Emphasis added. Hopefully jvernacchio reads this before he stains his shorts.
Quote:
Goldman Sachs, Citigroup got swine flu vaccine
By KAREN MATTHEWS (AP) – 18 hours ago
NEW YORK — Some of New York's biggest companies, including Wall Street giants Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, received doses of swine flu vaccine for at-risk employees, drawing criticism that the hard-to-find vaccine is going first to the privileged.
Hospitals, universities and the Federal Reserve Bank also got doses of the vaccine for employees who need it the most, such as pregnant women or chronically ill workers, according to the city's health department.
In order to receive the vaccine, companies had to have their own medical staff. Distributing large doses of the vaccine to such businesses is "a great avenue for vaccinating people at risk," said Jessica Scaperotti, spokeswoman for the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
But critics said Wall Street firms should not have access to the vaccine before less wealthy Americans.
"Vaccines should go to people who need them most, not people who happen to work on Wall Street," Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut said Thursday.
"Wall Street banks have already taken so much from us. They've taken trillions of our tax dollars. They've taken away people's homes who are struggling to pay the bills," union official John VanDeventer wrote on the Web site of the 2 million-member Service Employees International Union. "But they should not be allowed to take away our health and well-being."
Meanwhile, the director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent a letter Thursday to state and local health departments asking them to review their distribution plans and make sure the vaccine is getting to high-risk groups.
Dr. Thomas Frieden said any decisions that appear to send vaccine beyond high-priority groups "have the potential to undermine the credibility of the program."
Swine flu vaccine has been in short supply nationwide because of manufacturing delays, resulting in long lines at clinics and patients being turned away at doctor's offices. The vaccine started trickling out in early October, and there are now nearly 36 million doses available.
The government-funded vaccine is being distributed to states, where health departments decide where to send the limited doses.
In New York, doctors at companies that have employee health services can request the vaccine along with other doctors but must agree to vaccinate only high-risk employees, Scaperotti said.
Last month, the city began offering vaccine to schoolchildren, as well as to pediatricians and obstetricians who asked for it. Scaperotti said two-thirds of the pediatricians in New York City have requested vaccine.
New Yorkers who cannot get the vaccine at work are receiving it from their doctors — if their doctors have it — or at community health clinics.
About 50 people waited to be vaccinated Thursday at a city-run clinic in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood. Matt Bohart said he and his 82-year-old father, Eugene Bohart, had been waiting for three hours for both swine flu and seasonal flu vaccines.
The younger Bohart said the fact that employees of some companies can get the vaccine at work seemed "not really fair."
But he added, "I don't begrudge the people who get it as long as others can get it as well."
Dr. William Schaffner, a flu expert at Vanderbilt University, said allocation of limited vaccine is tricky. CDC guidelines provide a list of patients who should be at the front of the line: children and young people through age 24, people caring for infants under 6 months, pregnant women, health care workers, and adults with health conditions such as asthma and diabetes.
Schaffner said that if corporations are giving shots to at-risk people, the distribution may have been appropriate. But he acknowledged there's "an appearance of potential irregularity."
Still, he said, "I have a feeling that if it were a Ford dealership that got vaccine, there wouldn't be quite as much excitement."
Scaperotti said 50 employers in New York City have received the vaccine so far. Besides Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, they include Time Inc. and hospitals such as Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Goldman Sachs has received 200 doses, and Citigroup has received 1,200, health officials said.
In statements, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs said the vaccine would only go to those in high-risk groups.
"Goldman Sachs, like other responsible employers, has requested vaccine and will supply it only to employees who qualify," spokesman Ed Canaday said.
Morgan Stanley received 1,000 doses of the vaccine for its New York and suburban offices, but the company turned over its entire supply to local hospitals when it learned it received shipments before some area hospitals, spokeswoman Jeanmarie McFadden said.
Associated Press writers Stephen Bernard and Sara Lepro in New York City, Mike Stobbe in Atlanta and Valerie Bauman in Albany, N.Y., contributed to this report.
__________________
"A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have."
This week I had an opportunity most Americans would relish, just as I did. I was able to unload on two top executives of Goldman Sachs who descended from on high to my office because I clearly needed some educating. One was a Vice President and the other their Chief Risk Officer.
I had authored a letter on October 28, along with Congressman Peter Welch, that read, "We understand Goldman Sachs is expected to award its employees $21 billion in bonuses this year...Goldman Sachs is good at what it does, but its profits this year...were supplemented by the generous financial support of American taxpayers. In particular, Goldman Sachs benefited from a taxpayer payment of $12.9 billion from AIG on credit default swaps, insurance lending, and other contractual obligations between the two firms. AIG's payment to Goldman Sachs was, in fact, a taxpayer payment...Should taxpayers be repaid the $12.9 billion before bonuses are distributed to Goldman employees? We believe they should. We therefore urge Goldman Sachs to repay taxpayers the $12.9 billion it received from them through AIG."
The letter was signed "Sincerely" and I let them know just how sincerely I felt about it.
Amazingly, these visitors from another planet told me with very straight faces that I must realize that the $21 billion in bonuses were "accrued" bonuses. "Aaaaah," I nodded. "That will make all the difference in the world to my constituents who are losing their homes as well as their jobs." That's when I asked them exactly which planet they were in fact from.
"Forgive me for saying this," I said disingenuously, "but neither of you, as smart as you surely are, is worth 4,000 of my constituents," referring to the difference in the average salary of top executives in the financial sector and the average working person.
"Well we can't compare our employees with minimum wage workers," they pointed out. "We know that a $10 million salary sounds like a lot of money, but we are trying to get people who can make double that (that would be $20 million, I quickly calculated in my head) elsewhere. It's what the market demands."
Aaaaah, markets. Still, I resisted genuflecting. "I realize that you need to hire the kind of smarty-pants who truly understand complicated transactions like exotic derivatives and credit default swaps," said I, trying myself to sound like a smarty-pants, "but as I recall these are the very same people who almost brought down the entire global economy.
"Barney Frank," Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and a bonafide smarty-pants, "makes $165,000 per year and he has done more to rescue our economy than anyone at Goldman Sachs. Or how about our CEO, President Barack Obama? He makes about $400,000, and lots of people would be willing to interview for that job."
By then I was furious and on a roll. "You are looking at one of the 57 members who voted against the repeal of Glass-Stiegel in 1999." That was the depression-era law that actually prevented financial institutions from becoming too big to fail by creating a firewall between the banking, insurance, and securities businesses. "And I am all for reinstating it, and I am from the school of, 'If you're too big to fail, then you're too big,' and besides all that, I am so far away from you in my thinking that your words barely compute, and from where I sit, you simply don't get it, and how stupid (yes I said the "s" word) can you be to think that any normal person can relate to "average" salaries for Goldman Sachs employees of $770,000 much less $21 billion in "accrued" bonuses," I sputtered as the bells rang in my office indicating a vote on the House floor.
No response -- just the same serious/tolerant expressions from the aliens. Then one of them thought of something. "We didn't ask for the bailout," he said hopefully. "And we paid the money back." Yes, after a record series of $100 million days and a record breaking $3.4 billion quarter, Goldman-Sachs, bless their hearts, paid us back. "But what about the $12.9 billion?"
"We'd like to tell you about that." The bells rang again. "I have to go vote now." "Would you be willing be meet again so we can tell you the valuable role that financial markets play in this country?" Now I'm silent, considering, then realizing that I'm actually enjoying myself. "OK" I finally respond. "We can talk but right now I'm out of here."
My only regret was that I didn't know at the time that Goldman Sachs had gotten for itself and its priceless geniuses H1N1 vaccines that lots of at-risk children are still waiting in line for. That would have been good to mention as I dashed out the door.
__________________
"It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in an argument." William Gibbs McAdoo. US Vice-President under Woodrow Wilson.
Since Goldman getting swine flu shots pissed you all off let's see who's going to be the first to go after these guys. Be careful, they have a union. (:p) And you'll be on the naughty list.
__________________
"A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have."
Swine flu for pigs
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