Jochen, I have been wondering that as well. I keep having flashbacks to the imminent demise of the technological world at the stroke of midnight, new years eve, Y2K.
Certainly there is a pandemic in the limited technical sense that the disease has spread globally. However, the implied meaning of the term (taken advantage of by politicians, some scientists, and the drug industry) of something that will kill many, many people seem not to have materialized. It may yet, I suppose. The level of near-panic, and the resources spent pre-planning, at Penn State is quite impressive. They are acting like it is polio, or the pneumonic plague. I'm sure some industry sale's rep will retire happily off of our vaccine purchases alone. Of course, when all is said and done the "evil global corporations" will be vindicated either way. If a bunch of people die, then the evil corporations will say how right they were in warning us and emphasize that we should give them more money next time. Alternatively, if few die, then the evil corporations will say how good it was we bought their vaccines and did every thing they said (also demonstrating the effectiveness of my elephant repellent necklace). Orwell would definitely understand. Eric On Sun, Sep 20, 2009 10:20 AM, "Jochen Fromm" <[email protected]> wrote: > What happend with all the victims of the >H1N1 swine flu virus? Is it possible that >a bit of the hype was generated and >exaggerated by the pharmaceutical industry >itself to sell a bit more swine flu vaccine? >The swine flu vaccine has recently been >approved and bought by governments around >the world, certainly a multi-million dollar business. >Somehow, the hype was largest when the >vaccine was under development and nearly >finished. > >This makes me wonder if it is possible >that the pharmaceutical industry generates >the threat of a possible pandemic to make >money, just as the industrial-military complex >is able to generate the threat of WMDs >to create revenue. A ministry of defense which >triggers a war and a ministry of health which >causes a pandemic - this sounds like George >Orwell. Is our fate in the hand of evil global >corporations? > >-J. > > > > > >============================================================ >FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > >
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
