No one seems to be writing opinion pieces quite the way I would, so I decided to do it myself.

The name? Taverns are places where one goes to discuss the interesting events and things in the world, so this is my tavern.

I will offer my views on politics, economics, and whatever else strikes my fancy.
I will occasionally publish the entire article from another journal for purposes of causing discussion.

Bush failed to prevent flu, tried to lie his way out.

A great many things are produced better under unregulated free enterprise. It looks like Flu Vaccine simply isn’t one of them. Why is that?

Contagious diseases and illnesses can often be contained if the entire population is controlled so that the spread of the disease does from the ill to the healthy is limited or prevented. This makes Public Health a government responsibility. It applies to people without money as well as those with money. Influenza is one of the diseases this clearly applies to.

The problem is that the market for the flu vaccine is uncertain. It sells best when the flu is widespread and people are afraid to get it. If the vaccination program is successful, then the fear is reduced and people have better uses for their money than for a vaccine to an illness they suspect they won’t get.

A company’s profitability will suffer if it successfully produces a vaccine that prevents a flu epidemic. But if it produces too little vaccine to prevent an epidemic it can’t raise prices to increase profitability as the theory of free market economics would expect. If it does, it will be accused of “Price-Gouging.” The greater problem is that producing a vaccine in the most profitable amounts will guarantee that the disease remains to be dealt with again later. This is economically a good idea, but is socially very bad. Our laws very properly do not permit this.

Since producing a flu vaccine is a time-consuming, very expensive and uncertain process, Production of a flu vaccine is an unattractive market for a company to enter. See the Dallas Morning News Editorial below.

The Bush administration guaranteed a market to two companies and relieved them from legal liability for side effects caused by the vaccine. The guaranteed market is probably a good idea, but then the Bush administration dropped the ball by not regulating the production process. When you relieve a company from legal liability for the side effects of their product, then the government has taken responsibility for problems in the process. But George Bush takes responsibility for nothing.

None of Chiron's flu vaccine is safe

From Knight-Ridder News Service in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, October 16, 2004 by Seth Borenstein

No flu vaccine aid from Canada is likely

From Knight-Ridder News Service in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, October 14, 2004 by Seth Borenstein and WILLIAM DOUGLAS

Vaccine Shortage: Risk, expense of production are too high From the Dallas Morning News, Oct 15, 2004.

Drug manufacturers no longer produce vaccines because it is risky and expensive to do so, and the potential rewards for such work are relatively small. A generation ago, at least a dozen manufacturers provided the annual U.S. supply of flu vaccine; today, that number is down to a mere two.

What's wrong with nationalizing flu vaccine production, putting the federal government in charge of this vital public health service? Many experts fear that concentrating this responsibility in government hands would lead to a loss of innovation and flexibility typical of monopolies.

One vaccine maker told Congress that it takes from five to seven years to build a vaccine production facility and bring it online.

In short, the Bush administration screwed up the process for getting a reliable, safe supply of flu vaccination, and Bush tried to lie his way out of it during the Debate last Wednesday night. We are probably very lucky that Chiron was producing the vaccine in England. The British caught the problem and stopped Chiron from distributing the product.

The Bush administration would never have known that the process was putting in dangerous contaminates because they refuse to regulate business, even those invloved in health protection. Or if they had accidentally learned of the problem, they would have ignored it and let the vaccine be administered as it was in spite of deadly side effects. Hey, what do the deaths of a few customers matter if telling others about them would reduce the profitability of one of the drug companies?

The flu vaccine crisis is just another failure by the Bush administration.

Do they have any successes?