Three weeks ago, the Student Health Center received 300 doses of influenza vaccination. The number of doses represents only 10 percent of what the health center normally receives because vaccine manufacturer Wyeth-Ayerst had difficulty developing one of the new flu strains this year.
With only 300 doses available to administer to students and faculty, Dr. Gerald Fleischli, the director of the Student Health Center, decided that at-risk students and faculty needed to have first priority for the shots. The editorial board applauds this ethical and humane decision, as people with diabetes, asthma and weak immune systems can face a risk of death from the flu.
Fleischli made a terribly unethical decision, however, in sending 50 of those 300 doses to the athletic department to be given to the men’s and women’s basketball teams and reserve football players. This action is outrageous, but more outrageous is the fact that no one seems to recognize this decision as the ethical breach that it is. Fleischli and Bob Crist, team physician for the athletic department, should acknowledge the error and apologize.
Crist has stated that he didn’t know there was a shortage of flu vaccines. We’re sorry, but unless this is simply a face-saving statement, Crist’s ability as team physician should be examined. How could a physician not be aware of this year’s flu vaccine shortage? The topic has made national news on an ongoing basis, as agencies across the country have struggled to decide how to parcel out the few vaccines available. We don’t buy his ignorance as an excuse for the preferential treatment.
If anyone was going to get the first shot at those 300 vaccines, it should have been at-risk faculty. As Fleischli himself acknowledged, hundreds of students’ education can be affected by a professor’s absence. Even with a Rose Bowl on the line and our basketball teams’ season openers hanging in the balance, one student athlete is simply one student athlete.
The decision to give flu shot preference to the big-money athletes on campus is part of a long-standing policy, according to Fleischli. That may be acceptable some of the time, but this year is a special case. Fleischli was aware of the shortage problem and the fact that more vaccines won’t be available until late in the flu season. He acknowledged Tuesday (“UO Health Center short on vaccines,” ODE, Nov. 28) that not all the at-risk students have received vaccines yet, so he should have denied the athletic department’s request.
The “long-standing policy” is necessary, Fleischli says, because student athletes travel to other parts of the country and so are more likely to be exposed to and spread the flu. But athletes are generally healthier than the rest of the student population. They will probably be less likely to contract the flu, and the symptoms will most likely be less serious. And if traveling is a concern, why didn’t the Club Sports athletes receive flu shots? Many of the Club Sports teams traveled during the two weeks before Thanksgiving, but they did not receive special treatment.
The traveling argument breaks down entirely when we consider Thanksgiving. Most of the student body visited other parts of the country last week. Why was everyone not considered eligible for special treatment? Perhaps the athletic department’s self-identified role as University booster — these are the elite students that bring the campus fame and fortune, after all — makes it believe it has special rights and privileges.
Some students may believe that the football and basketball players deserve a little privilege. Sports and sports heroes are highly valued in America, often more so than intellectual or artistic achievements. But athletics isn’t the only department that brings money and prestige to the University.
Numerous scientists bring in grants and fellowships, including professor Russell Lande, who got the MacArthur Fellowship’s “genius grant” two years ago. The University has the one of the world’s leading experts on the Balkans in professor Ronald Wixman, who consults with the U.S. State Department about the problems in Yugoslavia. There are many other examples, but that’s not the point.
With so few vaccines available, the most endangered faculty and students should have been the only ones on the short list on Nov. 6. In a situation where health and lives are at risk, no one deserves preferential consideration, except those whose ailments make them especially susceptible. Fifty such people were denied a flu vaccine for the sake of a few athletes, and we wish someone would recognize the inhumanity of that decision.