In the last presidential debate, President Bush said he wasn’t taking a flu shot because of the current shortage. I can understand the politics of saying that and also the sincere motive beyond it. He probably would have been attacked if he said he was making an exception for himself.
Still, the president should get a flu shot.
Support him or not, the president is singular. Issues of fairness and equality aside, the country can’t afford to have the president debilitated by the flu or the complications that can follow from it — especially when it is easily prevented.
One might say, though with less merit, that the same may apply to Senator Kerry in these last few weeks of the campaign since such a monumental choice as voters face in two weeks shouldn’t be left to the vagaries of the influenza virus.
But Congress? Their staffers? Everybody who works on Capitol Hill?
According to tomorrow’s Washington Post, any member of congress or employee of congress can walk into the capitol’s attending physician and get a flu shot. In theory, they’re not supposed to get one if they don’t qualify under the CDC guidelines. But if they walk in and ask for one, they get one. No questions asked.
On top of that, the capital physician has told every member of congress to get a shot, regardless of age or health status. The rationale is that they come into contact with so many constituents and are at particular risk.
That doesn’t seem right.
I have a friend who is HIV-positive; and he hasn’t been able to get a shot yet. I have a relative who is over 65 and has a serious medical condition; and he hasn’t been able to get one yet either.
I wrestled for several hours over whether to post this entry because I know there’s a real risk that such comments merely pander to a cheap populism. [ed.note: the timestamp on TPM entries is most often when they’re begun, not when they’re posted.] I don’t have anything against the staffers who work up on capitol hill. I know many of them. But this seems like a double standard that can’t be justified.
