Something just struck me about the flu vaccine shortage...

[benburch]

Tamiflu is the only antiviral that works against influenza. The company that makes it is Gilead Sciences. Rumsfeld was CEO of Gilead Sciences until he took office.

Who, therefore, stands to gain if there is a pandemic of flu and no vaccine-based immunity?

[sam sarrha]

1. they are not even talking about the bird flue pandemic next month nor

are thay ready for it

[Warpy]

3. Avian flu is probably a year two in the future, at least

Although it's now made the jump to swine, and although that means we're next, it still has to mutate to the point that it's transmissible from person to person, and that doesn't happen overnight.

The question remains that once it does mutate to that point, if mergers have left us with enough manufacturers to meet world demand. My guess is that we're SOL in that regard.

As for any conspiracy on Rumdum's part, I don't see it. The problem is that there are only three manufacturers left worlwide, only two of which supply the US market. If one of them has a problem, massive shortages result. The problem is too few companies making too few doses. Their bottom line is profit, and they estimate how many doses they will be able to sell and don't produce more. The lead time on vaccine is also several months. When the virus fails to grow (as in 2000) or is contaminated (this year), there is simply not sufficient supply and no way to get it.

Perhaps this is one area that completely socialized medicine should enter. Profit driven companies have not been adequate for the job.

[DrCorday]

2. OH That is strange!

I never even knew that. Sounds hauntingly familiar to the Halliburton deal. I also wonder how a manufacturing firm of antivirals like Gilead did after the "duct-tape and plastic sheeting" bioterrorism scare...

But this one's more specific. Seems very shaky, wonder if there's any information out there to back it up. I'll be looking. (Will post asap w/ information...)

[DrCorday]

4. On Rumsfeld, fake warnings, and the flu...

I was working investigating this theory and found this interesting gem:

http://proliberty.com/observer/20031113.htm

Apparently this flu vaccine scare is not Rumsfeld's first.

"Then and current Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was reportedly the architect of the plan to ensure that, “every man, woman and child” in America be vaccinated against the swine flu in 1976.

Within a few weeks, some 47 million Americans were vaccinated with the experimental vaccine. The program resulted in at least 113 deaths, nearly 4,000 cases of paralysis and an epidemic of Guillean Barre -- a polio-like disease.

... Insider reports indicate Rumsfeld orchestrated the swine flu fiasco to “add some spark to the campaign of President Ford...” wrote author and marine biologist William Sargent."

[madrchsod]

6. i remember that!

that was something all right.."the swine flu" we are all going to die!!!!!

[nostamj]

18. that vaccine made me SO deathly sick

that I haven't taken a flu shot since.

[madrchsod]

5. this was posted here a few days ago

about a pig flu that has "escaped" in south korea which anyone that was born in the early 30`s has no immunity at all to the disease. this has many in the community very worried because they do not understand how the flu got as far as it did.....merry christmas.

[DrCorday]

7. don't worry madrchsod, more is coming...

I'll have more than the swine flu soon, if it's out there. I'm interested in what Rumsfeld had to do with the development of Tamiflu, which I'm thinking may have happened during his tenure there.

Tamiflu was approved by the FDA in 1999, during Rumsfeld's tenure on the Gilead Sciences' board of directors. It was approved to prophylactically treat influenza in late 2000, and Rumsfeld resigned from the board in 2001, after 13 years of service with their company. (odd coincidence... I wonder how he's profited from Tamiflu so far.)

[benburch]

10. When you find anything on this please let us know...

I am very interested!

[American Tragedy]

14. Quite frankly, anybody born in the early thirties is likely to be

vulnerable to any influenza strain at this point.

[InvisibleBallots]

8. good find - not only that

Frankly, the Social Darwinist types want widespread influenza, to kill the weak and the old. It's part of their ideology.

[benburch]

9. I had forgetten about those sick bastards. nt

[shance]

11. Didn't Rumsfeld have involvement with the FDA approval of Nutrasweet

I remember hearing something about this a while back.

[tanyev]

12. Yes, he was with Searle

and they were having a lot of trouble getting FDA approval of aspartame. It was approved one day after Reagan was inaugurated.

http://www.laleva.org/eng/2004/05/donald_rumsfeld_fda_and_aspartame_gate_a_comment_by_betty_martini.html

[shance]

13. This guy gets around.

And always seems to wind up in all the wrong places. What are the odds?

Its amazing to think that there are individuals in our government who would want to allow a toxic chemical to be used as an everyday sweetener.

And aspartame is in so many things.

[elehhhhna]

15. "Chemical Rum-EEEEEEEEEEE"

[A Brand New World]

17. This is the exact reason I no longer drink anything with Nutrasweet in it

I figure anything Dr. Death was involved with has to be extremely bad for a normal human being. Haven't had any Nutrasweet for 6 months and feel much, much better. Haven't convinced my husband yet though, he can't live without his Diet Pepsi.

[American Tragedy]

16. There isn't any shortage that I know of

After the incessant wailing that healthy people shouldn't get a flu shot, there is now a considerable surplus of the vaccine in my state. Thanks a lot, President Bush. I would have gotten one if the government hadn't guilt-tripped me over it.

I developed my immunity the hard way.

[Liberty Belle]

19. I don't know. But it's odd no one I know has had flu this year

even though nobody could get a flu shot.