voters want to see on the evening news getting the vaccine first: Gitmo detainess or pregnant women?
Frustration and anger have been building but there had not been an obvious target for those feelings. That may have changed late Friday afternoon with the news that the Pentagon has offered to give swine flu shots to detainees and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Major Diana Haynie, a spokesman for the Joint Task Force at Gitmo, explained the decision this way.
“Detainees at JTF Guantanamo are considered to be at higher risk and therefore they will be offered the H1N1 vaccination.”
Really? Higher risk than who? Pregnant women are six times more likely than others to have a fatal bout of swine flu — and yet some of them have been unable to get a shot. The shortage is so severe that state and local health officials have been forced to cancel and reschedule vaccination clinics, and to adjust their strategies abotu who gets a shot and when.