Health Care Photo of the Day

Hundreds lined up in the rain in Wisconsin for hours waiting for swine flu shots and a Tea Party broke out (h/t Gateway Pundit):

Gotta give him points for creativity.

We've seen huge lines here in California as well. At one drive-through location yesterday people waited over 3 1/2 hours in their idling cars before they could get their shots. What do you suppose is the carbon footprint of that?

More than 4,000 people got shots in two days at another location in Los Angeles.

The thing is, according to the flu experts, the swine flu peak has already occurred. Unlike the seasonal flu which tends to peak in January or February, the swine flu peaked in October and that means we should begin to see fewer cases rather than more. This flu is being portrayed as much scarier because instead of taking its toll on old people, like the seasonal flu does, it's killing more younger people. However, the death toll is not out of the norm of our annual flu statistics.

And if you want to know how best to spread the disease, here's a story I heard last night. A local fireman reported that they responded to a call for a woman who fainted at a hotel near the beach. The fire personnel contacted the young woman's father who informed them that she had been diagnosed with swine flu right before she left on her trip, but didn't want to miss a chance to see her friends. She flew down to Southern California, thus merrily spreading the infection all along the way. Who knows how many more cases will result from this one irresponsible person.

I can't help but feel this outbreak is being over-dramatized for purposes yet unknown (if you don't count the massive Obama effort to promote socialize medicine).