BS: FLU SHOT INFO

Subject: BS: FLU SHOT INFO
From: red_clay
Date: 24 Oct 04 - 04:02 PM

Subject: Fwd: Flu Shot Info



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 law
suit was a young ambulance chaser by the name of JOHN EDWARDS...


DeEtte Edens, RN, BA, BSN
Coordinator of Student Health Services
South Plains College
1401 College Avenue, Box 176

Subject: RE: BS: FLU SHOT INFO
From: CarolC
Date: 24 Oct 04 - 04:09 PM

I rest my case. The flue vaccine shortage was most certainly engineered by the Bush administration to blackmail the US electorate into allowing it to push through tort reform legislation that it couldn't get passed any other way. This kind of propaganda campaign about as much proof as we need.

Subject: RE: BS: FLU SHOT INFO
From: beardedbruce
Date: 24 Oct 04 - 04:14 PM

CarolC,

I am afraid that I do not see how you arrived at your point. WHile it certainly IS possible, nothing so far gives any indication that the Bush administration has acted any differently than any other, or that it is part of a vast conspiracy. IMO, simple error in the process is sufficient to account for the shortage.

Subject: RE: BS: FLU SHOT INFO
From: CarolC
Date: 24 Oct 04 - 04:26 PM

dianavan has said that there is some extra supply in Canada that could be sent here but that the FDA is preventing that from being done. The Bush people are using the shortage as an opportunity to strongarm people into passing legislation that they wouldn't pass otherwise. The Bush people have a long history of using these kinds of things to push through their agendas. It's really not hard to see through their tactic if one pays close attention. This is a manufactured shortage arranged by the Bush people and the lobbyists who are pulling their strings, in order to get legislation passed that wouldn't pass otherwise. I'm not falling for it.

The fact that these copy-paste propaganda screeds are being put out there right now, when people have been whipped into a fearful state because of the vaccine shortage, just makes these underhanded tactics all the more obvious. I could have predicted that stuff of the sort that red_clay has started this thread with would be cropping up all over the internet just because I could see what the real agenda behind the vaccine shortage is.

Subject: RE: BS: FLU SHOT INFO
From: Jeri
Date: 24 Oct 04 - 08:57 PM

'John Edwards and the Flu Shot' at truthorfiction.com. Amongst other things, the website says there was no lawsuit and Chiron is a US based company.

I think red_clay is getting all his material from Truth or Fiction. When he shares the next bit of fiction or e-mail rumor, check it out - the site's searchable.

Subject: RE: BS: FLU SHOT INFO
From: GUEST,celtaddict at work
Date: 25 Oct 04 - 12:41 AM

This item (verbatim) has been circulated widely and thoroughly debunked at a number of sites including
www.snopes.com
and
http://urbanlegends.com
If a tale sounds this "pat" it is surely wise to check sources.

Subject: RE: BS: FLU SHOT INFO
From: Blissfully Ignorant
Date: 25 Oct 04 - 12:45 AM

What i want to know is, why are college students being vaccinated? The worst the flu's going to do to them is put them in bed for a week. The only people who need to be vaccinated are the elderly and those with a weakened immune system, surely?

Subject: RE: BS: FLU SHOT INFO
From: dianavan
Date: 25 Oct 04 - 01:40 AM

Seems like Canada expects to send the vaccine soon. FDA paperwork and inspections are holding it up.

Well - I guess if the flu vaccine is safe enough, maybe Bush will consider drugs for the elderly as well.

I think its very odd to question Canada's regulatory body. The standards are as good or better than the U.S.

d

Subject: RE: BS: FLU SHOT INFO
From: Metchosin
Date: 25 Oct 04 - 02:20 AM

red clay, some of your information is incorrect. Chiron may manufacture flu vaccine in Britain, but it is not a British company. Chiron is a multinational corporation with its headquaters in California. Check out it's executives and board of directors, the majority, if not all, are American.
Chiron Corporation
4560 Horton Street
Emeryville, CA 94608-2916
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Subject: RE: BS: FLU SHOT INFO
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 25 Oct 04 - 02:55 AM

Never ascribe to conspiracy what is merely due to stupidity....

Subject: RE: BS: FLU SHOT INFO
From: dianavan
Date: 25 Oct 04 - 03:05 AM

Well said, Foolestroupe!

d

Subject: RE: BS: FLU SHOT INFO
From: Metchosin
Date: 25 Oct 04 - 03:30 AM

Further, Chiron was founded in 1981 by three people - William Rutter, who was Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UCSF, Edward Penhoet, who was Professor of Biochemistry at UC Berkeley and Pablo Valenzuela, who was a senior postdoc in Rutter's lab.

Since 1981, Chiron has acquired a number of pharmaceutical companies in the US and the UK, consolidated with prestigious European vaccines businesses Behring(Germany) and Sclavo (Italy) and partnered with Novartis AG of Switzerland and Johnson & Johnson.

Closer to home, the Victoria Clipper is running special sailings from the Seattle area to Victoria, where for $30, Americans are lining up to be vaccinated with Canadian vaccine in a clinic set up at the Canadian ferry terminal.

This now has my 84 year old mother upset, because she has not yet been able to get her flu shot this year, as her physician has not received his supply of vaccine to date. She thought perhaps she would have more luck if she went down to the ferry and stood in line with the Americans.

Subject: RE: BS: FLU SHOT INFO
From: Metchosin
Date: 25 Oct 04 - 05:56 AM

Chiron's 2003 aquisition of PowderJect, which manufactured the vaccine, is interesting. PowderJect has had a checkered past.

Not long ago it had its license for a tuburculosis vaccine revoked because of problems with production and there was some controversy when the company won a secret UK government smallpox vaccine contract, without it being put out to tender.

There were "allegations of sleaze after it became public that PowderJect's chief executive, Paul Drayson, had previously donated money to the Labour Party".

Subject: RE: BS: FLU SHOT INFO
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 25 Oct 04 - 07:54 AM

Basically, like a lot of things that go wrong, it appears to have been down to people who have risen to position of power because they cut corners, and who ignore what Kipling called "the god of the copybook maxims".

In this case the copybook maxim was "Don't put all your eggs in one basket."

The National Health Service in Britain was only planning to get 14 per cent of its needed flu jabs from this company. This meant when it was closed down it was a nuisance but not a crisis.   The USA had intended to get nearly half its supplies from this one firm, and that was nearly half of a far greater number in the first place.

Stupid. And you can guarantee that there will have been some knowledgeable people in the system who warned against this, and whose worries were swept aside. (As with the Iraq war.)

Subject: RE: BS: FLU SHOT INFO
From: CarolC
Date: 25 Oct 04 - 12:32 PM

Never ascribe to conspiracy what is merely due to stupidity....

You wouldn't say that if you lived here in the US. This is the second year in a row that we've had a flu vaccine shortage. And now the Bush people are using the shortage as a means to push through legislation that most people in the US don't want.

Another example of this sort of thing is the Bush people's "healthy forests" initiative. They advocate cutting down the old growth forests as a way of preventing forest fires, when all of the science shows that it's the new growth forests that are the biggest problem for forest fires. And what did the Bush people do? When many people were suffering because of the massive forest fires that were blazing thoughout the western US, they started pushing through legislation that would make the problem worse, and enrich certain special interests.

Anybody who doesn't automatically suspect foul play on the part of the Bush people in a situation like this one is being unnecessarily foolish.

Subject: RE: BS: FLU SHOT INFO
From: Peace
Date: 25 Oct 04 - 03:33 PM

None of this would be a problem if we'd joined the US in the attack on Iraq.

Subject: RE: BS: FLU SHOT INFO
From: dianavan
Date: 25 Oct 04 - 08:57 PM

Today we were told that we were no longer eligible, as teachers, to rcv. the flu vaccine unless we fit a list of criteria. Why the sudden change?

I think its because they are giving the vaccine to the Americans that are flooding across the border. Don't get me wrong, those at risk and the elderly should have it first, regardless of their country of origin. Isn't it so Canadian though?

The U.S. doesn't know how good they have it with us as neighbors. Can you imagine if it were the other way around? In the U.S. the shot would cost $10.00 but they would give it to us for $20.00 if there was any extra.

d

Subject: RE: BS: FLU SHOT INFO
From: CarolC
Date: 25 Oct 04 - 10:46 PM

There's no denying it. Canada is a good neighbor, and Canadians are good people.

Subject: RE: BS: FLU SHOT INFO
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 25 Oct 04 - 11:11 PM

"Never ascribe to conspiracy what is merely due to stupidity...."

I said just conspiracy - not a greed & stupidity based conspiracy ...

:-)

Subject: RE: BS: FLU SHOT INFO
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 26 Oct 04 - 03:18 AM

Two good alternatives to haveing your skin punctured in injected with chicken virus:

FluMist - A Nasal Inhaler - that delivers the vacine and was developed by MedImune (MEDI)

Tamaflu - A protease type inhibitor that prevents the influenza virus from further multiplying in your body - the earlier it is taken the better - developed by Gilead Science (GILD)

Sincerely,
Gargoyle