csberry

NASCAR cooties

House Homeland Security Committee staffers are on a peculiar mission to study"public health issues at events involving mass gatherings," which has personally insulted Rep. Robin Hayes of Concord, North Carolina.

The event: NASCAR.

The rub: the requirement that the Democrat and Republican staffers attending first be immunized against Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, tetanus,diphtheria, and influenza.

"I have never heard of immunizations for domestic travel, and as the representative for Concord, North Carolina, I feel compelled to ask why the heck the committee feels that immunizations are needed to travel to my hometown," Mr. Hayes, a Republican, said in a letter to Rep. Bennie Thompson, Mississippi Democrat and committee chairman.

"I have been to numerous NASCAR races, and the folks who attend these events certainly do not pose any health hazard to congressional staffers or anyone else," Mr. Hayes said.

A committee staffer says that the Republican staffers have declined the shots but that two Democrat staffers were immunized before attending the race at Talladega last weekend.

A phone call to the committee spokesman was not returned.

— Audrey Hudson, Homeland Security reporter, The Washington Times

Show me where the same was held for football games at such lovely stadiums as Giant Stadium at the Meadowlands or state fairs or any other public gathering and I won't be pissed off. Of all places, Lowe's Motor Speedway is among the nicest tracks on the circuit. If NASCAR was the only sport to spur this warning, I definitely question the mindset of the chairperson or whomever decided to add the immunization warning. I wonder what Rep. Thompson would say if a GOP controlled Congress mandated shots for people traveling to see a game at Ole Miss, Alcorn State, or Miss State? Sorry, no gambling in Tunica without having documentation of the required shots!