Cheney Blames Flu Crisis on Lawsuit Worries
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Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday blamed the threat of lawsuits, the yearlong efficacy of flu vaccines and limited company profits for the shortage of the medication.
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Senator John Kerry's presidential campaign slammed Vice President Dick Cheney, a heart patient, over reports he had a flu shot, despite a shortage of the vaccine.
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Texas and Connecticut joined Kansas and Florida last week in filing suits against a flu vaccine wholesaler for trying to sell scarce supplies of the immunization for 10 times the normal market value.
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Vice President Dick Cheney, who has a history of heart attacks, was undergoing tests at a hospital on Saturday after experiencing shortness of breath, but initial results were encouraging, an aide said.
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(CBS/AP) The flu vaccine shortage has set off a scramble to find ways to prevent any repetition of this year&#39;s calamity, which has restricted shots to those most at risk.
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Vice President Dick Cheney has a blood clot in his left leg, tests revealed Monday. He will be treated with blood thinning medication for several months, a spokeswoman said.
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More than half of the many Americans with a relative who is at high risk of danger from getting the flu say they're worried about the vaccine shortage, according to an Associated Press poll about the crisis that has health officials scrambling for solutions and politicians blaming each other.
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Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed suit Thursday against flu vaccine suppliers ASAP Meds Inc., doing business as Meds-Stat, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
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WASHINGTON - Thirty-four percent of Americans with a relative who is at high risk of danger from getting the flu say they are worried about the vaccine shortage, according to an Associated Press poll about the crisis that has health officials scrambling
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The US vice president, Dick Cheney, has left hospital where he was taken for precautionary tests after becoming short of breath. Mr Cheney, who is 62, was admitted to the hospital in Washington on Friday night.
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US Health and Human Services Secretary, Tommy Thompson, says the flu vaccine shortage is not a health crisis. At a press conference in Florida Monday, Thompson told seniors to stop waiting in long lines to get a shot.
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TOPEKA, Kan. -- The attorney general&#39;s office announced a settlement with a Florida company that was sued for allegedly overinflating the price of flu vaccine.
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Civil liberties and media reform group Free Press called on the U.S. Congress to reject bills that would give retroactive legal immunity to telecommunication carriers that helped the government monitor phone calls and e-mail after Vice President Dick Cheney pushed for the legislation.Cheney and the White House this week pushed Congress to extend the surveillance authorization bill, the Protect America Act, which expires on Feb. 1. Cheney, speaking Wednesday at conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation, also called on Congress to grant legal immunity to telecom carriers that participated in a U.S. National Security Agency program that allowed the NSA to intercept communications of some U.S. residents without court authorization.It&#39;s &quot;entirely appropriate&quot; for U.S. intelligence agencies to seek help from private-sector companies, because agencies don&#39;t have the facilities to conduct all the surveillance needed to keep the United States safe, Cheney said in the speech, made available on YouTube.&quot;Some [telecom] providers are facing dozens of lawsuits right now,&quot; Cheney said. &quot;Why? Because they are believed to have aided the U.S. government in the effort to intercept international communications of al Qaeda-related individuals.&quot;Even if the lawsuits are dismissed, defending them will place an &quot;enormous burden&quot; on telecom providers, and the lawsuits could stop other companies from cooperating with U.S. authorities in the future, Cheney added. &quot;Liability protection, retroactive to [the Sept. 11 attacks] is the right thing to do, it&#39;s the right thing to help us prevent another 9/11 down the road,&quot; he said.AT&amp;T and other telecom carriers are being sued in U.S. court in San Francisco by civil liberties groups and individuals who allege that the surveillance program is illegal.Free Press countered Cheney&#39;s remarks by saying telecom carriers should be held accountable for illegal spying.&quot;Phone companies are supposed to deliver our messages, not spy on them,&quot; Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press, said in a statement. &quot;But at every turn, these telco giants trample on basic constitutional principles of privacy and free speech. When you break the law, you should face the consequences.&quot;The lawsuits will show U.S. residents that phone company spying &quot;will not be tolerated,&quot; he added.The American Civil Liberties Union has called the Protect America Act, the &quot;Police America Act.&quot; The legislation &quot;allows for massive, untargeted collection of international communications without court order or meaningful oversight by either Congress or the courts,&quot; the ACLU says on its Web site. &quot;It contains virtually no protections for the U.S. end of the phone call or e-mail, leaving decisions about the collection, mining, and use of Americans&#39; private communications up to this administration.&quot;Sen. Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said Wednesday he&#39;ll block the legislation with a filibuster if it comes to the Senate floor with telecom immunity provisions attached.&quot;Few things are more detrimental to this country than the erosion of and attack on the civil liberties we enjoy,&quot; Dodd said in a statement. &quot;More and more, Americans are rejecting the false choice that has come to define this administration: security or liberty, but never, ever both.&quot;
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Vice President Dick Cheney sought to clarify explosive comments earlier this week that the "wrong choice" in November would risk another terrorist attack, and said Friday that he was "not in the business" of challenging Sen. John Kerry's patriotism.
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Vice President Dick Cheney, who has a history of heart trouble, went to a hospital Saturday after experiencing shortness of breath, an aide said.
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In a state flush with elderly voters concerned about the lack of flu vaccine, President Bush on Tuesday sought to allay fears about shortages that he says were caused by a "major manufacturing defect" but Democrats link to incompetence.
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The shortage of flu vaccines this season should serve as a wake-up call about the serious challenges facing the vaccine business and the resulting threat to public health.