Gov't Defends Vaccinating Gitmo for H1N1

(AP)  Terrorism suspects held at the Guantanamo Bay naval base will soon get swine flu vaccines, despite complaints that American civilians should have priority, a military spokesman said Sunday.

Army Maj. James Crabtree, a spokesman for the U.S. jail facility in southeast Cuba, said the doses should start arriving this month, with guards and then inmates scheduled for inoculations.

He acknowledged there may be an "emotional response" from critics who argue that terror suspects should not be allocated swine-flu medications while members of the U.S. public are still waiting due to a vaccine shortage.

But he said U.S. military officials are "responsible for the health and care of the detainee population."

Medical personnel at Guantanamo requested the doses, but Crabtree said he did not know how many.

CBSNews.com Special Report: H1N1

Detainees will be vaccinated "entirely on a voluntary basis," he said. "There is always going to be a segment of the population that is going to refuse," either due to anxiety about a shot or to "distrust of our motivations."

The top House Republican, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, told CNN's "State of the Union" show on Sunday that he does not agree with the H1N1 vaccination plans for detainees at Guantanamo.

"I don't think it's a good idea. The administration probably didn't think it would be very popular either; that's why they announced it on Friday night," Boehner said.

The Miami Herald first reported about the vaccination plans on Wednesday.

Health officials have recommended that people in high-risk groups receive the swine flu vaccination first. There has been heated debate in several U.S. states about where prisoners should fall in the pecking order of vaccine recipients.

A spokesman for Physicians For Human Rights, an international medical group, said there are "certain basic obligations the U.S. has to its prisoners," and that vaccinations for influenza fall into that category.

"The fact that many prisoners within the U.S. don't get timely access to basic health care doesn't change the obligation of the U.S. to prisoners at Guantanamo," Dr. Scott A. Allen of the rights group said in an e-mail from Rhode Island. "We should work towards securing H1N1 vaccine for all at-risk populations, and not towards lowering a public health standard for certain unpopular groups."

Following Saturday's transfer of six Chinese Muslims from Guantanamo to the tiny Pacific nation of Palau, roughly 215 detainees remain at the detention center. The Obama administration plans to prosecute some in U.S. courts and turn over others to nations willing to rehabilitate or free them.

The administration also is grappling with how to keep in prison a handful of remaining detainees who are considered too dangerous to release or put on trial.

[Sloughfoot]

The VA is denying shots to veterans. That's a fact jack.

[mtcolquitt]

Yes, by all means, vaccinate these tortured souls! NOT!!!!!!
We can't find shots for my pregnant daughter anywhere, so go ahead and vaccinate the most important ones first! NOT!!!!!!

[sbelknap01]

Vaccine is not for people we 'like' - it's for any confined population in which the h1n1 can easily spread. We're trying to kill a virus here, folks. That means prisons, schools, old folks homes, and slums. It means undocumented workers living 12 to a room.

[FauxNews]

Vaccines are for people you want to keep healthy. The Government just wants to make sure prisoners, who go nowhere and are a drain on society, remain healthy.

[mollydtt]

I think this article is just trying to inflame outrage where none really needs to exist. First of all, I saw this segment on tv, and when they confronted the person that ordered the doses of vaccine, he said they would arrive in a few weeks. Hey, that's when the rest of the country is going to have vaccine available.

Next, think about this--you have a confined group of people that most certainly will pass on any virus more easily than the rest of the country. And guess where those people will wind up if they have complications---*our* critical care units of *our* hospitals. Taking up space where civilians could be treated. Inmates are confined.

But most of all, every time a paper reports that prisoners (anywhere, even locally where I live) will receive vaccine, they conveniently leave out the fact that it won't arrive for another 3 or 4 weeks--when the rest of the citizens will have access to it.

It sells newpapers and riles people up, all for nothing.

[cgirltruck]

As long as there is one American citizen wanting the shot, not one single prisoner should get the shot, whether that prisoner is in Gitmo or here. To disagree with allowing them to get the shot based on our President's name or because you think its an experiment from the nazis is really out there.

[FauxNews]

Next you will be denying US prisoners their free food, free medical care, laundry service, library, cable TV, Internet access, and then, heaven forbid, make them work like the rest of us.

[stn_sage]

Not one of the prisoners should get a shot while any American who wants a shot is still waiting!

But, this points out what govt officials TRUE beliefs are! First, they're using the swine flu issue as a 'fear card' to create a demand from the public then they step in and offer a solution...the vaccination...which most people can't get!

Second, they demonstrate their contempt for the public! Third, their action is designed to make you angry...to get you to react...so they have an excuse to violate your rights as a citizen...and desecrate you as a human being!

Third, by this time, you're suppose to feel like there's nothing you can do to them...so they 'win'! And, the next time they order you to do something that is totally wrong and against your self-interest...you just do it without contesting them!

But, it only works that way...when you totally surrender, and give up!
If you don't...and your neighbors don't, and most other people don't...well, then THEY'RE the ones with the PROBLEM(s)!

[cgirltruck]

There is a solution to our government problem. It's called, vote every last one of them out of office, if you have the guts.

[FauxNews]

Vaccinating Arab terrorists before American children makes perfect sense when you consider the President?s name is Barack Hussein Obama.

[cgirltruck]

Are you saying he is a terrorist?

[Virgil-1]

This is a government experimentn the first place.Nazis had many of
these during World War 11.

[cgirltruck]

Please stop with the nazis thing. I really don't appreciate it at all. All of health care, in this country and around the world is nothing more than an experiment but relating it to the nazis is really dumb.