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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ish who wrote (157474)	1/31/2005 9:43:43 PM
From: GST	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Vaccines are not big money makers for a variety of reasons -- things like bird flu are the worst from an economic standpoint because nobody can predict when a pandemic will break out and drug firms do not make money producing and then discarding the vaccine. It would be like selling tickets to watch a volcano erupt -- not knowing if it would be this year, or 20 years from now. The technology for making the vaccines is largely in the dark ages -- the economics have not broadly supported heavy investment. A vaccine can exist and be a valuable asset -- but making enough doses to treat billions of people every year, when no pandemic is taking place, just does not add up. When the pandemic hits, if there is a bird flu shot, don't expect to be able to go and get one.