Blame Canada

Government health officials in the United States are warning that the U.S. will likely experience shortages in the H1N1 vaccine in the short term. So naturally, Joseph Lieberman casts aspersions on Canada for having the temerity to take care of its own citizens first.

The relative abundance of H1N1 vaccine in Canada is attracting jealous looks from south of the border, where health officials face a shortage of shots.

United States Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) says the shortage is a result, in part, of countries such as Canada choosing to make their own populations a priority.

He says Canadian manufacturers were under pressure from Ottawa to "fill Canadian needs" for the swine flu vaccine before providing supply to the U.S.

What a jack-ass.

The question to ask, Mr. Lieberman, is not why the Canadian government has ensured an ample supply of the vaccine for its own public health agencies to administer to Canadian citizens, but why the U.S. government failed to ensure the same for American citizens.

But the upside, Mr. Lieberman, is that American citizens living in border states can just cross the border, pretend to be Canadian for a day, and visit a nearby public health clinic -- like they do every year. Perhaps that's one of the reasons that our government ordered 55 million doses for a population of 33 million people.