H1N1 Vaccination

Thank you, medicalgrounds, for your suggestion. I've emailed our ID physician blog member to seek his response.

With regards to the H1N1 vaccination exercise, MOH has ordered a million doses of the new vaccine, of which 20% are set aside presumably for 'essential' government personnel. This translates to 200,000 doses at approximately $30 each, which comes to about $6 million, paid for by the government (excluding manpower and logistics/administrative costs).

H1N1 fatality rate: 0.007 to 0.045% (comparable, or less than an average seasonal flu according to the Reuter's report linked below).

Medifund disbursement for the needy (FY 2008): S$1.66 billion

Qn: What do you feel is the most prudent/cost-effective way of spending $6 million of taxpayer's money in light of the above?

a) Vaccinating all essential government staff (including low risk groups)
b) Vaccinating only essential government staff at risk of H1N1, save the rest of the money.
c) Spending the money on other healthcare initiatives (eg Medifund)
d) Others (feel free to elaborate)

References: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/cna/20091025/tap-650-singapore-receive-batch-h1n1-vac-231650b.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE58E6NZ20090916

http://www.moh.gov.sg/mohcorp/hcfinancing.aspx?id=308