Who will get the bird flu vaccine?

New Jersey health officials held a summit Wednesday to discuss plans for dealing with a possible bird flu pandemic. Among the issues discussed: Who gets the 18,500 anti-viral doses now available to the state - a state with a population of 8 million.
The possible recipients discussed included health care workers, the vulnerable, pharmaceutical workers, children in state-run group homes and prison inmates. Prison inmates? That's right. What group could be more deserving? There are more than 26,000 of them in New Jersey, according to 2006 DEA statistics. Our prison population alone could absorb the available doses - and then some.
When more vaccine becomes available, it could then be offered to the state's 143,000 parolees.
State Health Commissioner Fred Jacobs says New Jersey is not embracing the federal model, which gives top priority to caregivers and people responsible for producing more vaccine. New Jersey will develop its own model. If history is any guide, public officials and their campaign contributors will be first in line. Other than the prison population, who is more deserving than them?