Bush to push for mass-produced birdflu vaccine

[SillyGoose]

6 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush will urge manufacturers to come up with ways to mass produce vaccines for the avian flu virus, the White House said on Thursday.

The H5N1 avian influenza virus has killed or forced the destruction of tens of millions of birds and infected more than 100 people, killing at least 60 in four Asian nations since late 2003.

Bush and other leaders fear a pandemic of the virus. He and his top advisers were to hold a meeting on Thursday about ways to combat avian flu.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush would meet on Friday with the heads of major manufacturing companies and urge them to expand the capacity to mass produce a vaccine.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051006/ts_nm/birdflu_bush_dc;_ylt=AkmYc6TYRf3mfA3QdAJxYx9Z.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

[hatrack]

1. Lots of luck with that, Chimpy!

Considering that flu vaccines are produced by the closest thing left in medicine to cottage industry, by incubating the viruses in chicken eggs;

and considering that flu vaccines are incredibly time-consuming to produce, as in vaccine projects which began now might be ready for release to the public in, oh, the next year or so;

and considering that the pharmaceutical companies have very little interest in producing vaccines that are capital-intensive and consistently lose money for them, all I can say is "Rotsa Ruck, Chimpy", secure in the knowledge that, once again, we are totally on our own.

[MrBenchley]

2. Remember, this drunk fucked up ordinary flu shots last year....

And he was warned about avian flu years ago and did nothing....

[No Exit]

3. More profits for the pharmaceutical companies, and on a related

note, I spent $81.00 on a tiny bottle of prescription ear drops yesterday. Why are so so many medicines being prescribed which don't have generic versions?

I know that for the first 3 years the companies don't allow generic; they want their big profits up front. But I repeatedly ask the doctors to prescribe something that has a generic version. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't... (guess it depends on what's in the individual doctor's stock portfolio)

[SoCalDem]

14. Most patents last much longer than 3 years.. It;'s a damned monopoly

and they have no shame..

[LiberalEsto]

Each flu shot will include your free mind-control chip

and position locator.

[FloridaPat]

4. More money to the drug companies. Then forced shots to people means

even more money to the drug companies.

The more these creeps talk about viruses the more scared I get. Just too many stories about checmical warefare, how Homeland security can take your house and put you in jail if you refuse to get the shots, martial law, and the fact that once peak oil hits 50-75% of the people on the planet will starve to death.

It is soo bad here that when the government wants to help you, the first thing I think of is what are they really going to do. Real trust here folks.

[woodsprite]

5. From the co. in Rummy's pocket probably. n/t

[Ladyinblack]

6. Why were other countries more prepared?

My understanding is that other countries had contracted with a company in Switzerland for vaccines. That we have also but were much later and are very far down on the list due to our being late in the request. Why do we keep getting caught unprepared? Bush has failed so many times one would think he would learn.

[mike_c]

7. but-- but-- no one could have possibly predicted that avian flu...

...might cause a global pandemic!

Get yer generic disaster excuses here first, folks.

[triguy46]

8. "As it is written, let it be done!" n/t

[Gyre]

9. "Day late and a dollar short".

All other "western" countries have dibs on the Tamiflu supplies for 2006, and have since last year. This admin only purchased about a million doses. Chimpy knows this, but is trying to build in some "plausible deniability" for his lack of interest, in case we get smashed.

Gyre

[LisaM]

10. Why doesn't he just invest some money in the areas where avian flu

actually exists? Apparently in countries such as Vietnam, where there have been cases, they are starved for funding for investigating the disease, controlling outbreaks, and tracking cases. And apparently they only need a few million dollars.

[Norquist Nemesis]

11. Tomorrow the news will be Halliburton has a new subsidiary.

Either that or Searle will be tapped for the contract.

[antonialee839]

12. He's is the most brilliant man!!!!

[goclark]

13. We've been hearing @ this flu for months -where has he been!

He is not to be believed.


Where is the Surgeon General --golfing with Brownie?

[pitohui]

15. following in the footsteps of that other falling down drunk

yes, yes, who else remembers the days of gerald ford when it was swine flu hysteria & it was swine flu claimed to be the source of the 1918 pandemic & all that came of the vaccine was some paralyzed young ppl who didn't have to be paralyzed since the vaccine was useless against the non-existent strain of flu

same song, different verse

[Humor_In_Cuneiform]

16. I don't trust anything they do. I have some health conditions, but

for the last 2 years I never got a flu shot.