Big Companies Get Swine Flu Shots First

When Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs Group Inc. got priority doses of swine flu vaccines this fall, a congressman called for hearings.

Now we learn some big companies, like Exxon Mobil Corp. and Dow Chemical Co. received priority treatment. Health care providers, who serve the most vulnerable people including very young children and the elderly, waited on delayed vaccine shipments this fall as the government fell behind on its distribution. Meanwhile, corporate clinics run by Toyota Motor Corp. and Walt Disney Co. received thousands of doses, USA Today reports.

Defense contractors Bell Helicopter and Lockheed Martin Corp. and oil companies Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips also received hundreds of priority shipments.

Representative Frank Pallone Jr., the New Jersey Democrat who chairs the Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health, was outraged after learning Goldman got priority earlier this year and called for a mid-November hearing. Now Pallone plans to ask the U.S. agency in charge of distributing vaccines, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to change guidelines regarding corporations that request the shots. The guidelines would actually be directed at states who receive the shots from the feds. The states make the decisions on who gets the stuff.

"This confirms my greatest fears that employees of influential corporations have received preferential treatment during this pandemic,” Pallone says in a statement. "The vaccines should be distributed according to medical priorities, not economic privilege."

It's the kind of issue that raises accusations of corporate privilege even if the companies have legitimate needs at their clinics. Disney also vaccinated their Disney World theme park workers in Orlando who come into contact with thousands of people every day. While it's a good proactive strategy, the companies are going to look like the bad guys since thousands of high-risk people around the country, including children and seniors, will die from the virus this year.

No word on congressional hearings, though.