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November 6, 2009

CDC Criticized for Distributing Scarce Flu Vaccines to Wall St. Firms
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And calls are growing for an investigation into why health officials
have handed out swine flu vaccines to some of Wall Street’s leading
financial firms while they’re unavailable to most Americans. More than a
dozen companies were given the vaccines, including Citigroup, Goldman
Sachs and JPMorgan Chase. The Center for Disease Control says the
companies met several criteria, including having a large number of
employees and their own medical staff. But critics say the CDC has
violated its own calls to distribute the vaccine only to those at
highest risk. In a statement, Melanie Sloan of Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said, “Although CREW has been
unable to uncover the demographic makeup of [these companies], it seems
safe to assume the vast majority of their employees are not pregnant
women, infants and children, young adults up to 24 years old, and
healthcare workers.”



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