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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (697735)	8/22/2005 5:01:47 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

'Real reasons' behind flu vaccine shortage Let me try to put some perspective on the real reasons for the shortage of flu vaccine. As a retired employee of one of our country's largest pharmaceutical manufacturers, I experienced the company's decision to discontinue the manufacturing of biologicals (vaccines) some 30-plus years ago. At that time, my company made the most complete line of vaccines then available. Measles, mumps, polio, flu, rabies, DPT, etc., were readily available. Our DPT vaccine sold for $3 a vial, enough for 15 vaccinations. Later in the 1970s, there were only three manufacturers of DPT and it cost over $70 a vial. All vaccines carry some risk, and if a child didn't meet some parent's physical and mental expectations, they would initiate legal action, claiming that little Johnny can't bench-press 300 pounds or score high on the SAT exam and surely this was caused by his DPT shot when he was 3 years old. You can lay the high cost of medicine and the lack of vaccines squarely on the doorstep of the trial lawyers. The federal government also shares some blame for not indemnifying vaccine manufacturers, but the greed of the trial lawyers, cloaking themselves in the guise of helping the little people, has brought us to our current situation How the vaccine works: Influenza vaccine is produced by growing the virus in eggs. The virus is killed and processed to create the vaccine, which is given by injection under the skin. The body then produces antibodies to the virus over the next two to four weeks. If the immunized person then comes into contact with the influenza virus, the antibodies attack and kill the virus before it has a chance to cause infection. The vaccine contains the 3 most likely strains to be active during the "flu season" Why the shortage: Almost half of the nation's flu vaccine will not be delivered this year. Chiron, a major manufacturer of flu vaccine, will not be distributing any influenza vaccine this flu season. Chiron was to make 46-48 million doses vaccine for the United States. Chiron is a British company. Recently British health officials stopped Chiron from distributing and making the vaccine when inspectors found unsanitary conditions in the labs. Some lots of the vaccine were recalled and destroyed. Why is our vaccine made in the UK and not the US? The major pharmaceutical companies in the US provided almost 90% of the nations flu vaccine at one time. They did this despite a very low profit margin for the product. Basically, they were doing us a favor. In the late 80's a man from North Carolina who had received the vaccine got the flu. The strain he caught was one of the strains in that years vaccine made by a US company. What did he do? He sued and he won. He was awarded almost $5 million! After that case was appealed and lost, most US pharmaceutical companies stopped making the vaccine. The liability out weighed the profit margin. Since UK and Canadian laws prohibit such frivolous law suits UK and Canadian companies began selling the vaccine in the US. By the way...the lawyer that represented the man in the flu shot lawsuit was a young ambulance chaser by the name of John Edwards. As a physician in practice for over a decade in San Diego, I would like to point out several important facts, amid the misinformation, confusion and pandemonium, about the flu vaccine situation. First, the flu vaccine is targeted against a constantly mutating virus. At best, the vaccine is just an educated guess of what this year's virus will look like. Second, as pointed out in the Union-Tribune, last year's vaccine failed to target the correct virus and was thus ineffective. The same individuals waiting for hours in long lines because of public health recommendations survived last year's strain, which was particularly virulent. But read on. There are also questions about whether there is any valid evidence for overall effectiveness of the vaccine. Studies by a group of Italian scientists showed that the flu vaccine reduced the occurrence of clinical episodes of influenza by only 6 percent in adults, and effectiveness tended to decrease with age. They concluded that universal immunization wasn't warranted. What about the other high-risk group, young children? Japanese researchers have shown that infants under 1 year of age fail to even generate a good antibody response following the vaccine. Many of my colleagues will consider this heretical, but the reduction in deaths from influenza is due more to the success of indoor plumbing than it is to any miraculous property of the flu vaccine. The lethality of the flu epidemic after the turn of the century had more to do with poor sanitary conditions than the absence of a vaccine. Stated simply, hand washing and other hygienic and nutritional measures are far superior to the flu vaccine in effectiveness. I will never expose myself or my children to a flu vaccine until irrefutable evidence proves me wrong on these issues. STEVEN A. BRODY, M.D., Ph.D. Assistant Clinical Professor UCSD School of Medicine La Jolla Medical Director, Reproductive Endocrine Associates San Diego

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (697735)	8/22/2005 7:52:17 PM
From: jlallen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

As I recall, I posted an article a couple of weeks ago about the Bush Admin. buying vaccine stocks for this virus.....