House Democrat: Illegal Immigrants Should Get H1N1 Vaccine

"We should do the vaccination strictly based on whether its a high risk group because, you know, disease has no barrier based on whether you are documented or not," Pallone told moderator John Dickerson. "If you end up not inoculating people who are undocumented and they start spreading the disease then that hurts everyone."

Dickerson asked the congressman how he would respond to the argument that the already unproduced and scarce vaccine should be distributed to United States taxpayers first.

"That's acting against your own self interest," Pallone said. "That's like saying all of the poor people have a disease so we won't inoculate them, and somehow the rich people are going to immune. You've got to be practical about this and not worry about whether somebody has papers.'

Dr. Anthony Fauci, former head of the National Institutes of Health under President Bush and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, agreed.

"When you vaccinate people who are in this country you go another step towards preventing the spread," Fauci said. "As a physician as a public health person it doesn't matter to me who those people are. You are trying to keep the level of infection in the community down."

He argued that the issue of who to vaccinate should not be based on whether or not someone is legally in the country. "You look at all of society and you want an individual benefit and a community benefit," he said.

Pallone, who chairs the House Energy and Health Subcommittee, expressed concern about a Business Week report that employees of some of Wall Street's largest banks had received doses of the vaccine for high-risk employees.

Pallone said the federal process which allowed New York City the decision-making power to distribute the vaccine "may have to change."

"I don't think it should just be based on who applies," he said.

Dickerson asked what the congressman makes of the conservative argument that the delay in the distribution of the H1N1 vaccine serves as proof that the so-called "public option" in health care reform would be disastrous.

"Well that's absurd," Pallone replied. "Basically what health care reform does is set up an exchange that includes mostly private insurance companies and the public option is just one option. If the public option doesn't do a good job people won't choose it."

CBSNews.com Special Report: H1N1

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