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Welcome to Thinking Out Loud, a blog that contains postings from The Tampa Tribune’s Editorial Board and from various Tribune Community Columnists. Unlike the unsigned editorials that represent the newspaper’s institutional voice, the blog postings offer personal perspectives on the issues, personalities and events of Tampa Bay. We invite you to participate by posting your comments. We’ll do our best to respond.

Contributors:

Joe Guidry

Joe Guidry is the deputy editorial page editor of The Tampa Tribune. He is a Tampa native and a graduate of the University of South Florida. He is married and has an adult son.

Jeff Stidham

Jeff Stidham grew up and lives in Bartow. He has been with the Tribune for nearly 22 years, the last 10 on the editorial board.

William Yelverton

William Yelverton is a Tribune editorial writer who has worked for the paper nearly 22 years. He lives in the Dade City area.

Jim Beamguard

Jim Beamguard is a Tribune editorial writer. He is a native of North Carolina and a graduate of Davidson College. He and his family live in Brandon.

Jackie Papandrew:

Jackie Papandrew is a freelance writer and editor. Her syndicated humor column appears in publications in the United States, Canada and India. She lives in Largo with her husband and children. Visit her website at www.jackiepapandrew.com.

Camille Beredjick

Camille Beredjick is a senior at Chamberlain High School, an avid musician and a scribbler with a quirky sense of humor. In the fall, she will be attending Northwestern University to study journalism, political science and music, and she plans to pursue a career in journalism.

Jim Harnish

Jim Harnish is in his 17th year as Senior Pastor at Hyde Park United Methodist Church in Tampa. He and his wife, Marsha, have two daughters and two grandchildren. He is a graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary and received the honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Bethune-Cookman University. He is the author of six books and numerous articles and studies. He enjoys playing with his grandchildren and cheering for the Florida Gators.

Angela Hunt

Angela Hunt is a novelist living in Pinellas County with her husband and two 220-pound mastiffs.

Sheryl Young

Sheryl Young was a Tampa Tribune Community Columnist in 2005-2006. A freelance writer since 1997, including the Tampa Bay Business Journal, Tampa Style Magazines, St. Pete Times and nationally in Better Nutrition, Today’s Christian Woman and more. She’s received a First Place Amy Foundation national "Roaring Lambs" Writing Award, and has lived in Tampa Bay with her family for over 20 years.

Christie Gold

Christie Gold teaches English and journalism at Freedom High School in Tampa where she advises Revolution, the school newspaper. She has been both the Hillsborough County Teacher of the Year and Florida Journalism Teacher of the Year. She lives on a small farm in Wesley Chapel where she trains as a competitive equestrian.

Natalie D. Preston

Natalie D. Preston is a karaoke singing, only-child pouting, Seminole Tomahawk waving, newlywed bride blushing, 50-state traveling, girlie girl who loves to shop, read, run and jump up and down on her soapbox.

Fernando Figueroa

Fernando Figueroa is a researcher, educator and lives in Riverview.

Gary Beemer

Interests include humor, politics, economics, community and world affairs, finance, people, religion, music, sports, current events, the arts and education.

Nicole Yunger Halpern

Nicole Yunger Halpern is an undergraduate at Dartmouth College, where she studies everything she can get her nerdy little hands on. Desired major: life. No, not necessarily biology. Life.

Kris DiGiovanni

Kris DiGiovanni is a Tribune Community Columnist, Huffington Post contributor, Daily Kos diarist, and teacher, who recently moved from NW Hillsborough to another planet - a small beach community in Pinellas County. She also blogs at www.sandscript.wordpress.com

H. David Braswell Jr.

H. David Braswell Jr. is an Information Systems Professional. He is a native New Yorker and a lifelong NY Giants fan. He attended college in California (Cal State Northridge) and moved to Tampa in 1998.

Sean Marcus

Sean Marcus teaches creative writing, journalism and reading at Chamberlain High School. He has one son and is expecting a daughter in early March. He can be reached at wuizabug@gmail.com

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Plenty of Flu and Cuckoos, but No Nest

Posted Nov 6, 2009 by Kris DiGiovanni

Updated Nov 6, 2009 at 03:35 PM

Something is seriously cuckoo in New York.

Somehow health officials there figured that sending doses of H1N1 vaccine to private businesses was a better way to protect high risk groups than sending the medicine to actual doctors. Doses were sent to a number of Wall Street firms such as Goldman Sachs and CitiGroup, and also to Columbia University, Time Inc., the Federal Reserve Bank.

The firms who received the vaccine say they only ordered it because they were allowed to, and because they have pregnant women and other employees that fall into the high risk category. It’s not their fault that someone sent it to them before sending it to hospitals and doctors’ offices.

But that argument is beyond silly. When did employers take over the responsibility for providing medication to their employees? Don’t people with jobs go to their doctor when they get sick or need to update their vaccinations? Why would they go to HR instead?

Whomever wrote the rules for distribution and procurement of the H1N1 vaccine in NY should be fired, as should whomever in these companies who felt it was right to order vaccine for “internal use.” People are lined up outside the offices of obstetricians and pediatricians waiting in vain for drugs that have been diverted to non-medical facilities.

What were these people thinking?

Then there’s the guy in Canada who made sure the Calgary Flames hockey team and their families got their shots. He actually was fired. But it’s not just the bureaucrats that are screwing up. The doctor for the Flames’ farm team got twitchy after several players fell ill, and promptly labeled them all “high risk.” All but five got vaccinated – ahead of others in the general public who had a greater need. Tsk. Tsk. But I’m sure these are but the tip of an iceberg worth of protocol violations in favor of folks with enough money and/or pull to get the rules bent. Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter here.

The administration is taking a lot of heat for allegedly breaking their promise to provide an adequate supply of the H1N1 vaccine by mid fall. Detractors need to remember that private, not government, firms make the vaccines. The current method takes six months, and it has just barely been six months since April, when the H1N1 strain started causing global concern. The government distribution system, while certainly not perfect, is at least more fair that the normal method, which is “biggest orders get delivered first.”

In this time of financial uncertainty, record job losses, and rising internal and international tensions, people are naturally on edge. Faced with yet another “enemy” in the form of a potentially deadly flu strain, their first instinct is to blame the people at the top. But pointing fingers at the current administration is not only unfair, it does no good. The US has never seen a set of circumstances exactly like those our country faces today, and there’s no instruction manual. Maybe we should all just take a deep breath and give things a chance to get better.