The flu peaked earlier than expected this year, a bad sign for those who were not quite prepared. With families, friends and classmates falling ill rapidly over the past month or so, people all over our state have been flooding to their nearest health center to shoot up with this year’s vaccine. The problem with that is, the state wasn’t quite prepared for the flu season either, and now our vaccine supplies are running dry.
In fact, South Carolina’s supply ran very dry for infants over the past few weeks, a demographic that needs the vaccination the most. However, while vaccines available to the privately insured were gone, there were still vaccines in the stock for those who were uninsured or on Medicaid. Tuesday, physicians asked the S.C. Department of Health & Environmental Control to allow them to tap into the stock for the uninsured until they could acquire more vaccines. The department, to everyone’s surprise, approved the request within 20 minutes.
For a governmental institution usually riddled with bureaucracy, we applaud the health department for working so efficiently and protecting the citizens of South Carolina. When it comes to widespread diseases, one fewer sick person means a decreased chance of many others getting sick as well. It’s good to know that our state can make health a top priority and overlook the red tape for the sake of our community’s well-being.
We’d like to continue to see this sort of quick action from our state in the future, not just to tap into flu vaccines supplies but to tap into other things as well, perhaps funding for higher education. Maybe then we could be a more prosperous, thriving and healthy state.