*TAMIFLU CORP PREDICTED A 531% INCREASE IN SALES IN 2009! DOSES EXPIRE IN 2010!!

[L2Design]

That's their 2008 Annual Report, just to be clear (the url subdirectory says 2009). WOW, those are some big projections. Reminds me of the cipro/anthrax thingy in 2001.

WOW THANK YOU... just showed my hubby.

Hes' taking a test from his oil company asking questions on the swine flu. In it they tell them
to take TAMIFLU! (its online so I cannot show it)

[aviana]

The Philippines' supply of Tamiflu expires in May 2009.

Yemen confirm their stocks expire in 2010.

Director of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, said in a conference earlier today that the federal stockpile contained 50 million courses of Tamiflu.  This confirms (within 1 million - just a few ) the amount of 5-6 million doses that are up for expiration (taking out the 20 million received in 2006 and 24 million in 2008) - and that's just from the federal stockpile.  She gave numbers for stockpiles at the state level, but I did not note those and have no handle on when they were issued and subsequent expiration.

It seems others are noting the expirations too... a blog about the UK stockpile.

Other Asian countries in the same predicament - mostly expiring 2009.  From the same article:
"Leaders must decide whether to play it safe and restock at great expense or gamble that the H5N1 bird flu virus will never become a mass killer and spend the money on diseases like AIDS or tuberculosis instead. This choice will eventually confront every nation that stockpiled antivirals amid fears that a pandemic was looming.

"If the threat lingers for many years, what happens then?" asked Megge Miller, an epidemiologist at the World Health Organization in Cambodia. "It's just (like) throwing money into a black hole."

[chris jones]

3 cheers, great work folks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[aviana]

Here is my pdf that describes some of what has been discovered about the expiration dates of Tamiflu.  It is certainly not definitive, but will do for now...

[aviana]

Here's a flyer.

[Dig]

Here is my pdf that describes some of what has been discovered about the expiration dates of Tamiflu.  It is certainly not definitive, but will do for now...

Can you post the contents and a picture? Also please upload it to http://scribd.com as many people search that site.

Thanks for all of your help.

[JBS]

How do we know the scumbag pharmas will just repackage the old stuff and sell it as new, whatever they don't sell now for rediculous prices amdst the flu hoax. And if they get stuck with too much, don't worry, the govt will give them a few billion and buy up the slack for govt workers while people are starving in the streets. The sh**bag pharmas make a 'killing' on everyone from birth to death. Technology = big profits. not the better life they advertised at first. They create the health problems and then have a solution, same old story over and over. Forget the cure, there's much more to be made treating the symtoms on your way out.
As far as I am concerned, the pharmas are just another legal terrorist organization. Plant a flu and few fear stories on the MSM and walla! Huge profits.

[ramallamamama]

What do you do with 26 million doses of expired H5N1 vaccines?

http://revolutionarypolitics.com/?p=479

Mark Broadworth
RevolutionaryPolitics.com

According to the Washington post Nov. 2nd 2005, ’President Bush yesterday asked Congress for $7.1 billion to help prepare the country for a global epidemic of influenza, telling a high-powered gathering of scientists and public officials at the National Institutes of Health that “our country has been given fair warning of this danger to our homeland.” ‘

Apparently it was thought that Al Qaeda was somehow going to get a hold of the Bird Flu virus and spread it across the country. What would we do about this? How would we prepare ourselves against this evil Al Qaeda!?!?

The article goes on to say

‘Between $1.2 billion and $1.5 billion would be used to build a 20 million-dose stockpile of an experimental vaccine based on the bird flu virus now circulating in Asia, $1 billion for antiviral medicines, $800 million to develop new flu treatments, and $644 million to help local governments make their own preparations for a flu pandemic.’

So, preparation begins. There’s nothing wrong with being prepared and the drug companies aren’t going to complain… they don’t want to turn down $7.1 billion dollars. So off to work they went making vaccines with our tax dollars. But what if there wasn’t a pandemic? Vaccines expire. If there is no pandemic you have to try to get rid of the expired vaccines.

Currently there are 26 million doses of prepandemic-influenza vaccine and about 15 million of the 26 million doses in the stockpile have already expired or are now reaching expiration,’ according to the Congressional Budget Office website.

So, how do you dispose of 26 million doses of vaccines? What does the World Health Organization say?

“The World Health Organization has proposed a global stockpiling plan that would focus on developing nations, mostly those without domestic manufacturing capacity or sufficient resources, to purchase vaccines from abroad (Lewcock 2007d). Several manufacturers (Baxter, GlaxoSmithKline, and Sanofi Pasteur) have pledged to donate or sell at a discount millions of doses of prepandemic vaccine over the next several years. As with the domestic stockpile, the success with adjuvants will determine the number of people who can be immunized. In addition, like policymakers in the United States, WHO will have to decide what to do about stored, but expired, vaccines.”

In this situation lies the danger of corporations who only profit when there is a crisis…. like the Military Industrial Complex that seeks never-ending wars, or the prison industrial complex who seems to be the only beneficiary of the war on drugs, here we have the medical industrial complex and specifically the pharmaceutical companies who create the vaccines, whose survival depends upon never-ending disease…

There are two problems here for the pharmaceutical companies. How do you get more money to go on producing vaccines and how do you get rid of the vaccines that are currently expiring? Is it possible that a large corporation could create a crisis to strike fear into the public in order to offer a solution that profits themselves? ie: Problem - Reaction - Solution.

According to the times of India just a couple of months ago Baxter International nearly started a pandemic. They say it was an accident. It seems they shipped vaccines tainted with H5N1 to the Czech Republic.

Our mainstream media has again dropped the ball on this one. Not one word of this situation was uttered in the American msm. It is again up to the internet bloggers to hold their feet to the flames.

Despite all of this, Baxter International is trusted with creating a swine flu vaccine? And now it looks like they’ll recieve even MORE funds to go on creating vaccines.

Sounds like “The fox has been given the duty of guarding the henhouse”

Let’s just keep an eye on the ball here folks…. and especially Baxter International.

[aviana]

Can you post the contents and a picture? Also please upload it to http://scribd.com as many people search that site.

Thanks for all of your help.

Posted to scribd.  Not used that site before - very interesting.

[aviana]

From the pdf...

April 30th 2009
H1N1 (Swine Flu) Pandemic and the
Imminent Expiration of Millions of Courses of Tamiflu

The Chugai 2008 annual report to shareholders and investors included the following information specific to the sales of Tamiflu:

FY 2008 Results
Record-High Sales Excluding Tamiflu
Foundation for Growth Established
In FY2008, Chugai reported a decline in both revenues
and operating income, with revenues down 5.2% to
¥326.9 billion, and operating income down 22.6% to
¥51.6 billion. The steady expansion of our new product
lineup, however, made FY2008 a year in which we solidified
our base for the next stage of growth.
The biggest factor for the decline in revenues was the
fall in sales of the anti-influenza agent Tamiflu (down
¥30.3 billion, a decrease of 78.3%).

FY 2009 Outlook
Increased Sales and Income Expected in FY 2009
Due to Higher Sales of Growth Drivers
In FY2009, we expect revenues of ¥400 billion, up 22.4%
year-on-year, driven by further growth of our major
products. We project a 7.6% increase in product sales
excluding Tamiflu to ¥337.3 billion.
For the year, we forecast sales of Tamiflu to reach ¥53.0
billion, up 531.0%, due to expected resumption of government
stockpiling in FY2009 and the ongoing recovery
of the prescription rate for seasonal influenza.

Link: http://www.chugai-pharm.co.jp/pdf/annual_report/2009/eAR2009_12_04.pdf

These excerpts show that Chugai’s 2008 revenue was severely impacted by a decline in the sale of the anti-viral, Tamiflu.  But all is not lost as they expect a 531% increase in sales due to the expected resumption of government stockpiling in FY2009.  Does that mean the expected resumption of government stockpiling because they are expecting a pandemic? Or does it just mean the replacement of the stockpiles that are about to expire?  Either way, it demonstrates prior knowledge of the stockpiling habits of the countries of the world.

How many courses of Tamiflu are about to expire?
We know that the U.S. has 50 million courses of Tamiflu in a federal stockpile. This was confirmed by Director of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano in a conference on April 30th 2009.  We also know that 20 million of those courses were procured in 2006 and 24 million were procured in 2008, as confirmed by the US Chamber of Commerce.
 


Link: http://www.uschamber.com/issues/index/defense/pandemic/tamiflu_stockpiles.htm

This Fox News article suggests that there were initially 5 million courses
 


Link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,183379,00.html

The initial five million courses in the federal stockpile, and an untold number stockpiled at the state level, would have been manufactured prior to the date of that article, which was January 2006. 

We also know that the shelf life for Tamiflu is now five years.  When it was first introduced in 1999, the shelf life was just two years.  Then in 2002, the manufacturer, Roche, extended the shelf life to three years, as can be seen in this excerpt from one of Roche’s pdf document:

 
Link: http://www.rocheusa.com/programs/TamifluChain2002.pdf

In November 2008, Japan extended its shelf life of Tamiflu to seven years, but was contingent on the storage conditions of the product.
 


Link: http://www.biospectrumasia.com/content/121108JPN7643.asp

Knowing that the expiration date for Tamiflu in the US is five years and also knowing that there are at least five million courses of Tamiflu that were procured pre-January 2006, we also know that those five million courses of Tamiflu are about to expire, if they have not expired already.  This is just at the federal level and does not take into account the individual states’ stockpiles, pharmacies or individuals.

Online pharmacies are trying to get rid of their surplus of Tamiflu that is soon to expire in 2009 or 2010 by putting it on sale.  2009 expiration stock is cheaper than 2010 expiration stock:



Link: http://www.drugshoponline.com/Buy-Bird-Flu-Products-TAMiFLU-(OSELTAMiViR)-(ROCHE)-75mg-100-caps-expires-10_2010.html



 
Link: http://www.drugdelivery.ca/s4632-s-TAMIFLU.aspx
Note the disclaimer at the end of the last advertisement.  Due to the pandemic there is a sudden increase in demand.  It must be a relief to get rid of stock that is close to expiration.


 
Link: http://www.bbonlinepharmacy.com/product/966/tamiflu-oseltamivir-roche/

 
In 2007, New Zealand reported how the “unwanted bird flu drugs clogs shelves”, and state that most capsules expire in 2010.


 
Link: http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/archive/national-news/20430

This overwhelming evidence that there are many millions of courses of Tamiflu around the world that are about to expire in 2009 and 2010 has to make one wonder about the incidence of the current H1N1 (Swine Flu) pandemic, that appears to be even less virulent than the seasonal flu strains, which kills multiple thousands every year. 

 
What Incentive Does the Government Have for Using Up Tamiflu Stocks and Procuring More?

It is well know that Donald Rumsfeld owns stock in Gilead Sciences, the California biotech company that owns the rights to Tamiflu.  From the article that follows:

“"I don't know of any biotech company that's so politically well-connected," says analyst Andrew McDonald of Think Equity Partners in San Francisco.”



 
Link: http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/31/news/newsmakers/fortune_rumsfeld/?cnn=yes

[aviana]

Added to the doc (thank you jofortruth for posting the article):

The FDA have now released information admitting that some of the Tamiflu stockpiles are expiring.

“Stockpiled Antivirals at or Nearing Expiration
During this public health emergency, the FDA has issued Emergency Use Authorizations that expand access to medical products that may become necessary.
Two antiviral treatments covered by Emergency Use Authorizations, Tamiflu (oseltamavir) and Relenza (zanamivir), may already be included in many emergency stockpiles.
All companies, U.S. states and localities, and other organizations with Tamiflu and Relenza that are approaching, or past, the labeled expiration date, are urged to consider keeping it while the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services evaluates options, including those that may allow for their use if needed during this 2009 H1N1 flu virus outbreak.
These organizations are also urged to contact the FDA’s Emergency Operations Center with information on how much Tamiflu and Relenza in their stockpiles is at or approaching expiration.”



Link: http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/H1N1Flu/stockpile.html

The request for information on how much Tamiflu in the stockpiles has or is about to expire will verify the re-order quantity from Chugai, which will give them their 531% increase in sales for FY2009, as predicted in their 2008 annual report cited at the start of this document.

Interesting that this information was released today – April 30th – the same day that people on the ‘net started getting suspicious about the expiration dates…

[Brocke]

First posted here

Will Tamiflu make me go psychotic? US Government plan to create super flu
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=10970.msg609444#msg609444

The patent for Tamiflu expires in 2016. It is expected that once it goes off-patent, several companies will begin manufacturing a generic Tamiflu drug.
http://flu.emedtv.com/tamiflu/generic-tamiflu.html


With a shelf life of 5 years and a patent expiring in 2016 this means that 2011 is effectively the last financially viable year that Roche could produce the medication. Time is running out for Roche in regards to Tamiflu being a big moneymaker. And a final thought...

Roche stock rises 3.8 percent with swine flu outbreak
04/27/09
Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche, maker of influenza medication Tamiflu, saw its stock price rise 3.8 percent in early trading Monday on the Zurich exchange on the back of the global swine flu outbreak.
http://www.indiaenews.com/europe/20090427/194261.htm

[aviana]

First posted here

Will Tamiflu make me go psychotic? US Government plan to create super flu
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=10970.msg609444#msg609444

Oooh - good info.  That really goes nicely with the Chugai projections for the 2009 income based on an expected huge increase in Tamiflu sales.  They know this is the last chance for that big push once that 17 year patent expires.  I'll try and update my Tamiflu paper with that info in the morning...

[chrsswtzr]

Stock prices soar.... stock piles sit.... flu deaths remain stagnant....

None of this shit makes sense, does it?

[Freeski]

Drugs companies prepare for swine flu epidemic
Pharmaceutical stocks are expected to rise on Monday morning, after Roche and GlaxoSmithKline said they may need to supply millions of vaccine doses to help protect against the swine flu that has killed up to 81 people in Mexico.
 
By Rowena Mason
Last Updated: 1:45PM BST 28 Apr 2009
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/pharmaceuticalsandchemicals/5225935/Drugs-companies-prepare-for-swine-flu-epidemic.html
 
Commuters in Mexico wear face masks to prevent the infection by the swine flu virus Photo: GETTY Vaccines from Roche, which sells Tamiflu, and GSK, maker of Relenza, have been shown to work against viral samples of the new disease. The drugs were also used to help protect against outbreaks of bird flu in Asia, providing windfall profits for the companies.

Roche confirmed it already has a stockpile of 3m packs of Tamiflu ready for use by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

 
Related Articles
Gold rises on flu fears and Chinese buying
GlaxoSmithKline leads pharmaceutical shares higher on swine flu outbreak
Swine flu: how will shares react?
Swine flu: the UK shares affected
Glaxo eyes increase in flu drug production
FTSE 100 edges higher as swine flu fears easeDuring the panic about Asian bird flu in 2005 and 2006, airline, hotel groups, insurers and oil companies stocks fell heavily, while shares in drug, healthcare and cleaning product businesses soared.

"I think there will be little bit of a lift for pharmaceuticals, but this may not follow through unless the situation gets out of hand," said Paul Kavanagh of stockbroker Killik & Co .

"Governments will be looking at vaccines, but it's come at a bad time for the world economy and could be very expensive."

UK companies from HSBC to BT have made Britain among the top ten foreign investors in Mexico in recent years.

Last night, these companies were advising their employees to take precautionary measures, restrict travel to Mexico and monitor Government advice closely. It is understood that several companies, including oil company Shell, have had meetings of contingency planning committees to look at the possibility that the outbreak could worsen.

Other UK companies with offices in Mexico include AstraZeneca, BAT, Diageo, Glaxo Smith Kline, GKN, Shell, BSI and Unilever.

[John Bannon]

Swine Flu: History in US

    * A swine flu outbreak in Fort Dix, New Jersey, USA occurred in 1976 that caused more than 200 cases with serious illness in several people and one death
          o More than 40 million people were vaccinated
          o However, the program was stopped short after over 500 cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a severe paralyzing nerve disease, were reported
                + 30 people died as a direct result of the vaccination

http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:3ML1H1hO4R4J:www.pitt.edu/~super4/34011-35001/34601.ppt+h1n1+micron+size&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca

[John Bannon]

98% resistance to Tamiflu found in U.S. samples
Last Updated: Monday, March 2, 2009 | 5:12 PM ET Comments30Recommend24
CBC News

The main strain causing flu illnesses in the U.S. is resistant to the antiviral drug Tamiflu, a government report released Monday shows.

As of Feb. 19, researchers found 264 of 268, or 98.5 per cent, of influenza A viruses tested were resistant to oseltamivir, or Tamiflu, researchers reported in Monday's online issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Last flu season, 19 per cent of H1N1 viruses tested were resistant to the drug, said Dr. Nila Dharan of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and her colleagues.

In December, the CDC first warned doctors that they were noticing resistant to Tamiflu among H1N1 strains.

At the time, the CDC advised giving Tamiflu with another anti-viral drug, Relenza, also called zanamivir, or a generic drug called rimantadine.

For the study, the researchers interviewed 99 patients. They found 30 per cent of them were vaccinated against the flu, but came down with it anyway.

Many of the deaths occured in children who had other medical problems, the study's authors said.

The findings emphasize the need to develop new anti-viral drugs and tests to quickly distinguish what strains of flu are causing illness, they added.

100% resistance in Canada

In an editorial accompanying the study, Dr. David Weinstock of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Dr. Gianna Zuccotti of Brigham and Women's Hospital, both in Boston, said that understanding of influenza has improved.

"However, the global dissemination of oseltamivir-resistant influenza came as a great surprise," they wrote.

"For now, the best tools to mitigate influenza infection are tried-and-true— vaccination, social distancing, handwashing, and common sense."

In Canada, all 81 samples of H1N1 tested this flu season by the National Microbiology Laboratory were also resistant to the drug. The samples were from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

"The identification of resistant influenza samples poses no immediate threat to public health, as antimicrobial resistance continues to be a reality that will require ongoing monitoring and further study," said Andrew McDermott, a spokesperson for the Public Health Agency of Canada in Ottawa.

"Common antivirals such as oseltamivir are not widely used in Canada to treat seasonal flu, and influenza can be effectively prevented through immunization and other prevention measures like handwashing, covering coughs and staying home when sick," he added in an email to CBC News.

[Dig]

Meeting Report: Risk Assessment of Tamiflu® use under Pandemic Conditions
http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/3586/
Deposited On:   04 Nov 2008 14:05

Singer, Andrew C.; Howard, Bruce M.; Johnson, Andrew C.; Knowles, Chris J.; Jackman, Simon; Accinelli, Cesare; Barra Caracciolo, Anna; Bernard, Ian; Bird, Stephen; Boucard, Tatiana; Boxall, Alistair; Brian, Jayne V.; Cartmell, Elise; Chubb, Chris; Churchley, John; Costigan, Sandra; Crane, Mark; Dempsey, Michael J.; Dorrington, Bob; Fick, Jerker; Holmes, John; Hutchinson, Tom; Karcher, Franz; Kelleher, Samuel L.; Marsden, Peter; Noone, Gerald; Nunn, Miles A.; Oxford, John; Rachwal, Tony; Roberts, Noel; Roberts, Mike; Sacca, Maria Ludovica; Sanders, Matthew; Straub, Jurg Oliver; Terry, Adrian; Thomas, Dean; Toovey, Stephen; Townsend, Rodney; Voulvoulis, Nick; Watts, Chris; Wells, Ursula. 2008 Meeting Report: Risk Assessment of Tamiflu® use under Pandemic Conditions. Environmental Health Perspectives, 116 (11). 1563-1567. doi:10.1289/ehp.11310

Before downloading, please read NORA policies.   PDF - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader
139Kb

On 3 October 2007, 40 participants with diverse expertise attended the workshop Tamiflu and the Environment: Implications of Use under Pandemic Conditions to assess the potential human health impact and environmental hazards associated with use of Tamiflu during an influenza pandemic. Based on the identification and risk-ranking of knowledge gaps, the consensus was that oseltamivir ethylester-phosphate (OE-P) and oseltamivir carboxylate (OC) were unlikely to pose an ecotoxicologic hazard to freshwater organisms. OC in river water might hasten the generation of OC-resistance in wildfowl, but this possibility seems less likely than the potential disruption that could be posed by OC and other pharmaceuticals to the operation of sewage treatment plants. The workgroup members agreed on the following research priorities: a) available data on the ecotoxicology of OE-P and OC should be published ; b) risk should be assessed for OC-contaminated river water generating OC-resistant viruses in wildfowl ; c) sewage treatment plant functioning due to microbial inhibition by neuraminidase inhibitors and other antimicrobials used during a pandemic should be investigated ; and d) realistic worst-case exposure scenarios should be developed. Additional modeling would be useful to identify localized areas within river catchments that might be prone to high pharmaceutical concentrations in sewage treatment plant effluent. Ongoing seasonal use of Tamiflu in Japan offers opportunities for researchers to assess how much OC enters and persists in the aquatic environment.Item Type:   Article
Identification Number/DOI:   doi:10.1289/ehp.11310
Programmes:   CEH Programmes > Biogeochemistry > SE01B Sustainable Monitoring, Risk Assessment and Management of Chemicals
CEH Programmes > Water > WA03 Developing strategic data and knowledge at a catchment scale to enable the wiser management of the water environment
Groups/Sections (CEH only):   Acreman
Hails
Uncontrolled Keywords:   antiviral, drug, ecotoxicology, influenza, Tamiflu, pharmaceutical, pandemic, pollution, sewage treatment plant
NORA Subject Terms:   Ecology and Environment
General > Science Policy
Hydrology
Health
ID Code:   3586
Deposited On:   04 Nov 2008 14:05

[Brocke]

How disgusting is this scare mongering trash! Not to mention Roche is taking orders for more Tamiflu (at a discount!!!!).

"The is nothing to worry about" - BE AFRAID - "everything is under control" - MILLIONS ARE GOING TO DIE - "it seems to be fading out" - IT WILL RETURN WITH A VENGEANCE -


Chan hits back at WHO critics

By Andrew Jack

Published: May 3 2009 14:08 | Last updated: May 3 2009 17:42

The head of the World Health Organisation hit back at critics who have accused it of over-reaction to the swine flu crisis, warning it may return “with a vengeance” in the months ahead.

In her first extensive media interview since alerting the world to a potential flu pandemic nine days ago, Margaret Chan, the agency’s director-general, told the Financial Times that the end of the flu season in the northern hemisphere meant an initial outbreak could be milder but then a second wave more lethal, as happened in 1918.

EDITOR’S CHOICE
Cairo pig farmers clash with police on cull - May-03
Mexico’s flu outbreak shows signs of easing - May-03
Canadian pig herd infected with swine flu - May-03
Swine flu ground zero yields no clues - May-01
Interactive graphic: Swine flu around the world - May-01
In depth: Swine flu - Apr-28

Fresh data from Mexico suggested the impact of the flu could be less than initially thought. José Angel Cordova, health minister said the flu virus epidemic had passed its peak and was declining. “The evolution of the epidemic is now in its phase of descent,” he said.

The Mexican government, which had already scaled back its original estimate of 176 deaths, said 19 of the suspected 100 deaths from the H1N1 virus had been confirmed. [what a pathetic accuracy rate for diagnosis; less than 19%]

But Ms Chan warned that an apparent decline in mortality rates outside and within Mexico did not mean the pandemic was ending.

“We hope the virus fizzles out, because if it doesn’t we are heading for a big outbreak.” But she said: “I’m not predicting the pandemic will blow up, but if I miss it and we don’t prepare, I fail. I’d rather over-prepare than not prepare.”

She stressed that a likely increase to the agency’s highest “level six” pandemic alert did not necessarily mean “every country and every individual will be affected” with many more deaths.

Rather “it is a signal to public health authorities to take appropriate measures” such as intensified disease surveillance.

Ms Chan acknowledged frustration with slow release of data on the threat posed by the virus. But she defended Mexico as very co-operative but overwhelmed by extending treatment and limiting the spread of infection as well as analysing cases. She added: “The information is beginning to roll in.”

“These countries are so overwhelmed. Other countries may expect a lot of information now. But people need to allow time for the epidemiology, laboratory and clinical data. ”

She reiterated the WHO’s view based on “the evidence and science available to us” that travel restrictions were counterproductive. Although countries had the right under international health regulations to take different measures, they would need to justify them publicly.

But she defended recent decisions such as that of Hong Kong and New Zealand to quarantine travellers arriving with suspected flu.

Ms Chan called on pharmaceutical companies to increase their contributions, praising their efforts so far but calling for fresh donations and for far larger quantities of drugs and vaccines at lower prices to help treat and protect the poor.

She had released most of the WHO’s stockpile of the antiviral medicine Tamiflu provided by Roche, its manufacturer, which had already agreed to provide more and to propose lower prices.

She hinted at fresh ways to encourage generic companies to produce cheap versions of Tamiflu to expand capacity.

Staff feel the strain:

    Hundreds of employees have volunteered at the World Health Organisation’s headquarters to help its efforts to co-ordinate a response to the flu virus, writes Andrew Jack. But what happens if they contract the flu themselves?

    Margaret Chan, the WHO’s director-general, herself raised eyebrows in a recent meeting with senior colleagues when she coughed, and had to hastily assure her colleagues that she had not been infected.

    The core WHO staff working under immense pressure under artificial light are particularly vulnerable. They have been working minimum 12-hour shifts for the past eight days. Michael Ryan, director of global alert and response, who supervises them, says that on Saturday, more than a week after 24-hour operations began, he began giving staff a day off in rotation to rest.

    As visitors from high-incidence countries travel back to Geneva, those judged at risk will be advised to stay away from the office for two days while they are infectious but before any symptoms emerge.

    But Mr Ryan acknowledges that during a pandemic it is almost inevitable that a third of the workforce may fall sick. The response? “Have lots and lots of back-up staff.”

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e6260d9a-37d4-11de-9211-00144feabdc0.html

[msr]

What ever the truth about all these things, one thing is for sure, these people sure seem to want it to happen. Just watch the press and they are desperate for anything to happen.