Attacks Rock Pakistan, Afghanistan [News Bits]

Of course, prisoners get Swine Flu before private citizens. The cost of a flu epidemic in a prison would potentially be massive. Who pays for hospitalized prisoners, and the guards for them? Taxpayers. Who pays for the Tamiflu? Taxpayers.

Talk about knee-jerk reporting.

However, hospitalized prisoners don't cost *that* much more than normal prisoners, and there's nothing to say they even need to be hospitalized. Compare/contrast to what happens to the economy when you or I get the hamthrax - we don't go to work; we don't generate economic activity (or tax dollars). Much bigger loss.

I take odds with the idea that a hospitalized prisoner would cost about the same as a non-hospitalized one, but it's not really important to the "cost" of flu in prison.

The cost to the economy of you staying home from work is actually fairly low, because your co-workers can probably cover for you. That's why it's less important for you to get the vaccine. You're not living in a house with 1000 of your co-workers. The chance that all of you will get flu at the same time is very small. The chance that an epidemic can rip through a prison, nursing home, etc. is very high. The cost of dealing with 1000 people all with the flu at the same time is exponentially higher than dealing with 1000 people who get the flu sequentially over a 3 month time period.

The economic impact of those prisoners, though, is negative. I like to think that I generate positive economic activity, don't you too? Presumably when my co-workers cover for me, their own work suffers a bit and the total economic output of the company drops (if not, why am I employed?)

Again, though, you're assuming the inmates all or even mostly go to the hospital. That doesn't happen outside the prison, why would we assume it'd happen in there?