CDC locks up flu data

[Mojorabbit]

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/1005/03natcdc.html
Washington — Amid growing concerns that avian influenza will develop into a deadly pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is under fire by some in the scientific community for hoarding data crucial for vaccine development. The allegations come as CDC has issued new and controversial rules on what data, documents and other information it will — and will not — share with the public.

snip

That runs counter to CDC's mission, says Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' project on government secrecy, which first published the leaked manual on its Web site.

"The CDC is not the CIA," Aftergood said. "Withholding data is not just bad public policy, it is bad science," he said, because it impedes the processes of peer review and the scientific replication of results.

snip

There could be other reasons for the CDC's actions, some experts said.

One potential concern that the CDC may have about sharing data is how it would affect any partnership it might now have with vaccine manufacturers, said David Webster, president of Webster Consulting Group, a health industry consulting firm based in Pennsylvania. The CDC might be concerned that those manufacturers might not be able to recoup their investment if the information is made widely available, he said.....

[deek]

1. hmmmmmmmm

:::decreasing heart rate:::

[Mojorabbit]

2. You could have driven

a truck through my mouth when I read this. The pandemic might only be the very worst thing that could happen to the entire world. Both in human life and the world economy. And this administration is holding possibly crucial info to themselves to protect the investment of drug manafactuers!

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. Remember when competition was considered "a good thing." n/t

[AnneD]

37. all I know is that....

all my normal sources (and thus the low price for low income) have all but dried up. We usually have the order on it's way by now but we don't this year. I have given them out through my elem school for all the grandparents, teachers, and at risk kids. No such luck this year. They were incompetent last year and nothing has changed. This maladministration has been so short sighted. Having a reasonable number of vaccines is as important as paying attention to infrastructure or levees. Since Bush, we have had a major shortage for every vaccine, esp tetanus (there for a while only newborns were getting the start of the series and ER's for emergencies-that was how dangerously low our national supply was). Don't you feel safer now.

[dflprincess]

48. Remember when Jonas Salk refused to patent his polio vaccine

because he wanted as much of it made as quickly and cheaply as was possible?

[kestrel91316]

26. Why would you think that a decision by any part of this administration

WOULDN'T be about the money first and foremost? It's ALWAYS about the money.

Unfortunately, that approach could backfire bigtime if they allow a "Captain Trips" to hit the US. Money isn't much good during a total collapse of society due to mass popupation die-off.

:grr: :argh: :shrug:

[Demeter]

29. But That Wasn't Necessarily a Bad Thing

There wasn't that much flu last year--and I think it's because people weren't infected by useless flu shots. They are just now releasing data that shows that getting a flu shot isn't much better than taking Vitamin C and getting rest and washing hands frequently. If it don't work, why are we forcing it upon people?

[skypilot]

36. I actually had to read that last sentence...

...in your original post several times before I realized that it did in fact say what I thought it said. Unbelievable.

[anotherdrew]

44. The time has come to declare war on this corupt mal-administration

they must go NOW by any means nessesary

[TheDebbieDee]

3. Last year, the Keystone Cops that is the * Administration......

failed to order enough flu vaccine - the result being that only the elderly and children received vaccinations.

After witnessing the events in New Orleans last month, I seriously doubt that those ninnies ordered enough vaccine for the upcoming flu season either.

I wouldn't trust the * Administration to plan a picnic!

[Divernan]

17. Big Pharma screwed up last year's flu vaccines, not the govt.

Fu vaccines are use it or lose it by nature , i.e., the vaccines have to be changed every year to accomodate the changing viruses, and therefore cannot be stored/saved beyond a current flu season. Therefore, there is not so much guaranteed profit per dose to be made by Big Pharma companies. Last year,only two companies manufactured the vaccine. One was a French company which did a good job and produced effective vaccines. The other was an American owned company, which had the vaccines made in their British subsidiary in England. This meant they were not subject to all those pesky FDA regs. The problem was that this English facility had been closed down twice for contaminated medical products, before the American company boght it on the cheap. Well guess what, the flu vaccines made there turned out to be contaminated also. The Brits were the ones who inspected and discovered it. The FDA was prepared to go along with the Pharmaceutical Company's claim that it was just one batch that had been contaminated. Not so. All the vaccines were contaminated. Most importantly, you would get far sicker from being injected with a contaminated vaccine than you would from getting the flu.

So it wasn't that our government didn't order enough vaccines. It was that our FDA has been so compromised by Bush's political appointees (CAN YOU SAY FEMA, BOYS AND GIRLS), that it was ready to cave in to Big Pharma at the expense of the American public.

[Richard Steele]

42. But B*sh told us this morning...

...that he has plans to use the Militry
to quarantine whole areas of the nation
in case of an Avian Flu outbreak,
so I'm sure it will all work out OK.

[Straight Shooter]

4. So the manufacturers might not be able to recoup their investment.

By all means, profit over people. :sarcasm:

[earthboundmisfit]

5. With Bushco, every day brings a new low.

I swear I say this every single day: Just when I think this bunch cannot sink lower on the humanity scale, they do something that hits a new & despicable depth. :grr:

[alittlelark]

6. OK... this quote says it all...

"One potential concern that the CDC may have about sharing data is how it would affect any partnership it might now have with vaccine manufacturers"

I HATE CORPORATISM.

[file83]

7. We may all DIE because of this "Corporatism".

[alittlelark]

8. That appears to be the goal... sigh

[kestrel91316]

27. Betcha the Republican politicians all get THEIR flu shots.

Betcha inner city poor DON'T.

[AnneD]

39. Remember...

They got them at the start of the flu season last year before we got the second batch of that 'imported' (re inferior) vaccine from Canada.

[FormerOstrich]

10. Why....

does CDC have partnerships with vaccinie manufacturers? What sort of partnership? Have they always had these partnerships?

I hate corporatism, too!!

[ReadTomPaine]

15. That's likely highly classified as well..

I wonder how long the CDC has been like this. I don't recall them operating this way in the 1990's.

[kestrel91316]

28. They need to be renamed: CDP ------

Centers for Disease Propagation

[CAcyclist]

40. I call it FASCISM

A government-corporate partnership = fascism.

[Piperay]

9. I wouldn't take any

crap that this administration was passing out anyway. I would take my chances with disease rather than risk being poisoned with any garbage they authorized.

[Divernan]

19. I won't take any RX drugs approved after Bush's election/2000.

Because I know that FDA was compromised, test results were hidden or falsified; whistleblowers were fired and drugs were rushed to market for quick profits. I told my physician to limit any RXs I need to drugs approved BEFORE Bush took power. She agrees with me!

[ninkasi]

22. Me too

I agree, Piperay. This administration's concern is strictly lining their pockets, and paying back big donors. The only other thing that matters to them is seizing more power for themselves.

I really don't see why we peons have to pay taxes, either...all benefits go to corporations and the wealthy, let them pay for a change.

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. Was there a Brownie appointed to the CDC?

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

13. Not sure.

Other instances of Brownieism are documented here...

http://findthebrownie.squarespace.com/

:)

[SpiralHawk]

14. "All your data are belong to us." - BushCo Propaganda Inc.

Trust us. Everything is just fine.

[burythehatchet]

16. I live just up the street from CDC headquarters

In the past, the CDC was something I was very proud of as part of our community. After 9/11 it turned into something else. First thing they did was put huge boulders in front of the building, presumably to prevent truck bombs from getting through. Then they built an entirely new fortified compound.

This news is very interesting. We are all speculating about what it might mean but given what I have seen occur since 2001 I would no longer assume the best.

[Demeter]

30. Want to Hear Something Even Funnier?

We have an EPA facility in town, where they test auto engines for pollution. Before 9/11 it was just a building, now it's like Fort Knox. You can't get within shouting distance of the building between the barriers and automatic gates. 24/7 security, too. Makes one wonder what they REALLY do there.

[Delphinus]

18. Can they legally do this? n/t

[Javaman]

20. they know something we don't know...

[depakid]

21. Yeah- like the vaccine's a farce

a many hundred million dollar farce (i.e. giveaway to the drug manufacturers).

The probability of it working against the variant that may ultimately cause a pandemic are pretty slim... which is why none of the other western countries considered it as any major part of their pandemic contingency plans.

[Bridget Burke]

25. No vaccine against Avian Flu has been announced.

Hiding data to give favored private companies the lead is NOT how research is done.

Are any of these manufacturers like the one that screwed up a batch of "regular" flu vacine last year?

[carolinalady]

55. I guess I am confused--

Don't they have to know the variant before they make a vaccine against it? If they have a small amount--then they know what is going to hit, and I personally think it is going to be soon and bad. Why else would this be so prominent in the national conversation right now. This is coming down just like every other cluster f**k they have gotten us into--all of sudden its on the news every day just like Iraq was before we declared war. I'm scared.

[Up2Late]

23. They know we're DOOMED! Doomed I tell you!

The Gub'ment has only bought enough vaccine for Bird Flu for about the wealthiest 1% of Americans, this thing could kill hundreds of Millions of Americans, and they know it.

[gkhouston]

31. I think the NIH has a trial vaccine

problem is, we don't know how closely related the vaccine is to whatever strain will be circulating when avian flu finally makes that big jump to being highly contagious among humans, so the vaccine could be useless or even worse than useless. I've read that if you get a flu shot for type X and your body is swimming with antibodies against type X and you then get infected with flu type X-prime, your immune system can actually be a bit slower to make the X-prime antibodies than if you'd never had the friggin' flu shot in the first place because it's all geared up to fight the type X battle. (This is not an argument against getting this year's ordinary flu shot, none of the strains in it are close to H5N1.) Of course, once that highly contagious form of H5N1 emerges, it's a game of beat-the-clock to get enough doses of vaccine produced, so I'm really not counting on a vaccine or antiviral meds to be of any help.

[Up2Late]

33. I'm not sure if you know what I was referring to, I posted this an article

in the "Health Care" forum, that explains what I'm talking about better at this link:

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=222x2198>

[gkhouston]

38. oh, charming.

ain't no way they're going to be able to deliver *two* 90 microgram shots to millions of people. Even if they had all the vaccine stockpiled, the logistics of one shot instead of two make the problem that much harder.

We are so dead.

[lovuian]

24. Ok this is how capitalism can't be involved in Medicine

Its like the people will pay anything to live and is that right???

[converted_democrat]

32. Fuck this.They are withholding info to protect profits?Who can I call and

bitch to about this? I really want to chew on someones ear about this. I am fucking livid, right now. LIVID.

[converted_democrat]

34. Bush was just talking about Avian Flu at his press conference, and how

he will use the military to quarantine regions. This scares the shit out of me.

[cosmicdot]

46. here's the transcript of the set-up question and scripted answer

Q Mr. President, you've been thinking a lot about pandemic flu and the risks in the United States if that should occur. I was wondering, Secretary Leavitt has said that first responders in the states and local governments are not prepared for something like that. To what extent are you concerned about that after Katrina and Rita? And is that one of the reasons you're interested in the idea of using defense assets to respond to something as broad and long-lasting as a flu might be?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. Thank you for the question. I am concerned about avian flu. I am concerned about what an avian flu outbreak could mean for the United States and the world. I am -- I have thought through the scenarios of what an avian flu outbreak could mean. I tried to get a better handle on what the decision-making process would be by reading Mr. Barry's book on the influenza outbreak in 1918. I would recommend it.

The policy decisions for a President in dealing with an avian flu outbreak are difficult. One example: If we had an outbreak somewhere in the United States, do we not then quarantine that part of the country, and how do you then enforce a quarantine? When -- it's one thing to shut down airplanes; it's another thing to prevent people from coming in to get exposed to the avian flu. And who best to be able to effect a quarantine? One option is the use of a military that's able to plan and move.

And so that's why I put it on the table. I think it's an important debate for Congress to have. I noticed the other day, evidently, some governors didn't like it. I understand that. I was the commander-in-chief of the National Guard, and proudly so, and, frankly, I didn't want the President telling me how to be the commander-in-chief of the Texas Guard. But Congress needs to take a look at circumstances that may need to vest the capacity of the President to move beyond that debate. And one such catastrophe, or one such challenge could be an avian flu outbreak.

Secondly -- wait a minute, this is an important subject. Secondly, during my meetings at the United Nations, not only did I speak about it publicly, I spoke about it privately to as many leaders as I could find, about the need for there to be awareness, one, of the issue; and, two, reporting, rapid reporting to WHO, so that we can deal with a potential pandemic. The reporting needs to be not only on the birds that have fallen ill, but also on tracing the capacity of the virus to go from bird to person, to person. That's when it gets dangerous, when it goes bird-person-person. And we need to know on a real-time basis as quickly as possible, the facts, so that the scientific community, the world scientific community can analyze the facts and begin to deal with it.

Obviously, the best way to deal with a pandemic is to isolate it and keep it isolated in the region in which it begins. As you know, there's been a lot of reporting of different flocks that have fallen ill with the H5N1 virus. And we've also got some cases of the virus being transmitted to person, and we're watching very carefully.

Thirdly, the development of a vaccine -- I've spent time with Tony Fauci on the subject. Obviously, it would be helpful if we had a breakthrough in the capacity to develop a vaccine that would enable us to feel comfortable here at home that not only would first responders be able to be vaccinated, but as many Americans as possible, and people around the world. But, unfortunately, there is a -- we're just not that far down the manufacturing process. And there's a spray, as you know, that can maybe help arrest the spread of the disease, which is in relatively limited supply.

So one of the issues is how do we encourage the manufacturing capacity of the country, and maybe the world, to be prepared to deal with the outbreak of a pandemic. In other words, can we surge enough production to be able to help deal with the issue?

I take this issue very seriously, and I appreciate you bringing it to our attention. The people of the country ought to rest assured that we're doing everything we can: We're watching it, we're careful, we're in communications with the world. I'm not predicting an outbreak; I'm just suggesting to you that we better be thinking about it. And we are. And we're more than thinking about it; we're trying to put plans in place, and one of the plans -- back to where your original question came -- was, if we need to take some significant action, how best to do so. And I think the President ought to have all options on the table to understand what the consequences are, but -- all assets on the table -- not options -- assets on the table to be able to deal with something this significant.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/10/20051004-1.html


I remember when I heard that Dick Cheney made an unannounced visit to the CDC in 2002, and I wondered to myself: why?

:scared:

Cheney visits CDC to discuss bioterrorism preparedness

Vice President Dick Cheney makes an unpublicized stop at the CDC's Clifton Road headquarters in northeast Atlanta, where he meets senior bioterrorism planners and speaks to about 200 employees. He also tours the agency's infectious disease labs. "The purpose of his visit was to talk about our preparedness for bioterrorism events," says CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding. "We reassured him that we were scaling up, speeding up, and streamlining our efficiency of operations and we're ready to serve . . . in the war against terrorism."

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/bt/bioprep/btwatch/btwatch-jul.html

[robertpaulsen]

47. Wonder if * had Rove feeding into his ear like the 2004 debate.

Was it just me, or did anyone else notice that huge pause between "Yes" and "Thank you for the question". Almost like there was a delay in the feed from the other end as Rove read from the script.

Or is that too :tinfoilhat:?

[converted_democrat]

49. He is looking for any reason to declare martial law, and use the military

on us. That his been his answer to everything recently. Just use the military.

[kestrel91316]

51. News Flash: Bush isn't going to use a quarantine to keep people

from "getting in to be exposed", he will be using a quarantine to keep people from GETTING OUT. And everyone within the quarantine zone will be left to their own devices, to presumably die of disease, or starve, or die violently when TSHTF.

I am in Los Angeles, a very quarantinable place, relatively speaking, and a blue place. I think about these things sometimes, and wonder.

[kestrel91316]

50. He isn't even capable of seeing to it that the military all gets their

flu shots. They will die just like the rest of us.

[triguy46]

35. Ok, I'm convinced...

For the past three weeks, I've been consistently posting to be calm, the CDC is the best, etc. I now see that Bushco has succeeded in gutting this agency. My apologies.

[stlsaxman]

41. I thought Bush's response to the set-up question was quite telling.

"I know you've been thinking a whole lot about the avian flu situation and in light of Katrina what should the government do..."

"I'm glad you asked that important question.... we need to get congress to authorize quarantining large cities using the military..."

paraphrasing, yes but that was the gist of it.

:scared:

[superconnected]

45. figures.

And what happens when the military gets it, and spreads it, quarantine all cities in the US as it spreads.

[kestrel91316]

52. I think a quarantine of US cities in 2005 will work about as well as

it did in Stephen King's The Stand.

NOT VERY.

[earth mom]

43. The CDC is a bunch of corrupt MoFos!

I've been saying this forever! The looked the other way when the pharma giants poisoned infants with vaccinations laced with mercury and then they LIED so no one would be held accountable! :grr:

So now I'll say this:

THE POWERS THAT BE WANT US-THE PEONS-DEAD. PERIOD.

[kestrel91316]

54. The funny thing is, they seem to have forgotten that

the tax money they steal from the poor to give to rich corporations won't be forthcoming any more IF ALL THE POOR ARE DEAD.

[earth mom]

56. The middle class is the engine that drives this country...

In more ways than one...!

Who's gonna buy all the stuff from corporate america? Hmmm? The ipods, the nikes, the dells, the fords and chevys?

Yup...they want most of us gone...it we're "blue" that is. :grr:

[YouthInAsia]

53. well, they can recoup ANYTHING if they're DEAD!!!