Bush Outlines $7.1B Flu-Fighting Strategy

[mia]

AP) President Bush outlined a $7.1 billion strategy Tuesday to prepare for the danger of a pandemic influenza outbreak, saying he wanted to stockpile enough vaccine to protect 20 million Americans against the current strain of bird flu.

The president also said the United States must approve liability protection for the makers of lifesaving vaccines. He said the number of American vaccine manufacturers has plummeted because the industry has been hit with a flood of lawsuits.

Bush said no one knows when or where a deadly strain of flu will strike but "at some point we are likely to face another pandemic."

The president, in a speech at the National Institutes of Health, said the United States must be prepared to detect outbreaks anywhere in the world, stockpile vaccines and anti-viral drugs and be ready to respond at the federal, state and local levels in the event a pandemic reaches the United States.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/11/01/ap/politics/mainD8DJPD9O0.shtml

[Why Syzygy]

1. Moron, as usual.

20 million? Is there even a bird flu vaccine?

Hey, if they are "life saving" why the lawsuits and liability protection?

Can he do ANYTHING right? Didn't think so.

[mia]

2. Next thing you know there will be color-coded flu alerts.

He pointed out that the 1918 pandemic killed over a half million Americans and more than 20 million people across the globe. "One-third of the U.S. population was infected, and life expectancy in our country was reduced by 13 years.

[Rose Siding]

3. Liability protection for drug companies.

Watch that expand.

[SpiralHawk]

6. "All your liability are belong to you." - BushCo

the Republican Culture of Corruption marches on...

[merwin]

15. I heard something about the bird flu drug causing more problems than

it solves. That would explain the 'no liability' claim.

[mia]

17. Bird flu Introduced via vaccine, and we're the guinea pigs.

Those who take Teraflu will be the "treatment group". The rest will be comprise the "control group'.

Think of all the money they'll save not having to do validity and reliability studies. If it doesn't work, oh well, the drug companies will be protected because we all had to agree that we would not hold them liable.

Talk about terrorism and threat..


BIRD FLU INTRODUCED VIA VACCINE?

Thursday, October 13, 2005 - FreeMarketNews.com

..."To make the human vaccine specific for the H5N1 mutant virus," he writes, "you must start with the human virus which does not yet exist, except in perhaps military-biomedical-pharmaceutical laboratories. In fact, this is precisely what is being prepared based on news reports. To produce the human pathogen, the avian virus must be cultured for lengthy periods of time in human cell cultures, then injected into monkeys and ultimately humans to see if these experimental subjects get the same feared flu. Thus, the flu virus the world currently fears most is either: 1) now being prepared in labs paid by industrialists with massive wealth-building incentives to "accidentally release the virus; or 2) has already been prepared in such labs to take advantage of this current fright and future sales following the virus's release. … Remember, to be effective against a virus, a vaccine is said to require specificity. If authorities were to now have the main H5N1 Avian flu strain feared to spread at some future date there's no assurance by the time they developed the vaccine the strain would remain sufficiently the same for the vaccine to be effective anyway due to expected viral mutations. Viral mutations over time is a function of the agent's newness. New man-made viruses, laboratory creations, like the ones currently being prepared for vaccine trials, are less stable not having evolved over the millennia. Thus, the entire vaccine effort is largely, if not entirely, a sham with ulterior motives."

And he adds, "Remember too, that a vaccine's reliability requires years, or at least months, of testing in the targeted population. Vaccine injury data must, or should, be meticulously collected over this period to assure the vaccine is not killing and maiming more persons than it is helping or saving. Can you seriously believe this assurance will be provided by government or pharmaceutical industry officials in this pandemic's wake? FEMA's failed Katrina response pales by comparison to this public health liability and vaccine-injury certainty." -ST

staff reports - Free-Market News Network

http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=1320

[leftofcool]

4. Shut Up Moran!!!!!!!!!!!

When thousands start dying here in the US, I'll get worried. Oh, and by the way, why "libality protection" if their prioduct is so damn great?

Left of Cool

[AllyCat]

5. Earth to Shrub...there is NO VACCINE against bird-flu

Allowing them free license to develop a vaccine (any old vaccine will do) without retribution for doing a crappy job and killing us anyway is not really all that helpful is it?

And how will we respond to that pandemic with another one of your cronies at the helm of DHHS. Stewart Simonson, a train executive, is the Asst. Sec'y of Emergency Preparedness at DHSS. Wonder if he knows anything about public health? No? Oh well, I guess we are all SOL again, huh, Chimpboy.

http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2005/10/17/bethcolo.htm

[Why Syzygy]

13. It is actually creepy

when you stop to think about it.

In the name of "VACCINE", I put this foreign substance into your body.

Too much like the Jesus stuff and "god" told him to invade Ira*q.
Did "god" tell him to inoculate innocent people with unproven substances and give the producers carte blanche?
HOW FREAKING CONVENIENT.
Sounds like . um.. doctor in Nazi Germany ..

Creepers.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

28. Put Rummy's narcotic in my veins?

Not on your life. Or mine.

[anitar1]

31. I'm with you 100%. TamiFlu seems to be somewhat scamlike.

Have read that some are getting sick from it.

[SOS]

34. I'm with you RummyisFrosted

Rumsfeld has $25 million in Gilead (Tamiflu) stock.
Trust Rumsfeld to inject something directly into my arm?
Hell no!

[Child_Of_Isis]

7. $7.1 billion

This should surely piss off his base.

[Nite Owl]

8. So big pharma will hold the

American people hostage unless they get their way?

It is actually in their interests to not let this happen. Those most sick would die and they are their customers, the ones who need their meds.

[reprobate]

14. America has been hostage to BigPharma for decades.

The fact is that they would rather make drugs to alleviate symptoms than make drugs to cure disease. If you make drugs that cure, you automatically lower your sales base.

Then, with all the profits from those drugs that don't cure anything, they use it to buy our government and protect themselves from any control by the citizens of the nation.

Just more proof that unregulated capitalism is completely antithetical to the life and health of people.

To paraphrase Mark Twain(?) If you want to solve our problems, first kill all the CEOs.

[Occulus]

36. This is why I am ALL FOR

removing the ability of any parmaceutical manufacturer to make even one cent of profit on any drug that was developed using so much as one cent of taxpayer dollars.

If you used public money to develop the drug, a) you do not deserve to pantent it and b) you do not deserve a profit from its sale.

PERIOD.

Else, you get the situation we now face.

Ending corporate personhood, by the way, would help to make this impossible in the first place.

(Personally, I think health care should never, NEVER be for sale. It should only and always be given. )

[reprobate]

37. 100% agree on Corporate Person-hood. But profits are more complicated.

For instance, while govt funds may pay for the research and development of drugs, the four stage testing of a new drugs can cost tens of millions of dollars. One study I'm aware of involves the new Pfizer drug to raise HDL cholesterol, something that will help clear arteries for millions of people. It's now in it's Fourth stage, the mortality and morbidity testing stage. In this stage the company has to pay for a huge number of subjects and their testing for a period of IIRC four years. That's a lot of money and I think they are due at least a reasonable return on that investment

As an example let me tell you of a study in which I am a subject. And this is a rather simple study, not even involving the use of a drug. The study will determine whether angioplasty (the balloon) or surgery is more effective long term for blockage of the carotid artery. I was randomized into the surgical group and in may had the surgery, in which the artery was opened longitudinally and the deposits removed. In follow up testing I go in for the first study testing this month, in which the study has to pay for blood work, a carotid ultrasound, and consultation with a neurologist. This will be done for five years, each six months. So you can see that it's an expensive proposition when you're talking about many people. And this is a very simple study.

As far as corporate personood goes, I couldn't agree more. In fact, I believe this concept to be the main cause of the troubles we are experiencing in this one great nation. And it's your fault for getting me started on my favorite rant.

I say the stock market is a perversion of the original intent of capitalism. The original model was intended to raise capital for small businesses to grow and provide the products and services the people needed. A seemingly logical extension was to provide a market where the owners of the stocks (personal property) could then trade their stocks for cash. This is responsible for management, which is compensated with stock options, to focus on the stock price rather than the solid, stable growth of the company, while serving it's customers. There was a time when only the people knowledgeable enough to intelligently invest in the market could afford to invest in the market. Once it became possible for everyone to play in the Big Casino, it became no more than speculation, a feeding frenzy.

I believe a far more honest and honorable method of raising capital for a small company would be to issue bonds, not stocks. Bonds are an honest debt, to be repaid at a stated date with a specified interest rate. Stock ownership should I believe be limited to employees of the company, for they are the ones with a stake in the growth and profitability of the company, and would be the ones to participate in the sharing of profits of the company.

There you have my rant. I believe that unchecked capitalism in it's current form will be not only the cause of global depression like never seen before, but thru unchecked environmental degradation, will be the eventual death of humanity. I'm not worried about the planet, it will survive whatever we do to it. It just won't support life when we're done with it.

[underpants]

9. Why do they hate Dave Grohl so?

[Dunvegan]

10. Hurry up and pillage...

...while Rummy is still in office, this.

Rums-mine-field, via his relationship with Gilead (who formulated and licenses Tamiflu for production to the big pharms) stands to make a...um...killing if Tamiflu is part of this "investment."

Cheney is going to be massively rich once he leaves office due to Halliburton (when he's private-sector again, Halliburton will show their gratitude, I'll wager.)

Rums new mansion is next door to Cheney's new manse, so he's just trying to make sure * makes him robber-baron rich...he needs to keep up with the "Cheney-Jones"...Cheney's "jones" for blood money, that is.

[mia]

16. "Making a killing...one pill(age) at a time."

[bemildred]

11. Didn't we have one of these flu boondoggles before? nt

[MercutioATC]

19. Yes, I believe it was in 1918.

...only about 50 million people died.

[bemildred]

21. Not that, we blew a bunch of money on flu vaccine that went unused, IIRC.

[MercutioATC]

22. The WHO says there are, on average, 3 flu pandemics/century.

Not EVERY flu becomes widespread. However, historically, we're due for one and this strain is especially virulent. I'm not advocating panic, but simply ignoring it doesn't seem to be the best course of action, either.

[bemildred]

29. Opinions will vary:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=222x2483

But anyway, this is what I was remembering:

Congress provides $99 million to aid flu vaccine production
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/panflu/news/dec1704funding.html

[SonicPeace]

12. as usual he uses a crisis to gain more power for his people

When will it end? He uses the bird flu as an excuse to loosen regulation on the pharmaceutical industry. Pathetic.

[Sadie5]

18. The next question will be...

Just who will be the head of Bush's newly established Flu department. No doubt someone in the know about pharmaceuticals at over 100,000 bucks per year.

[Anywho6]

20. So ridiculous and so outrageous

I am so sick of this liar! Anything to divert attention from a losing war, sagging poll numbers, criminal activity by his cronies and complete ineptitude. Rule by fear and nothing less because he is freakin' clueless how to lead otherwise. Rummy got his feelings hurt because Bush and Cheney have made their money on oil and Halliburton and now he wants his turn via Tamiflu.

This is also, in my opinion, an inroads to a police state--"quarantine" those people who oppose the regime in any way under the guise of a health emergency. It's disgusting.

[twaddler01]

23. Don't forget

*, give more power to the military...you know you wanna!

[goforit]

24. I do believe that ethnic cleansing will be his only strategy.

[twaddler01]

25. This outline sucks

"Such a huge change would take years to implement — Bush's goal is 2010 — and his plan drew immediate fire from critics who said it wouldn't provide enough protection in the meantime. States, too, got an unpleasant surprise, ordered to purchase millions of doses of an anti-flu drug with their own money."

So it would take too long and cost too much money....nice....

[The_Casual_Observer]

26. I stopped buying the shit after they said "It's gonna get you!!!!!

It may take 10 years but it's gonna get you!!!!, oh BTW, now where do sign up for the research money????"

[leesa]

27. WooHooo! Kaaaaching for Rumsfeld and Big Pharma!

Cheney got his, now it's Rummy's turn.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

30. Or healthcare for the poor.

Great decision Chimp.

:party:

[2Design]

32. what will he really do with the money? employ another incompetent? n/t

[wishlist]

33. Even CNN's Paula Zahn questioned if this was just a distraction

Her CNN show last night brought up the possibility that White House rolled out this big announcement to distract attention and change the subject from the Libby indictments after the worst week ever for the WH.

[Strawman]

35. Don't you mean $7 billion news fighting strategy