Who should get bird flu vaccine first?

[Guest guest]

I think we should start with key government leaders...

Who should get bird flu vaccine first?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12742507/

“Death seems more tragic when a child or young adult dies than an elderly

person — not because the lives of older people are less valuable, but

because the younger person has not had the opportunity to live and develop

through all stages of life,” Drs. Ezekiel Emanuel and Alan Wertheimer wrote

for Friday’s edition of the journal Science.

It’s a different way of weighing the agonizing decision of how to ration

scarce vaccine if a super-strain of influenza sparks a worldwide epidemic.

If that flu arises, it will take manufacturers months to brew inoculations

for everyone.

First doses will go to workers in vaccine factories and to people caring for

the ill, a Bush administration decision widely shared by health specialists,

including the two bioethicists.

The question is who to inoculate next.

[...]

Next would come pregnant women and people who come in contact with people

who have poor immune systems, such as HIV or chemotherapy patients. They’re

followed by key government leaders and healthy people over age 65.