Milwaukee Lines up for Government Flu Shots

With the shortage of H1N1 "swine" flu vaccine, Milwaukee residents risked pneumonia standing in the cold rain waiting for their dose.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports that "As the Milwaukee Health Department gears up for its first public swine flu clinic Friday, the beginning of what is expected to be the largest mass vaccination in decades, city officials and metro area health departments say they are facing a shortage of the vaccine."

Welcome, as the man's sign says, to government health care. People waiting in cold rain to get a shot that might protect them against a flu bug, all the while risking pneumonia from the weather. People panicking because (gasp!) one thousand people have died nationwide from H1N1 flu. Keep in mind that that's only 20 per state averaged, and that in a normal year some 30,000 people die of a variety of flu strains. To panic over 1,000 deaths so far is absurd, and the picture of government health care in action - long lines, a shortage of vaccination, confusion and inconvenience - is just plain frightening.