NYT: Avian Flu Vaccine Called Effective in Human Testing

[deminks]

By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN
Published: August 7, 2005

WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 - Government scientists say they have successfully tested in people a vaccine that they believe can protect against the strain of avian influenza that is spreading in birds through Asia and Russia.

Health officials have been racing to develop a vaccine because they worry that if that strain mutated and combined with a human influenza virus to create a new virus, it could spread rapidly through the world. (The vaccine cannot lead to such a situation because it is made from killed virus.)

The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, said that although the vaccine that had undergone preliminary tests could be used on an emergency basis if a pandemic developed, it would still be several months before that vaccine was tested further and, if licensed, offered to the public.

But he cautioned: "We don't have all the vaccine we need to meet the possible demand. The critical issue now is, can we make enough vaccine, given the well-known inability of the vaccine industry to make enough vaccine?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/07/health/07vaccine.html?hp&ex=1123387200&en=2ce7397eb72918ff&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[kestrel91316]

1. Well this is just great ..............'til it mutates again ..............

[still_one]

2. That is the way it has always been with influenza virus

they are constantly mutaing and changing

what else would you suggest?

[eShirl]

4. "H5N1 Bird Flu Evolves Away From Pandemic Vaccine"

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/08060504/H5N1_Vaccine_Evolution.html

"The above comments on the development of a pandemic vaccine are overshadowed somewhat by the rapid spread of H5N1 across Russia, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia. Although the sequence of the rapidly spreading H5N1 has not been published, descriptions of the sequence sound much like the recently published H5N1 sequences from Qinghai Lake. Those sequences suggest that the current pandemic vaccine being tested worldwide will not be effective against the H5N1 expected to spread throughout Asia and Europe in the upcoming weeks."

[kestrel91316]

5. Oh isn't this news just peachy?

[oscar111]

3. nationalize factories: ignore patents

i have not seen the full article {registr.problem} but my general fix for these

SHORTAGE

problems {"given the inability of the antiviral industry to produce"}----

is to nationalize the factories and ignore any patent barriers.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++
-1 --in this case, no patent problem.
-2 --in this case, not sure why the industry cant produce enough. Might just be an unavoidable scale-up problem.

#########################
But in related issues, like Tamiflu antiviral pills and normal flushots.... the problem is that it is not profitable to industry to stockpile a lot and risk not selling it all.

=====================
MAJOR THEORY - MEMORIZE THIS:
Nationalized factories avoid that problem. They can absorb $-loss at the factory while effecting vast savings in something called "human death", ... which is not on these current factory's balance sheets. Current factories' dollar-based balance sheets ignore such deaths out in society. The general theory-term used ...is

"Social Cost",

...meaning - Cost To Society, not the factory.

A parallel case is cancer deaths from pollution , due to a factory's smoke. Never shows up on the factory balance sheet.. the cancer deaths are "Social Cost".
GOP pretends Social Costs dont exist.

Tamiflu pills.. a clear case of the need to nationalize the factory and ignore the patent.

Later, one might pay the Roche owner a fee for the patent avoidance. But for now, millions of lives hinge of getting the product out there.