While I will not pretend to be an H1N1 (Swine Flu) alarmist, I must admit the possibility of a virus of unknown (at least officially) origin bothers me a bit. Otherwise healthy people dropping dead from a flu virus is odd - so while not panicked I am concerned.
However, I am more troubled by the fact that cases in the U.S. are probably greatly under-reported. Not because of a lack of testing equipment, but because of an inadequate healthcare system.
How many people are suffering but will never see a doctor and be counted?
How many people could be saved if we had universal health care?
How many infected will forgo Tamiflu because they need to buy food?
How many people will go unvaccinated because they have no healthcare coverage?
Obviously, this is an exercise in "what if", but we are kind of in that type of situation. While the number of infected is relatively low, we are being warned that a pandemic is imminent.
Why don't we the people have access to all the weapons we need to fight?
President Obama has been quoted as saying that universal health care would be his preference if we were building a system from scratch. I would humbly submit to my President that sometimes you have to cut your losses and raze the house. Our system is inherently corrupt (see Donald Rumsfeld's profits off of the SARS scare if you don't believe me), it rewards greed and that is not healthy for those of us subjected to it.
I have mentioned in previous posts my wish that our Congresspeople relinquish their tax-payer funded healthcare, if they feel that we do not deserve the same. I stand by that demand. If they feel that their constituents should face a pandemic on their own - well then they should be down in the trenches with us.
