Offit--Killer Flu Gets No Respect

[Guest guest]

NOT TRUE!!! According to the CDC's own data, only 752 people died from the

flu in 2002. Where are they getting these numbers??!

>

>

> http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=25894

>

> HEALTH-U.S.:

> Killer Flu Gets No Respect

>

> Marty Logan

>

>

> MONTREAL, Oct 17 (IPS) - One of the largest mass murderers of the 20th

> century gets no respect. That, say experts, is why the temporary shutdown of

just

> one production plant in England has created a drastic shortage of influenza

> vaccine in the United States as winter flu season approaches.

>

> The facility, owned by California-based Chiron Corp, was closed by UK

> officials after they concluded that the vaccine being made there was

contaminated

> by bacteria.

>

> The plant was scheduled to produce 48 million doses of vaccine, about

> one-half of estimated U.S. requirements this year. The shutdown sent the

nation's

> officials scrambling to find replacements for the vaccine, which is a major

> part of their defence against a disease that kills 36,000 people and puts more

> than 200,000 in hospital each year, according to the U.S. Centres for Disease

> Control (CDC).

>

> In 1918-1919 a worldwide outbreak, or ''pandemic'', of Spanish flu killed as

> many as 50 million people, 500,000 in the United States. It is known as the

> most devastating epidemic in world history.

>

> Despite its infamous résumé, in the popular consciousness in developed

> nations flu has never figured high on the list of deadly diseases.

>

> " I don't think people understand what the flu is -- that's part of the

> problem, " says Dr Offit, a physician at the Children's Hospital of

> Philadelphia, in the northeastern U.S. state of Pennsylvania. He is writing a

book that

> examines the development of a polio vaccine in the 1950s.

>

> " The best thing the CDC can do... is really explain what this disease is and

> why it's important to prevent. People have this kind of myth of

> invulnerability that it's just not going to be them (who get sick), " he told

IPS.

>

> The average citizen might feel that way, but experts and some politicians

> are waking up to the dangers of the disease. During a 1968-1969 pandemic, the

> Hong Kong flu killed an estimated 700,000 people worldwide. And health

> officials warn that recent outbreaks of avian influenza are harbingers of a

coming

> pandemic.

>

> Earlier this year, for example, Canada announced it will spend 5.3 million

> U.S. dollars a year on its flu pandemic plan.

>

> The emerging threat of a global pandemic has spotlighted the lack of

> preparations and resources to fight the disease in developing nations -- in

part

> because such resources are dominated by the industrialised North, say experts.

>

> " Our concern is that during an influenza pandemic, first, influenza vaccines

> will not reach developing countries until developed countries would have set

> aside their demand because (vaccine-producing) companies are there, " Klaus

> Stohr, head of the World Health Organisation's Global Influenza Programme,

> told IPS earlier this year.

>

> " Secondly, developing countries have not yet started with the other items

> that belong to pandemic preparedness " , which includes deciding whom to

> vaccinate first, how governments will allocate hospital and other medical

resources

> and developing treatment guidelines, Stohr added.

>

> In 2002-2003 influenza killed more than 2,000 people in the Democratic

> Republic of the Congo.

>

> Offit predicts that this year's vaccine shortage will lead to more deaths

> than usual in the United States. " What is the chance that some of those

> Americans will be hospitalised and killed because they couldn't get a vaccine?

> High. "

>

> U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Tommy " has said

> time and time again that this latest challenge is a wake-up call to the

> nation... to modernise the vaccine manufacturing process and (stabilise) the

> demand, " HHS Spokesman Tony Jewell told IPS on Friday.

>

> The department will spend 283 million dollars on influenza this year, added

> Jewell, compared to 39 million dollars in the last year of the former Clinton

> administration.

>

> That includes 65.9 million dollars for research and development to modernise

> vaccines; 13.6 million dollars to the CDC for delivery, infrastructure and

> public health preparedness; 100 million dollars to develop a pandemic vaccine;

> and 33 million dollars to buy the medication.

>

> Flu vaccine usually retails for 10-20 dollars per dose.

>

> Jewell said " wants to encourage manufacturers to be in the business

> of making vaccines, " just as they have been enticed to make vaccine for

> anthrax and smallpox, two diseases that have been in the public eye since the

> terrorist attacks of Sep. 11, 2001 as possible " biological weapons. "

>

> Experts say many reasons help explain why just a handful of firms worldwide

> are willing to go into the vaccine business, but they boil down to too high a

> risk for too low a profit, says Offit.

>

> Making flu vaccine is a slow process that cannot start until health offic

> ials determine what strain of the disease is likely to dominate in the coming

> season. Once that is decided, manufacturers begin to grow the vaccine in

> chicken eggs, a process that takes six months, leaving no time to begin again

if

> mistakes are made or a shortfall emerges.

>

> Demand is unpredictable, based largely on the public's concern about the flu

> danger in a certain year, meaning vaccine makers can be left with millions

> of doses of vaccine as the flu risk subsides, which must be thrown out.

>

> Also, " It's a fairly tightly regulated industry to be in: the Food and Drug

> Administration (the U.S. government regulatory agency) has fairly expensive

> standards that vaccine manufacturers have to live up to, " says Arthur Foulkes,

> a research fellow at California's Independent Institute who has studied a

> previous shortage of flu vaccine in the 1990s.

>

> At that time, four companies supplied the product for the U.S. market,

> compared to just two today.

>

> The cost of the infrastructure needed to make a virus is about 200 million

> dollars, according to a report in the 'Atlanta Journal-Constitution'

> newspaper.

>

> Foulkes believes more drug companies would make vaccines if they were free

> to set the price (now determined largely by the amount that government health

> programmes like Medicare -- for the elderly -- reimburse manufacturers) and

> believed they had a good chance of making a profit.

>

> Offit agrees that o

[Guest guest]

And tomorrow I could get hit by a bus. Last year's flu vaccine was the wrong

strain from what went around, so what good was it?

I know what harm vaccines can do. My relatives survived the Black Plague, the

famine in Ireland, and more recently, the Great Depression. I personally had

Hong Kong Flu in 1968 at age 3, and German Measles at 5. I am still here

I am more worried about my children's classmates getting that darn Flu Mist!

-GA

[ ] Offit--Killer Flu Gets No Respect

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=25894

[Guest guest]

Sheri Nakken <vaccineinfo@t...> wrote:

" government could do more to educate the public about the flu's

dangers "

oh my.......

Sheri

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=25894

HEALTH-U.S.:

Killer Flu Gets No Respect

Marty Logan

MONTREAL, Oct 17 (IPS) - One of the largest mass murderers of the 20th

century gets no respect. That, say experts, is why the temporary

shutdown of just one production plant in England has created a

drastic shortage of

influenza vaccine in the United States as winter flu season

approaches.

The facility, owned by California-based Chiron Corp, was closed by UK

officials after they concluded that the vaccine being made there was

contaminated by bacteria.

The plant was scheduled to produce 48 million doses of vaccine, about

one-half of estimated U.S. requirements this year. The shutdown sent

the

nation's officials scrambling to find replacements for the vaccine,

which

is a major part of their defence against a disease that kills 36,000

people

and puts more than 200,000 in hospital each year, according to the

U.S.

Centres for Disease Control (CDC).

In 1918-1919 a worldwide outbreak, or ''pandemic'', of Spanish flu

killed

as many as 50 million people, 500,000 in the United States. It is

known as

the most devastating epidemic in world history.

Despite its infamous résumé, in the popular consciousness in developed

nations flu has never figured high on the list of deadly diseases.

" I don't think people understand what the flu is -- that's part of the

problem, " says Dr Offit, a physician at the Children's Hospital

of

Philadelphia, in the northeastern U.S. state of Pennsylvania. He is

writing

a book that examines the development of a polio vaccine in the 1950s.

" The best thing the CDC can do... is really explain what this disease

is

and why it's important to prevent. People have this kind of myth of

invulnerability that it's just not going to be them (who get sick), "

he

told IPS.

The average citizen might feel that way, but experts and some

politicians

are waking up to the dangers of the disease. During a 1968-1969

pandemic,

the Hong Kong flu killed an estimated 700,000 people worldwide. And

health

officials warn that recent outbreaks of avian influenza are

harbingers of a

coming pandemic.

Earlier this year, for example, Canada announced it will spend 5.3

million

U.S. dollars a year on its flu pandemic plan.

The emerging threat of a global pandemic has spotlighted the lack of

preparations and resources to fight the disease in developing

nations -- in

part because such resources are dominated by the industrialised

North, say

experts.

" Our concern is that during an influenza pandemic, first, influenza

vaccines will not reach developing countries until developed countries

would have set aside their demand because (vaccine-producing)

companies are

there, " Klaus Stohr, head of the World Health Organisation's Global

Influenza Programme, told IPS earlier this year.

" Secondly, developing countries have not yet started with the other

items

that belong to pandemic preparedness " , which includes deciding whom to

vaccinate first, how governments will allocate hospital and other

medical

resources and developing treatment guidelines, Stohr added.

In 2002-2003 influenza killed more than 2,000 people in the Democratic

Republic of the Congo.

Offit predicts that this year's vaccine shortage will lead to more

deaths

than usual in the United States. " What is the chance that some of

those

Americans will be hospitalised and killed because they couldn't get a

vaccine? High. "

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Tommy " has

said

time and time again that this latest challenge is a wake-up call to

the

nation... to modernise the vaccine manufacturing process and

(stabilise)

the demand, " HHS Spokesman Tony Jewell told IPS on Friday.

The department will spend 283 million dollars on influenza this year,

added

Jewell, compared to 39 million dollars in the last year of the former

Clinton administration.

That includes 65.9 million dollars for research and development to

modernise vaccines; 13.6 million dollars to the CDC for delivery,

infrastructure and public health preparedness; 100 million dollars to

develop a pandemic vaccine; and 33 million dollars to buy the

medication.

Flu vaccine usually retails for 10-20 dollars per dose.

Jewell said " wants to encourage manufacturers to be in the

business of making vaccines, " just as they have been enticed to make

vaccine for anthrax and smallpox, two diseases that have been in the

public

eye since the terrorist attacks of Sep. 11, 2001 as

possible " biological

weapons. "

Experts say many reasons help explain why just a handful of firms

worldwide

are willing to go into the vaccine business, but they boil down to

too high

a risk for too low a profit, says Offit.

Making flu vaccine is a slow process that cannot start until health

officials determine what strain of the disease is likely to dominate

in the

coming season. Once that is decided, manufacturers begin to grow the

vaccine in chicken eggs, a process that takes six months, leaving no

time

to begin again if mistakes are made or a shortfall emerges.

Demand is unpredictable, based largely on the public's concern about

the

flu danger in a certain year, meaning vaccine makers can be left with

millions of doses of vaccine as the flu risk subsides, which must be

thrown

out.

Also, " It's a fairly tightly regulated industry to be in: the Food

and Drug

Administration (the U.S. government regulatory agency) has fairly

expensive

standards that vaccine manufacturers have to live up to, " says Arthur

Foulkes, a research fellow at California's Independent Institute who

has

studied a previous shortage of flu vaccine in the 1990s.

At that time, four companies supplied the product for the U.S. market,

compared to just two today.

The cost of the infrastructure needed to make a virus is about 200

million

dollars, according to a report in the 'Atlanta Journal-Constitution'

newspaper.

Foulkes believes more drug companies would make vaccines if they were

free

to set the price (now determined largely by the amount that government

health programmes like Medicare -- for the elderly -- reimburse

manufacturers) and believed they had a good chance of making a

profit.

Offit agrees that only if vaccine makers see a strong possibility of

making

a return from the product will they dive into the business, but he

suggests

the government could do more to educate the public about the flu's

dangers

-- then demand for the vaccine would rise (as would prices) and

become more

stable.

" It's a very unpredictable market. What makes it unpredictable is that

influenza as a disease is not appreciated, and the influenza vaccine

is not

valued... by the people who need it. "

" Even if the government was to try and take some of the gamble out of

it

for the pharmaceutical companies by buying stockpiles of vaccines, I

just

think the notion that they would buy tens of millions of doses is

fanciful.

I just don't think that there's the political will to do that, " said

Offit.

Health Secretary suggested Thursday that the U.S. Congress

authorise the government to buy up to 100 million doses of vaccine

yearly,

to guarantee companies enough of a market and so " that we have a ready

source of vaccine year after year, " said Jewell. (END/2004)

* U.S. Centres for Disease Control

* Chiron Corp

* World Health Organisation

--------------------------------------------------------

Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Classical Homeopath

http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm

--- End forwarded message ---

[Guest guest]

This man's name alone makes me want to vomit. He should NOT be allowed to

publish anything! He's just plain scary. Do yout hink he really believes

the crap he spouts or that he's totally financially driven to keep on

spouting it?

in IL