Britain's elite get pills to survive bird flu

[Lori Price CLG]

Britain's elite get pills to survive bird flu

Members of Britain's elite have been selected as priority cases to receive scarce pills and vaccinations at the taxpayers’ expense if the country is hit by a deadly bird flu outbreak.

Workers at the BBC and prominent politicians — such as cabinet ministers — would be offered protection from the virus.

Ken Livingstone, the London mayor, has already spent £1m to make sure his personal office and employees have their own emergency supplies of 100,000 antiviral tablets.

<snip>

Lori Price

More articles here:
http://www.legitgov.org/flu_oddities.html

[Maple]

1. Sheesh, they aren't 'elite'

that's just govt and media...the very people you need in a crisis. All medical personnel would get them as well.

Mind you...this bird flu is another hype job to get people's minds off brown folk shot at random in subways...

[Lori Price CLG]

3. It needs to be noted that, hype or not, those in 'power' are taking care..

of themselves (as usual).

The article didn't just note health care providers and 'first responders.' From the article: "...(P)rominent politicians — such as cabinet ministers — would be offered protection from the virus.

Lori Price

[Maple]

5. Yes, govt and media

need to be available in a crisis. People to deal with it, and people to keep you informed.

It's called triage.

[mom cat]

2. Now, isn't that just ducky!

[Jim Sagle]

4. Guess Livingstone is a greedhead as well as a red.

:rofl:

[rodeodance]

6. so-What is the US plan?

[Lori Price CLG]

7. Well, the terrorists in the Bush regime will be all set... n/t

[wli]

12. Bush is ready to launch bird flu weapons at Democratic voting districts

Doubtless the upper castes are well-supplied with antiviral drugs as well.

[NYC]

14. Remember when Bush got Cipro?

It was before something, I think anthrax.

[rooboy]

8. My wife was prescribed Tamiflu for the normal flu and it didn't work...

so don't worry too much about this - half the assholes will die anyway.

[Gyre]

9. Oh well I guess we should all just

Don't worry, be happy! :sarcasm: I hardly think your wife's experience (whatever it was) is hardly dispositive on the efficacy of Tamiflu to combat H5N1. Despite your wife's experience I am still willing to listen to clinical data about it and the epidemiology of avian flu.

Gyre

[Media_Lies_Daily]

16. Maybe you should start reading some of the boards that have been....

...discussing Avian Flu for the past few years. You might actually learn something about Tamiflu.

<http://discuss.agonist.org/yabbse/index.php?board=6>

[Dogmudgeon]

10. Tamiflu? They're giving out Tamiflu?

I thought that the Chinese and Vietnamese experience with H1N5 demonstrated that Tamiflu was little better than a placebo.

Well, I guess it's better than nothing at all.

--p!

[melody]

11. how nice for them

What about the rest of the folks?

And where's good, ol' Red Kenny's supposed "concern for the people"?

[wli]

13. they will surely watch with glee as the commoners die n/t

[Media_Lies_Daily]

15. Remember when it became known that the NeoCons were secretly....

...put on Cipro when the anthrax attacks hit the offices of Democratic congressmen?

The same thing will happen when Bird Flu becomes a certainty...our Overlords will receive the first doses of whatever works at the time.

But the joke may be on the Brits...the vaccinations only work against the flu variant from which they were derived. Who knows what variant will eventually start to efficiently infect humans?

[anitar1]

17. One thing I noticed in the article was that opposition

leaders had not been chosen for the vaccine, that it was undecided. Sounds like the Pugs at work, huh ?

[TheWraith]

18. Such a load of crap.

Even if there were to be some kind of flu outbreak (which there won't be, guaranteed), pills and vaccinations don't really do all that much. Antiviral drugs are only marginally effective on some viruses--not at all on others--and vaccinations need to be customized to the specific version of the virus. The REAL protection is containment, public health, and the fact that in the modern world viruses aren't really that dangerous. It was only in the past, when you packed great heaps of wounded, dirty, and unhealthy people together with little sanitation that you created an ideal environment for disease to spread. That's how the influenza pandemic of 1918 started: first men in an Army base got sick, then the disease was carried to Europe where it was given an ideal environment to breed.