A Free Market Approach to Swine Flu Vaccine

completely agree (0.00 / 0)

This problem is exclusively the result of the slow production by the vaccine companies:

Novartis, which is contracted to deliver 90 million doses - about 36 percent - to the United States, has had worse problems. So far it has shipped 7.5 million doses, the company said.

And I suspect this is intentional in order to raise their profits (the longer people hear about H1N1, the more people want it, the more money they can charge).

We stupidly rely on these greedy companies who only care about their bottom line to provide us with life-saving vaccines and medications.  The only way this is going to change is for the government to get more involved.  We can't keep relying on the far right wing CEO's of Novartis et al.  As always, if we want something done with the interest of we the people in mind, only government can do that.

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by: Timmy J @ Tue Nov 03, 2009 at 06:54:18 AM CST

No takers here,Timmy the Troll, you'll have to peddle that one on your home turf.. (4.00 / 1)

"But, in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope." Si se puede. Yes we can.  

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by: Paul Twomey @ Tue Nov 03, 2009 at 17:00:04 PM CST

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Swine flu is overhyped, (4.00 / 1)

regular flu is a much bigger deal.  

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by: Alex Gallichon @ Tue Nov 03, 2009 at 09:01:36 AM CST

the only reason (0.00 / 0)

it's getting hype is that it's affecting children more than adults.  This is the whole man bites dog phenomenon with the media.  Elderly people dying is no big deal (regular flu), while children dying leads the nightly news (swine flu).  

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by: Timmy J @ Tue Nov 03, 2009 at 09:34:49 AM CST

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Yes and no (0.00 / 0)

Or so I hear.

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by: JimC @ Tue Nov 03, 2009 at 13:57:14 PM CST

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The (0.00 / 0)

data suggest otherwise.

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by: Dean Barker @ Tue Nov 03, 2009 at 17:41:49 PM CST

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The data suggests better data collection. (0.00 / 0)

More reported flu cases--not just H1N1--is not the same thing as more cases. With the media frenzy, I would expect nothing less.

I was in South America at the height of the hysteria there. I've been inundated with swine flu on the nightly news and the front pages of newspapers in two languages since, like, March/April. The public information campaign in Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, and elsewhere was massive.

Positive aspects: people with any minor illness were more likely to visit a clinic before they it became worse, and increased hand washing as a result of the public information campaign cut down other illnesses.

In retrospect, now that flu season is mostly over (getting into the much more serious mosquito/dengue season that people don't overreact to), swine flu is not as big a deal as regular flu. And I say this in the young adult demographic that is more likely to have complications result from it, compared to regular flu which becomes complicated in the very young and very old.

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by: Alex Gallichon @ Sun Nov 08, 2009 at 18:07:40 PM CST

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