Red Flags - Avian Flu

New Concerns About Tamiflu

Fri, 18 Nov 2005 04:00:00 -0500

Today, the pediatric advisory committee of the Food and Drug Administration met to discuss new reports of serious skin reactions, neuropsychiatric events and deaths associated with taking Tamiflu, Roche’s drug for treating influenza. According to IMS Health, approximately 24.4 million prescriptions for Tamiflu (oseltamivir) were dispensed in Japan between 2001 and 2005; about one-fifth that number — 5.5 million — were filled in the U.S. during the same period. Pediatric prescriptions accounted for 11.6 million in Japan versus 872,386 in the U.S.

Eliminating Bird Flu Fears: 10 Facts You Need To Know

Wed, 02 Nov 2005 04:00:00 -0500

The concerns about avian influenza, a.k.a. bird flu, seem to have the entire world in an uproar. More than 150 million domestic ducks and chickens have been sacrificed throughout Southeast Asia, China, Russia and Eastern Europe in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus. Billions of dollars are being allocated to the development of a new “pandemic” vaccine and the stockpiling of two drugs, Tamiflu and Relenza, which are touted to “treat” the infection. The hysteria in the United States has risen to the point where President George Bush allocated resources toward preparing to use the military to enforce quarantines and perhaps even to enforce mandatory vaccination.

Throw Out the Playbook: A New Plan Arrives

Mon, 12 Sep 2005 04:00:00 -0400

Every winter, it is reported that millions of people in the world get the flu. Coworkers and classmates are home, sick and miserable, for about a week. A few — mostly the elderly and infirm — die. We’re told the annual death toll exceeds 36,000 in the United States and a few hundred thousand around the globe. This computer-generated number has gaping holes in its credibility, however, because medical authorities don’t separate and verify those who actually died of influenza from those who died of a "flu-like illness” or of flu-complications, such as pneumonia.