Green Energy
Newsmax:
Gitmo Detainees Set to Receive Swine Flu Vaccine
Sunday, November 1, 2009 4:10 PM
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- 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.
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.
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Green Energy
Ahmed to Get Swine Flu Shot Before Little Susie
Newsmax:
Gitmo Detainees Set to Receive Swine Flu Vaccine
Sunday, November 1, 2009 4:10 PM
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- 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.
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.
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Apparently: Buried in a blog item by Newsweek's ace reporter Michael Isikoff is a bombshell. Appararently lawyers for Guantanamo detainees want to keep their clients in Guantanamo, rather than transfer them to the Obama administration's proposed...
- Breaking At Fox
800,000 Doses of Kids' H1N1 Vaccine Recalled Tuesday , December 15, 2009 ATLANTA — Health officials are recalling hundreds of thousands of doses of swine flu vaccine after tests indicated they may not be potent enough to protect against the virus....
- Never Let A Good Crisis Go To Waste
And if you don't have one available, make one up. Like the swine flu. H1N1. By most accounts no more dangerous than your average garden variety annual flu. And how much have we really heard about it lately? Until now. The Washington Post states: WASHINGTON...
- Democrats Want Gitmo Inmates Kept Out Of U.s.
This is getting all so confusing anymore. First they want to release them in the spirit of peace hopenchange and kubayainess. Sure bring 'em here. Let 'em set up shop for that matter, open a grocery store, maybe sell some fireworks. But now all...
- Gulag This! Guantanamo Detainees Fatten Up
San Juan, Puerto Rico (AP) - Fueled by a high-calorie diet, detainees at Guantanamo Bay are becoming fat. Most of the prisoners arrived at the military prison in southeast Cuba slightly underweight but have since gained an average of 20 pounds (9 kilograms),...