flu vaccine shortage - the truth

[scummybear]

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.

[americanfirst]

Do your homework scummybear everything below "why the shortage" is not true. Why don't you go do your homework and fix the post or delete it before I have to embarras you with the truth. Hint!

" Chiron is a British company."

Chiron Corp.
4560 Horton Street
Emeryville, CA 94608-2916
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Their's the phone# call them and ask.

Oh! By the way I agree that the lawsuit issue has to be addressed but it's not why they decided to make it in England. Do your homework and tell us why! If you can't. I'll post it Thursday.

I've got a lot more that totally refutes every statement you made below this so why don't you delete it while your ahead.

[americanfirst]

Scummy Bear

"Why is our vaccine made in the UK and not the US?"

Scummy Bear Chiron the American Company bought a British Manufacture of Vacines 2 years ago. That's like asking why Volvo makes cars in Sweden when Ford owns them. Half of the Vacines are made in the US.

Listened to news interview with a spokesman for one of the U. S. Vacine manufactures and he was asked what was needed to insure an adaquite supply of the vacine. He said the problems arise because nobody can predict what the sales of the product will be. It all depends on the severity of the perceived threat from year t year. When there are large outbreaks that make the headlines of both the print and broadcast news media. Demand is high. In years when outbreaks are limited demand is low. Since the product takes a considerable amout of time to make unlike manufacturing pills the process must start before anyone nows how much demand will be. Then when demand is low the manufacturer may be stuck with millions of doses of unused vacine that has a very limited shelf life and which must be reformulated every year. His suggestion is for the government to suggest that everyone get a flu shot every year and that would stabilize the supply and demand issue, save billions in lost productivity from people being out sick and the cost of hospitalization which run to 100,000 per year, save thousand of live (36,000 a year average deaths from flu in US. That's twelve times what we lost in 9/11, and not I'm not denigrating 9/11 just making a point about how many we lose from this versus how much we hear about this.) and lower the cost per dose.

"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."


Last but not least. I'm a Bush supporter but think we can win without lying.

Document this please. I can't find anything about it anywhere. I can't even find where he won a case for over a million that did not involve a child. I'll would bet that nobody has ever won an award much less received an award of $5 million because the got the flu.

[scummybear]

Ok,

Good job.

I'm embarrased

Great post!

[MO]

Isn't one of the benefits of an out of the country subsidiary (or any subsidiary) to help protect the parent company from liability?

In any case, there were more companies making the vaccine years ago. Most American companies have abandoned it completely, for what ever reason.

[americanfirst]

For the reason stated. Plus the fact is that they do over half of their business overseas and unlike the United States maybe their a little more buy stuff from home oriented. Plus the factory was already there. You know me always a relentless pursuit of the truth. Leaned that from Rush. The reason I don't slam the dems more is because I don't go and read their stuff. Most of the stuff I pick apart on several forums is stuff that people pick up off of what I think are sites with a decidedly extreme right wing slant. Of course thats just my opinion and I'm trying to get people to do a little more research into what they read. Then when they post they don't get slammed by people like me or even worse the enemy. The dems. Mo I'm going to go over to your post about Kerry and the terrorists and give you another example of what I'm talking about.