**** NOT SO: see update below ****
Kerry hits Bush on the vaccine shortage.
Bush’s spokesman responds with a falsehood:
Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt called Kerry’s criticism “baseless and hypocritical. So few companies make flu vaccines because of a broken medical liability system that Kerry falsely claims to want to fix but has voted 10 times against reforming.”
But flu vaccines are already covered by the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, incorporating the damage caps and other “tort reform” measures that are supposed to be a panacea for the U.S. health care system.
Update: Wrong. VICP covers childhood vaccinations. It does not cover flu shots. Litigation wasn’t the reason for the shortage, so Schmidt’s comment is still nonsense, but “tort reform” had not been applied. Apologies. More here.
Post Debate Roundup
I feel like the debate last night was about as good as it gets these days – at least for people who want to hear more about health care reforms. But that’s not really saying much. The candidates mostly stuck…