Fact is: there was a strong hype around H1N1,
although H1N1 itself is known since 1976.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swine_influenza#1976_U.S._outbreak
And there are large pharmaceutical companies
who are very interested in informing the public
how dangerous H1N1 is. Hoffmann-La Roche produces
Tamiflu and has an extra page about influenza
(http://www.roche.com/roche-influenza.htm).
Novartis produces a H1N1 vaccine, and has an extra
page for it, too: http://www.novartis.com/newsroom/swine-flu/
GlaxoSmithKline makes the anti-flu drug Relenza and
produces a special H1N1 vaccine.
These are Number 4, 5 and 6 of the big
pharmaceutical companies. Producing these
drugs and vaccines is a good thing. But what
if they exaggerate a bit too much in marketing?
It would not be evil to influence governments
using lobbyists (e.g. in the WHO), just selfish.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pharmaceutical_companies
I think marketing can be very problematic, if
a company produces military or pharmaceutical
products, because it often distorts the truth.
A bit of the "Communist threat" in the McCarthy
area was probably exaggerated by lobbyists
of the industrial-military complex, too. A statement
like "we need more bombs because the communits
threaten us" sounds like "we need more vaccines
because swine-flu is threaten us".
-J.
----- Original Message -----
From: Douglas Roberts
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Sent: Sunday, September 20, 2009 5:59 PM
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The victims of the H1N1 virus
Well, if you really are interested in tracking down all of those mythical
H1N1 deaths, here's a good starting point:
http://portaldev.rti.org/midas-h1n1/reports/
Honestly, the naiveté on this list still sometimes surprises me. H1N1 is
real, It is a pandemic: a brand new flu virus that has never before
circulated in the human population. It has not (yet) mutated into a more
deadly form, like the 1918 strain, but it still kills people. So does
seasonal influenza. The current circulating H1N1 could mutate into a more
lethal strain, just as the 1918 variant did. It has not done so yet.
Sure, the big, evil drug industry corporate entities are going to make a
huge amount of money off of H1N1.
Yawn.
The Bechtel Corporation is making a huge amount of money off of LANL.
Yawn.
The insurance companies in the United States make a huge amount of money off
of the health care industry.
Yawn.
--Doug
============================================================
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
