Here’s a letter Rees and Gail sent to local health officials. Read it and weep.
[To: Dr. Gary L. Oxman, Health Officer, Multnomah-Clackamas-Washington Counties.
Copy: Lillian M. Shirley,  Director, Multnomah County Health Department]Dr. Oxman: Following up on my e-mail to you of Nov. 2009 (attached below), confirming your assurance to me that our daughter (12) would receive a H1N1 vaccination, this is to confirm that you were as good as your word and our daughter did receive a vaccination at the Multnomah County Health Department facility at 426 SW Stark in Portland, on Tuesday, Nov. 3, as you assured me she would. We are gratified that our daughter has received that protection. However, we adamantly object that all other Portland school children are not receiving vaccinations while the government has provided vaccines to healthy adult aliens, legal and illegal, through IRCO and other locations chosen by the Health Department to provide Swine Flu vaccine in violation of the stated priorities.
We are not the kind of people who want to “jump the line” to have our child vaccinated. But nor are we the kind of people who are willing to place our child, and other Portland school children at risk, so that politicians and bureaucrats can dispense health care based upon the government’s interests in satisfying constituencies. The “Chicago-style” of receipt of health services based upon “who you know” and “who sent ya?” should not come to Portland.
The fact that IRCO, the “Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization,” which advertises its mission as serving aliens exclusively rather than Americans, and whose board of directors includes employees of government agencies who clearly have a conflict of interest as fiduciaries of IRCO and employees of the government, is, simply stated, outrageous in any circumstance but especially in a situation in which more than 800 Oregonians have been hospitalized by Swine Flu and 23 have died — and while Portland school children go begging for vaccinations, while healthy adult aliens are vaccinated.
There should be a full investigation as to who made these decisions and why, and into what appear to be manifest conflicts of interest. Further, the Oregonian reported that the County is retaining almost one-third (30%) of the vaccines for its own use (which you confirmed), and that incarcerated criminals will be vaccinated, as will be delinquent minors who are incarcerated, while Portland school children are not. Why would anyone decide that the children who have not been delinquent should stand behind adult criminals, delinquent minors, and healthy aliens, legal and illegal, to receive Swine Flu vaccine? Who is making such decisions on rationing vaccines and why, when Portland school children go unprotected and private physicians state they do not have vaccine for even their most at risk patients?
If New York, Maine, Los Angeles, Chicago, and other states and cities can vaccinate their children, then why is Portland  unable to get needed vaccines and diverting its available supply away from the high-risk, priority school children to healthy adult aliens, legal and illegal, and criminals?
Why is Multnomah County now providing vaccinations to “children under five,” only, according to its website, when all other states consider children from “6 months to 24” to be at risk–and when Multnomah County once did?
Moreover, the County continues to inform by its website and in return to phone inquiries that all clinic vaccinations have been canceled — without informing that shots can be obtained at 426 SW Stark in Portland by appointment on Mondays, or at the walk-in clinic on Tuesdays. Thus, the “Chicago-style” is being imported into Portland. Parents like us who carry insurance for their children are told to “consult your pediatrician,” when the County knows the amount of doses made availabe to pediatricians is sorely inadequate.
Vaccinations were available at 426 SW Stark in Portland — but not made known by the County or State on its website or upon telephone inquiry. The question is raised: Many people showed up for shots on Nov. 4 when we did pursuant to your assurance to me that our daughter would receive a vaccination. How did all these other people know to go to that location? I asked the English-speaking persons waiting in line how they knew to come to the walk-in clinic at 426 SW Stark to get a shot for their child. Each one had been told by some “insider” in the government or health delivery system that they should go to 426 SW in order to get a Swine Flu shot. Each said that but for that “insider” information they would not have known to go to that location. That should not be; that is corrupt; that is Chicago-style politics and corruption. It should not be in Portland. A second question raised by this fact is this question: How did all those other persons waiting in line, people who spoke to each other in languages other than English, persons who by dress and demeanor appeared to  be non-Americans–how did they know to come to 426 SW Stark to get vaccinations and Americans did not get that information? This kind of political-correctness is not “correct” but corrupt and corrupting. Did the information come from government employees who, like the government employees on IRCO’s Board of Directors have a conflict of interest?  It should be investigated. It should be ended.
Dr. Oxman, I trust you are a good man trying to do a difficult job. But, then, do the right thing: Protect Portland’s school children. Do not corrupt rationing by decisions made on political bases upon perceived constituencies, nor upon politically-correct considerations.  Do not infect Portland with Chicago-style government-controlled health  and other services, which are provided on a  “who you know” and “who sent ya” basis.
Please, make rationing decisions strictly on medical considerations, not politically-correct decisions.
Not one single Portland school child should have to undergo the discomfort of the flu, nor die of Swine Flu, because politically-correct decisions were made to please constituencies of politicians, or bureaucrats, including those who have a manifest conflict-of-interest as at IRCO.