Vaccines: Rush Is Mad Either Way

Those with a memory longer than that of a goldfish (i.e. those who are not Rush's core audience) will remember a little while back when Rush Limbaugh pitched a temper tantrum over the government recommending that citizens be vaccinated for influenza and for the H1N1 swine flu.  A government recommendation, and the man flipped out, drumming his heels on the ground and pounding his fists and insisting that he wouldn't, you can't make me, you mean lady!

"This is what the world will be like under the Democrats," Rush basically said.  You will be lined up outside the flu clinic and held in place by armed soldiers and given a mandatory vaccine.  Or something.  I'm a little fuzzy on the details, but Rush made it clear that it would be Orwellian and Very Bad.

Well, surprise!  Rush's doctor recommended that he get an H1N1 vaccine, and when the government won't give him one due to local shortages… Rush pitches another temper tantrum!

First, Rush blames the government for swine flu vaccine shortages.  When in truth, if there is anyone at fault, I guess it would be the pharmaceutical companies who had to scramble to bring a vaccination to market.  They can only make vaccines so fast, and they made them as fast as they could, but it was still a limited supply.  It may surprise Rush to learn that the world is not an infinite playground of supply and demand.  And that the government isn't actually responsible for everything that goes wrong.

The H1N1 vaccine has been limited and subject to local rationing ever since the beginning, but somehow Rush overlooks this in his fervor to point fingers.  It's health care rationing, is what it is!  Get ready for more of it!  When you want a vaccine, the government will tell you that you can't have it!  Only little kids and pregnant women!

At this point in Rush's transcript I am vividly and hilariously reminded of the Seinfeld scene where George Costanza, at a child's birthday party, discovers that there's a fire in the oven.  The resulting panic, with George pushing and shoving little kids and pregnant women out of the way in order to save himself from a minor kitchen fire, is just so very funny.  And exactly what Rush is doing here.

To directly quote Rush, "Mr. Obama, this is what we call health care rationing, which you claim won't happen under a government-run health care program."

As awesomely teabaggy and "patriotic" as this sounds, it is completely wrong.  "Rationing" only happens when there is a lot of something, but someone in control insists on doling out small amounts.  In the case of the H1N1 vaccine, it isn't "rationing" it's a "shortage."  There simply isn't enough to go around, and if Rush has a problem with that, then he needs to take it up with Glaxo Smith-Kline Wellcome and pals.

Rush then veers off into a rant about "ideologues" and "liberal propaganda," which is about when my eyes started glazing over.  The real point is, nothing is ever enough for this man, and he assumes you don't remember a damned thing he's ever said.