Republicans block money for Bird Flu Vaccine

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/Health/Bird_Flu

Lawmakers reject emergency bird flu funds
Reuters - 1 hour, 3 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Emergency money that President George W. Bush requested to combat a looming influenza pandemic has been deleted from a U.S. health-funding bill after conservative Republicans insisted it would have to be paid for by cutting other government programs. The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday was set to debate the massive health-funding bill. After days of intensive talks between the House and Senate, negotiators dropped a plan for $8 billion in funds that Democrats pushed through the Senate last month.

Force them to provide the goods / services free of charge, considering how much profit they've already made at the expense of US taxpayers.

Remember anti-war profiteering bills? We need another one.

I tried to rate that story and it won't rate. It sits at 37 votes. Every time I try to rate somethng that is unflattering to Bush or GOP it doesn't rate. And yahoo's mail sux now, too.

And why isn't this covered in MSM??? Nothing on main sites yet...

This is outrageous!

What are the chances of that happening?

We don't need to fund Rumsfeld's stock by producing millions upon millions of Tamiflu that won't even help against the type of bird flu that everyone is worried about.

It will help against the CURRENT form of bird-flu, which isn't all that dangerous (unless you get really intimate with chickens that have it). The strain that we're worried about doesn't even exist yet, and the stockpile of Tamiflu that they want will be utterly useless against it.

Money needs to be spent at the local level to plan for the pandemic, or some other biological emergency. Antivirals aren't' shown to work on this influenza so massive stockpiling of them as a hallmark of the plan is too risky.

it is an anti-viral that as of now has been an effective agent in reducing the symptoms of a variety of different types of flu. I haven't' heard of any reports that it shouldn't help lessen the severity with H5N1 if it were to mutate to allow for human to human transmission. Perhaps I'm missing something....

A quick google for Tamiflu H5N1 Effictiveness got the following pages:

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/10150501/H5N1_H2H_Tamiflu.html
http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/PublicHealth/tb/1850
http://www.irishhealth.com/?level=4&id=8363

None of which sound too promising :-) The only person saying that it works well is the manufacturer, Roche.

And every cent we get from Skilling and Lay in fines and disgorgement. Every penny stolen by those GOP thugs should go to national healthcare.

<snip>

As a result, the House on Thursday also was set to debate $50 billion in spending cuts that hit social programs for the poor and have generated a broad debate over government priorities. At the same time, House Republicans are advancing tax cuts that help the wealthy.

<snip>

heads up

NEW YORK (Fortune) - The prospect of a bird flu outbreak may be panicking people around the globe, but it's proving to be very good news for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other politically connected investors in Gilead Sciences, the California biotech company that owns the rights to Tamiflu, the influenza remedy that's now the most-sought after drug in the world.

Rumsfeld served as Gilead (Research)'s chairman from 1997 until he joined the Bush administration in 2001, and he still holds a Gilead stake valued at between $5 million and $25 million
http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/31/news/newsmakers/fortune_rumsfeld/

Fundies should boycott it and trust Jesus to protect them from the flu instead.

Our Direct Actions will consist of scheduling meetings to lobby the Republicans who voted against this bill-- while we are infected.

So, if you come down with a cold or flu, start scheduling meetings with these guys.

And perhaps also try and arrange meetings with their larger donors as well.

bomparded by lying, omitting, thieving, deceiving propagandists and operatives who are made up of those who love fetuses and those with total disregard for life. Live well. Live horribly.

Screwed up people are screwing the country and the world. It's one of those overload days of stupidity and crime by our fellow citizens.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B66120CD3%2DE266%2D4D73%2D89BC%2D832702F8CB9B%7D&siteid=mktw

FDA looks into Tamiflu-related deaths
By Rex Nutting, MarketWatch
Last Update: 2:27 PM ET Nov. 17, 2005


WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The Food and Drug Administration is investigating the sudden deaths of 12 children who were taking the anti-flu medication Tamiflu.

All the deaths occurred in Japan.

Four of the deaths were due to "sudden death," which the FDA said was "an unusual phenomenon in otherwise healthy pediatric patients with influenza

..more at link..

Probably one reason the vaccine money has been blocked is to make more money for Rumsfield by selling more Tamiflu, as vaccinated people won't need it.

There is no drug that is 100% tolerated by everyone.

"They had better do it (die), and decrease the surplus population."

--Ebenezer Scrooge, in A CHRISTMAS CAROL.

happens here. none. the Dems will make hay with this cynical thug move.

than just simple repug unconcern for greater public welfare. The devil is in the details, which isn't discernible from this summary piece.

...if there's no vaccine, everybody will be buying Tamiflu (even if it does make you suicidal), thereby donating to the Rumsfeld retirement fund.

Follow the money, as they say...

The more people are vaccinated, the less Tamiflu will be needed.

In fact, enough vaccination might prevent an America wide outbreak altogether, and we wouldn't want that, would we. the wealthiest, evilest ones will get vaccinated, and not move around in public, and the virus will , if it happens, get more virulent in more closely packed areas, as people there will not be able to distance themselves from other sick people. As usual, a far greater proportion of the very poor will die than the rich, and the people packing into the emergency rooms of hospitals for treatment will guarantee that. Of course this is a "good" thing as it will eliminate a great many of those on social security or homeless, and save the Bushies heaps.

I believe this government are worse for America than any hostile take over from another country could have been. They are a hostile takeover, traitors who should be hung, very slowly. The avian flu has been tampered with in laboratories to make it even more deadly, and it has now been distributed around the country. No tin-hatting there, that much is provable.

It is also arguable that Buschco would like to see this disease hit America, that it would suit their plans or a complete take-over just fine. And I have no doubt the neocons are crazy enough to do it. At the moment my hopes are pinned on the Fitzgerald inquiry, not that it will get anyone out of office, but that it has made such lame ducks of the neocons that their minions would not want to tie their futures to a sinking ship by going along with their mad plans.

just to help himself... a MONSTER!

are ostrichs with their heads up their butts!!!

The people making these decisions are not idiots at all, except in that such greed and malignance is idiotic. They have their plans, all aimed at terra-forming America so their idiot-children can rule it and the world. The deaths of the poor who they don't need as slaves are part of that plan, only a minor detail in their remaking of America.