[Mb-civic] the song just goes on

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Subject: TAMIFLU GILEAD CHAIR WAS ... RUMMY

TAMIFLU GILEAD CHAIR WAS  ... RUMMY

Friday, October 21, 2005 - FreeMarketNews.com

NEWS AND  ANALYSIS

Readers can be helpful, and one just wrote in to inform us of a  link that
we had never imagined - Donald Rumsfeld, until he resigned and  joined the
Bush Administration, was the chairman of something called Gilead  which just
happened to make something called Tamiflu.

Now anyone who  hasn't been on Mars for the last month or two, knows that
there were only two  things that were going to stop the human version of
bird flu. One was a bird  flu vaccine (which probably would work better if
you were a bird) and the  other was something called Tamiflu. Yes, that
Tamiflu. In such short supply  that the hundreds of millions of orders that
have been pouring into Gilead  probably won't be filled for another 12
months or so. But everyone has got to  have it because somehow or other it
became established that Tamiflu really  worked.

This was the party line, anyway, for about a week, until word  began
trickling back in that maybe Tamiflu didn't work. In fact, the word  on
Tamiflu has always been positive at first and then eventually  negative.
It's a kind of pattern. We even find corroboration of it here on  the
Democrats.com, in what appears to be either a chat room or news roundup  as
follows, "Rummy was CEO of Gilead Sciences until named to the Bush  cabinet
and, like Cheney, still has ties that bind to the 'old company.' Now  isn't
it an 'amazing coincidence' that the drug Tamiflu patented by  Gilead
Sciences is being pushed by the National Institutes of Allergies  and
Infectious Diseases as the NUMBER ONE choice for flu, which, wonder  of
wonders, is sweeping through in one epidemic after another."

The  post from January '04 adds, "Tamiflu is now also being recommended to
fight  avian flu ... Scroll through this NIAID page and you will find
Tamiflu listed  as ahead of all other recommended drugs for both prevention
and treatment of  flu. Trouble is, Gilead has been accused of rigging the
trials of Tamiflu as  a preventive treatment. Meanwhile Gilead is making a
killing."

The  post then gives the following  link:
http://12.31.13.115/HealthNews/reuters/NewsStory0106200324.htm)

We  bet Gilead is still making a killing as is Big Pharma. Please notice now
that  the orders are in, the hysteria has died down a bit. Perhaps everybody
is too  busy counting the money. Or perhaps it was never about anything BUT
the  money. We weren't entirely sure, but we knew that none of it passed the
old  "smell test." In fact, in serial articles we claimed that bird flu
probably  wasn't going to turn into human flu anytime soon, that even if it
did, it  didn't mean that the world was in for a dose of 1918 influenza all
over  again. We just couldn't believe that the people bringing us Spanish
Influenza  Redux - with all the hype and horror - were remotely qualified to
bring us  even the opening of an envelope.

We questioned everything, even whether  1918 was all just the fault of a flu
virus. Didn't seem likely to us then and  doesn't now - especially since
we've come to understand what hygiene was like  for the soldiers coming back
from the war, how vaccine providers apparently  unloaded their stock after
the war, lowering immunities, etc. and, finally  how the new miracle drug,
aspirin, was all the rage, prescribed by medical  parishioners everywhere.
Aspirin lowers fevers and allows flu to build until  it bursts out all over
the body with renewed and potentially mortal  violence.

And that brings us to today. Bird flu still rages and, yes, it  may mutate
into human flu at some point and cause death, many deaths, or  fewer deaths,
no one knows. It may indeed sweep around the world. But of more  worry
immediately were moves of civil authorities to float trial balloons  about
mandatory vaccination and to start sending vials of superflu bugs  around
the world in the name of science. We demanded that our viewers call  the
Capitol Hill and get out the word that the government was to cease  testing
new vaccines, cease ordering TamiFlu and bird flu vaccine, neither of  which
work or will work against whatever it is that bird flu will turn  into.
Which at least some in government would love because then they could  turn
the President's apparent yen for martial law into reality. And Bush  could
use some martial law about now. Hell, he could use anything, maybe even  a
good book.

We hoped that this latest epidemic of hysteria would  finally force the
government to come clean about other remedies - super doses  of Vitamin C
and even the use of silver as an antidote. We're still waiting.  Sigh.


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