[Given Bush’s, um, sudden intense interest in avian flu, it’s only right to raise some questions. – From the diaries by susanhu.]
In the news today, the CDC – the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, says that the Avian Flu threat is being overblown. In his article today, Roman Grokhman writes:
“It’s nothing people in the U.S. have to worry about right now,” said David Daigle, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. “They should be more concerned about the seasonal, regular, flu.”
So why all the brouhaha? Why is Bush now willing to spend 7.1 billion on vaccine?
I mean, we know it’s not because he cares. We saw what happened during Katrina. President Nero played guitar while New Orleanians drowned. So what’s in it for him?
Maybe it’s what’s in it for his friends. CNN reported yesterday that Donald Rumsfeld holds between a $5 million to $25 million stake in Gilead, makers of the flu-symptom-reliever Tamiflu. He was once Chairman of the company. And Rumsfeld isn’t the only Bush friend with a vested interest in a heavy flu season. Former Secretary of State George Schultz has been a large stakeholder, although he sold some $7 million worth of his stock this year. The wife of former California Governor Pete Wilson is a shareholder as well. From CNN’s report:
“I don’t know of any biotech company that’s so politically well-connected,” says analyst Andrew McDonald of Think Equity Partners in San Francisco.
What’s more, the federal government is emerging as one of the world’s biggest customers for Tamiflu. In July, the Pentagon ordered $58 million worth of the treatment for U.S. troops around the world, and Congress is considering a multi-billion dollar purchase. Roche expects 2005 sales for Tamiflu to be about $1 billion, compared with $258 million in 2004.
Bearing this in mind, F. William Engdahl has a right to ask the big question: Is Avian Flu Another Pentagon Hoax? In his article published at Global Research, Engdahl writes:
The only medicine we are told which reduce the symptoms of general or seasonal influenza and `possibly’ might reduce symptoms also of Avian Flu, is a drug called Tamiflu. Today the giant Swiss pharmaceutical firm, Roche, holds the sole license to manufacture Tamiflu. Due to the media panic, the order books at Roche today are filled to overflowing. Roche recently refused a request from the US Congress to lift its exclusive patent rights to allow other drug manug´facturers to produce Tamiflu with the improbable excuse that it was in effect, too complex for others to rapidly produce.
In the wake of 9/11, remember the cases of Anthrax that seemed to strike only media people and some high profile people, like Tom Daschle, who were critics of the Bush administration? The story disappeared quickly when the Anthrax was traced to the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.
But while the Anthrax stories were in full sway, a different battle was emerging. Cipro, one of the only drugs that successfully treats Anthrax exposure, is made by Bayer. And Bayer had trouble meeting the sudden increased demand. The US had the right, under current law, to order generic copies made. But it protected the business interests at what could have been great cost, had the threat to the public been actualized. Canada, on the other hand, threatened to put its citizens first and demanded that Cipro be produced generically. Wonder of wonders, when faced with sudden competition, Bayer decided it could meet the increased demand, after all, and at a greatly reduced price.
So drug profiteering on a falsely trumpted charge is not exactly new. We should be watching Gilead like a hawk, and ensuring that they aren’t making profits for the politically connected by scaring the innocent into taking vaccinations and flu medications they may not need.
One last note. Be especially careful with your children re vaccinations. Thimerosol is a common preservative used in vaccines. But Thimerosol contains mercury, and is suspected of being behind the sudden rise in cases of autism in young children. So not only is the scare of Avian flu possibly designed to create profits, it could have a far more direct and disastrous effect of damaging to the health of our country’s children.
Be aware, and beware. Sometimes where there’s smoke, there’s just hot air.
Note: Don’t avoid vaccines! Just find out whether there is Thimerosol in them first. Check the Food and Drug Adminstration’s list at http://www.fda.gov/cber/vaccine/thimerosal.htm#t1.
good diary, Lisa…thanks
Thanks, Brenda. Btw – I once met Lena Horne – I note that because your email address has “stormy weather” in it…!
Thanks for raising the questions, Lisa.
In your research, did you run across any dangers of these drugs? I vaguely recall reading that there are some serious side effects of Cipro, and that it shouldn’t be taken without precautions.
P.S. When I tutored/mentored at a rural public elementary school, I got something from the school and/or kids, and I was sick from October until the following April…. it got so bad sometimes, that I just wanted to end it all. I never had a day in which I felt good. Finally, since my doc was on vacation, I saw a nurse practitioner who gave me an anti-viral drug. It did the trick! And how! It was Amantadine. (I’ve often wished that I could get another prescription to have it on stand-by should some virulent flu bug hit me again. Btw, I have not been sick like that since I stopped working at that school.
. . . but am too sick to do it right now. <rimshot>
There’s a ton of info and links at fluwikie.com–in particular, the scientific information is here; the information on drugs is towards the bottom of the page. Hope it helps answer some of your questions.
Very interesting site. Thanks for the info.
I see a lot of comparisons to 1918, and while I don’t doubt that some variant of the flu, this one or the next one or the one after that, may escalate into a worldwide pandemic, I also think we should note that, especially in the more developed world, people have far superior standards for health and are less likely to engage in behaviors that put them at risk. For example, we wash our hands a lot more, or so it seems, than people did in 1918. We avoid people who appear sick. In Asian countries the wearing of face masks became prevalent in areas where there appeared to be an outbreak. All of this makes me hopeful that we are not nearly as at risk as we have been in the past. Now maybe that’s a foolish pipe dream. Time will tell.
However, even with current levels of hygiene, the regular flu makes the rounds every year, as do, at irregular intervals, things like rotovirus, RSV, Norwalk, etc. And as much as I’d personally like to avoid people who appear sick, it’s just not possible–I have two school-age children who get sick; I volunteer in my daughter’s hotbed of contagion–I mean, kindergarten class; my students come to class sick; hell, I’m going to work later today even though I’d be better off staying home because I can’t afford to cancel class again, and my department colleagues are all as sick as I. People like grocery store checkers and fast food workers can’t afford to stay home when they’re sick, and if you’re like me, you usually don’t realize they’re sick until they’re handing you your change and it’s too late to do anything about it.
Would people do a better job of washing their hands, staying home when sick, etc., if/when H5N1 makes the necessary genetic changes to spread efficiently? Sure. But even if everyone took to their bed as soon as they started showing symptoms, they’d have been shedding virus for 2 – 3 days before that–maybe more, if the few cases of human-to-human spread of H5N1 are any indication. That’s why, just as most of us don’t count on improved hygiene to protect us from whooping cough–we get vaccinated–it’s important to make sure that there’s infrastructure in place to produce a vaccine for H5N1 as quickly as possible, should we need it.
Also, taking the situation seriously is worth it even if the next virus that goes pandemic turns out to be less virulent than the 1918 strain. Even a pandemic on the level of the milder 1957 or 1968 pandemics could cause enough absenteeism to:
*leave first responders short-staffed for 6 – 8 weeks;
*disrupt delivery of health care beyond what was seen in 1957 or 1968–because hospitals are staffed differently than 40 or 50 years ago;
*cause temporary supply-chain disruptions–because our “just-in-time” business practices mean that, for example, grocery stores don’t have more than a few days’ stock on hand and industries rely on constant deliveries of components rather than warehousing them.
So while I’m as suspicious of Bush’s agenda as the next person, I also know that members of the public health community have been begging the government to take this threat more seriously for some time now. The chances of the current administration dealing with it competently are pretty slim, so I think it pays for individuals to be as informed and prepared as possible. The Flu Wiki is a good place to start.
All good points, and again, thanks to the link to the Flu Wiki site.
And may I please BEG people NOT to go to work if you feel sick? I know we all have that puritan work ethic, and/or the fear of being seen as slackers if we are out sick, but it serves a company to send people home to limit the damage. I hate when I get sick because some co-worker thought they were being noble. Just stay home early on, get better soon, and come back to work without infecting the rest of us!
Sorry to vent – that’s just a pet peeve of mine. Thanks!
It’s not about “being noble”, it’s about not losing your job! You would not believe the amount of shit my husband gets when he [gasp] USES his sick days — every year, it is counted against him in the annual review that he USES his sick days! And that is in a job that comes with such luxury benefits as sick days int he first place.
I wish I had taken something like that last fall when I was out for nearly three weeks. The flu can be devastating….
Enjoy: The Bush Administration BIRD FLU Alert System
– via Daou Report
http://pandemicflu.gov
How quaint!
That’s a sure sign the government will take care of us.
Yep. They’re preparing. Good. BUT.
To put this in perspective, I would note that “In Los Angeles County, there was an average of 769 fatal car accidents every year over the past decade.”
So you’re much more likely to die in a car accident than to be hit by Avian Flu. I mean, seriously. We have to consider this vs. all the other causes of death. While the potential for a serious outbreak is of course present, the reality is that it’s not a threat, as the CDC says, at this point. Seriously not a threat, and there are many very real threats we face every day.
They aren’t preparing — they are making it look like they are preparing.
All of the $$ that Bush just appropriated for “protecting us” will go down the money hole to his friends and we will be left with “every person for themselves” as per usual….
Already, there are delays in our area with getting enough REGULAR flu shots….the bird flu is just another ratchet in the “all fear all the time” campaign.
Susan invited me to drop by, so don’t be too annoyed. A couple of points, afaik:
One is that Roche holds the license at the moment, so they’re far more likely to benefit than Gilead, though the amount Rumsfeld et al will make is considerable.
The other is that the vaccine dollars Bush is investing could in theory make the Gilead tamiflu piece much less valuable.
Finally, there really is a pandemic flu problem. It’s not a hoax dramed up to make Rummy rich. Making sure he doesn’t profit is great, but don’t lose sight of the main issue. There is need to repair the public health system, do surveillance, etc. Bush’s plan may be too little too late, but something needs to happen and investing in novel vaccine technology, more than tamiflu, seems sensible.
I know they bought Gilead but so far no one has spelled out anything about terms of the deal that would preclude Gilead honchos from getting any future royalties or honoraria or tokens of esteem, etc.
It will also be interesting to see who gets the contract to “work on the vaccine.”
I wonder if BioPort is set up to do that. I wonder if it matters if they are not.
Maybe Bremer can be the oversight czar of the vaccine development project. I bet he’s still got those yellow boots…
I forgot to include the link in the comment above.
Seriously – there’s a POSSIBLE serious threat. The POSSIBILITY has not turn into an actuality yet.
Here’s the stat re the “pandemic” of car fatalities in LA county. If you live here, as I do, you’re far more likely to die from a car collision than from the Avian flu – see http://www.weitzlux.com/caraccidentlawyer/ca/california/losangelescounty_20065.html.
Well, you were far more likely to die from a moter vehicle accident than a hurricane in NOLA. That’s both true and NOT a reason to shirk preparedness.
Did you know that more people die from pneumonia/influenza in the US than AIDS? Is that a reason to ignore AIDS?
Looking at those stats when there’s not yet a pandemic is really not the point. Preparedness is broader than that.
Alos be aware that part of Bush’s plan is to allow drug companies a waiver from prosecution from any side effects that their drugs may have.
There you go. That’s what it’s all about for Bush.