Cue ominous music
This sounds like the beginning of a horror movie: Scientists resurrect killer genes from 1918 flu pandemic
On the other hand, about 36,000 Americans die of flu in a typical year. Which is why the research might well be worthwhile and the lack of vaccine this year is so troubling.
UPDATE: Bigwig over at Silflay Hraka wonders why we couldn't just place orders for flu vaccine in advance to help keep the supply more stable year-in and year-out. It's an excellent question.
Comments (5)
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Hi Lex,
This is really scary. The vaccines are so low that even the high risk people aren't all going to get it. And if we have a bad year on top of that, it could be awful. But the thing that pisses me off is you'd think that the QA would be flawless - contamination? I thought this was 2004.
Posted on October 7, 2004 2:46 PM
But, but, but, Zoey, QA is a cost center!
Seriously? I have no idea what went down with that. If it was preventable, I hope someone lost his job over it, though.
Posted on October 7, 2004 4:01 PM
And now that I think about it, I'm not sure why we're relying on foreign vaccine manufacturing post-9/11. I'm sure there are some perfectly reasonable *economic* justifications, but I wonder whether voters, if asked, would decide that national security trumps those.
Posted on October 7, 2004 4:03 PM
As serious as this is I must interject some political flavor... I'm sure John Kerry has a "plan" for vaccines too. Let's see, Bush failed miserably at protecting us from the flu...,it's Haliburton's fault... we'll have to wait and see.
Posted on October 7, 2004 5:17 PM
Aren't flu vaccines tailored to meet whatever strains of flu are expected to do the most damage? That would inhibit early production.
And early ordering wouldn't have solved the current problem, in which a manufacturer was forced to withdraw huge amounts of vaccine.
Posted on October 13, 2004 8:38 AM