NSMA tinfoil moment. Is the shortage of flu vaccine the October surprise?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

These are people who KNOW how to spread disease after all...get enough people too sick to vote on 11/2 and....

[jus_the_facts]

1. Dammit....you could be correct....wouldn't put it past 'em.....

:tinfoilhat: or spot ON! :scared:

[denverbill]

2. Wow. That's a very scary thought.

All it would take would be a warning about the Asian bird flu, advising that people not mingle in crowds to avoid getting the flu, and relying on that to keep people from going to the polls.

Of course, Republicans have been pre-advised to vote via absentee ballot.

[TwilightZone]

3. No, it's basically the same problem as last year.

They just underestimated the demand. Again.

This time, however, they underestimated the early-season demand. Last year, the shortages were most prevalent in late November and most of December.

The problem was probably worsened this year by the media clamoring about getting flu shots early to avoid shortages like last year. Oops, didn't work.

[jmowreader]

7. No, it's worse than last year

http://www.startribune.com/stories/535/5016767.html

Chiron Corporation makes fully half of the flu vaccine used in the United States, and they make it at their plant in Liverpool, England. Yesterday the British government suspended their vaccine-manufacturing license for three months due to safety problems at the plant. Chiron will have no flu vaccine on the US market this year.

As a result, there are only going to be 56 million doses of flu vaccine--54 million injectable doses, 2 million nasal doses--in the United States this year. That is less than last year, and last year they ran out.

[ProfessorPlum]

4. This upcoming shortage has been telegraphed for some time

For months Chiron and the CDC were putting out warning messages about their supply.

Nothing like getting such dramatic and direct demonstrations of our crumbling public health infrastructure. HOpefully the flu won't be a bad strain like the 1918 epidemic, that killed tens of millions worldwide.

[Dora]

5. Could too easily backfire

I know I'm making wild assumptions about voter bases here, but I think that GOPers are more likely to be any or all of the following:

1) more likely to gather in groups (Sunday services! Wal-Mart! Red Lobster!)
2) a demographically older constituency (yes? no?)
3) a more sedentary and physically unfit constituency (not trying to be mean, just remarking on what I've seen in my own family)

If any of my wildly offensive assumptions are even Somewhat Accurate, then a significant portion of voters incapacitated by a flu virus could very well come from the Republican bloc.

Democrats had the popular vote in the '00 election, let's not forget, and that vote can only increase in this election (despite Nader). Any efforts at reducing voter turnout will hurt the GOP more than the Dems.

[newyawker99]

11. Hi Dora!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Heath.Hunnicutt]

6. Possibly even more sinister

I think the flu shots themselves are rigged. At the National Labs, they could make nanotechnology robots that would make shot recipients ill on any future date. On the eve of the election, the incumbents could insert a coded signal into the TV cable boxes of dem voters. The signal could cause the nanobots to control the voters neurons and make the voter vote for Bush.

It's creepy, but is it possible? No, it is not possible.

;)

I dunno, you might be right. I just don't know if we should rush out for their flu shot solution. Let's wash our hands frequently. Maybe if we just spread the "dems, stay healthy by washing your hands with soap and water often" we would have slightly better turn-out.

[bloom]

8. I'm sure there will be lots of surprises

but that is an interesting idea.

[KoKo]

9. I don't know but remember this time last year? We were going to DIE..

because there was such a horrible flu that they weren't sure there was enough vaccine of the correct type to save us all?

Just because Chiron a US Drug Maker had a plant that didn't pass inspection (and, they don't tell you WHY it didn't pass inspection) does it mean that we should all be quaking in our "duct tape bunkers" or wearing masks?

I don't know but this is a toss to the drug companies...IMHO...but I've spent alot of my life involved with the damned drug companies and know that these days they are just part of the "hype machine" and not so concerned with our HEALTH as they are with PROFITS. And this warning does seem like a lesser version of last year.

If a US Drug Producer like Chiron can't run a clean plant and so the "HYPE" is that we will all die from flu...then I wonder.

But, hey, maybe this year will be our year to die. Either from Terrorist Attack or the various flus.

What ever happened to SARS BTW? :shrug:

[David Zephyr]

10. Well, It Actually Might Scare a Lot of Old People From Going to the Polls

to avoid being around crowds, so as silly as it sounds, it might actually hurt us.

Listen, at this point, my tinfoil hat has become permanently attached to my skull. I have a tinfoil skull.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

12. EARLY VOTING STARTS OCTOBER 18th here

So we only have to hang on for 11 days from tomorrow!!!!

[ScreamingMeemie]

13. If so...I'm a dead woman.

I need that shot. :hi:

[Hans Delbrook]

14. Calm Down Folks

Ahh, no - not really.

I'm in the pharmaceutical industry and this event has a long history. Chiron started having trouble with their sterile process months ago. I could go on but no one but me is really interested, I'm sure.

Besides, the FDA signed off on letting them ship the material - it's the MHRA who shut the process down. Believe me, if the charges weren't substantial, this injunction could not stand. Too many people know each other in this industry and word would leak out pretty fast.

Besides, November is pretty early for flu season. It usually hits a little later.

[Hans Delbrook]

16. MHRA = UK regulatory agency /nt

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

17. Well ok but this doesn't help :)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=888516#888597

[realFedUp]

15. No, just more incompetence from the Bushies

It is the incompetence stupid