[lit-ideas] flu vaccine
- From: JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 13:25:06 EDT
There are a number of scientist, doctor, and attorney types on this list --
the Mother of a friend of my daughter's sent me this. Can anyone vouch for
the validity or lack thereof of any of it?
Julie Krueger
wondering
<<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. >>
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