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Flu Shot This Morning.
Topic Started: Oct 28 2004, 08:05 AM (222 Views)
Sea Hound
Member
Had an appointment at doctors to get prescription renewed for blood pressure meds.
Nurse asked if wanted flu shot, said sure, saves waiting in line at clinic next week.

Made appt. Mon. could have gone in yesterday but was busy.
Going tomorrow morning for annual blood work.

For some reason, the govt feels obligated to charge for PSA test.
Aside from that, Doctors office visit, flu shot, one hundred tenoric(sp) blood pressure pills, tomorrows bloodwork.
Total cost. thirty dollars for the PSA test.
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roscoe
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Calling the General. Oh General can you stop in for a treatment.
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pentax
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Kamloops - BC Interior
Roscoe - BITE YOUR TONGUE!!!


:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
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"Kirk to Enterprise - Very funny, Scotty.... now beam down my clothes!"
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brewster
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Winemaker Extraordinaire
I was going to mention that Alberta has advertised it has a Flu Shot surplus, and anyone who felt they didn't qualify earlier is welcome to come in for free, but Pentax has a point...

Maybe this isn't the right time or place... :nonono:
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jackd
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Member
It looks like the US like what they see north on the border on the handling of the flu shot supply.

Quote:
 
Posted on Mon, Oct. 25, 2004
HEALTH
CANADA VIEWED AS A MODEL FOR U.S ON FLU VACCINE.
The United States could be headed toward an influenza vaccine system similar to Canada's.
BY DAVID BROWN, Washington Post Service
When it comes to getting flu shots for its citizens, the United States may someday look like a giant version of Canada, its national-health-plan neighbor to the north.
Like the United States, Canada has only two suppliers of influenza vaccine, fluctuating public enthusiasm for flu shots, and a lot of wasted doses. What it doesn't have is any question about who pays for uncertainty or miscalculation. It is the government.
Canada's public works ministry orders about 90 percent of the influenza vaccine the country uses each year. The Ottawa office tells vaccine manufacturers how much to make, based on the share of the national total the firms have won by bidding on long-term contracts.

EXTRA PRODUCTION

The companies make extra doses. This ''on-spec'' production is sold in the small, private market operating outside Canada's national health system, or on the world market. But the vast bulk of vaccine is made without financial risk.

The United States appears headed toward such an arrangement.

Many experts believe this season's vaccine calamity -- half of the nation's supply evaporated overnight on Oct. 5 -- is proof that the government needs to be more involved in ensuring a stable supply.

At a news conference last week, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson was asked whether he favors the federal government guaranteeing a market for a specified number of doses of flu vaccine each year. ''Yes, I do,'' he said.
An assured market would mean that vaccine makers would no longer face discarding and not being paid for 10 percent to 20 percent of their yearly production for the United States. That occurred in the 1990s when several companies quit, leaving Aventis Pasteur and Chiron Corp. as the only makers of injectable vaccine for the country.
What it might do is lure other vaccine companies back into the U.S. market, making the supply less easily disrupted.

The flu shot is a combination of three vaccines, each to a different strain of influenza virus. It takes six months to produce, is sold for three months and cannot be used in the next flu season because the viral recipe changes annually.

Like the American system, the Canadian system is dependent on only two vaccine producers -- Aventis Pasteur and ID Biomedical (local). But with a total production of 9.7 million doses this year -- compared with 100 million anticipated for the United States -- Canada would never face a problem of the U.S. magnitude.

Although the Canadian made vaccine is not licensed for use in the United States, the Food and Drug Administration might allow it in as an ''investigational drug,'' the agency's acting director, Lester M. Crawford, has said.

Although Canada's purchasing is centralized, key decisions on vaccine distribution and use reside with the provinces. For example, Ontario -- the largest province, with 12 million people -- offers free flu shots to everyone, while other provinces do so only for specific risk groups, such as people 65 and older, or children 6 to 23 months.

JackD

Walk in front of me, you lead me,
Walk behind me, I lead you
Walk beside me, you are a friend.
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DanielDenali
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I qualify for a flu shot since I have chronic illness. I have never taken one before. I will pass this year as well. I hope an old person or someone that will feel safer if they get one gets mine.

Side note: I have never known anyone that has died from the flu. Has anyone here known someone that has?
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jackd
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I never knew anyone that had dies from the flu, but there are over 36,000 victims every year in the US.
Quote:
 
Even with that rationing, some health officials fear the vaccine shortfall could cause a rise in the expected 36,000 flu-related deaths and more than 200,000 hospitalizations in the United States every year.

LINK
JackD
Walk in front of me, you lead me,
Walk behind me, I lead you
Walk beside me, you are a friend.
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brewster
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Winemaker Extraordinaire
Dan;

It's rare that anyone dies from the Flu directly, but it weakens your overall system. If you have any pre-existing condition (including ones that haven't been diagnosed) or come in contact with another infection, it opens a pathway for something truly serious.

That would seem to apply in your case.
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DanielDenali
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Maybe I SHOULD get one. They told me to go stand in lkne on the 2nd.

After I vote three or four times I might need a flu shot. Wink Wink.
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karmasasha
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Dan, please go get your shot. Andrea
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DanielDenali
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Kay!
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