No Flu Shot For You!! Healthcare Ruined By Lawyers.

CAPS


Tort Reform = Caps on noneconomic damages (pain and suffering) and punitive damages.

My law school torts professor often said: "If you're driving along and run over someone and your victim is still alive, what do you do? Back up."

Dead victims are less costly than living victims.

What are the "economic" damages for a dead child? As a general rule, a dead child doesn't earn a living--there is no earning capacity--no lost wages--how much is a dead child worth? When a child dies, what are the economic damages? Maybe the cost of the funeral . . . .

If the OB doctor is negligent and the baby dies, what are the economic damages for the loss of that life? If nonecomonic damages are capped, the bean counters will be happy. They can calculate down to the penny the cost of every death.

The value of life comes down to a cost-benefit analysis. And we all know what happens when the bean counters factor in the costs of lawsuits and determine whether it is cheaper to let people die . . . .

Remember the exploding Pinto case? The bean counters determined it was cheaper to let people die in firey explosions than it was to fix the problem . . . .

When you start capping damages, you are simply making it easier for big business to factor in the cost of killing people into their profit projections.

Why are all of the good lawyers dead?

Re: No Flu Shot For You!! Healthcare Ruined By Lawyers.


Just another reason that I do not want the government touching healthcare. If you can't even order enough flu vaccine...

VExpert: World Unprepared for Flu Pandemic

By HAWON JUNG
Associated Press Writer

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- It's only a matter of time before another deadly flu pandemic strikes, an international vaccine expert warned Friday, saying that the world is ill-prepared to cope with a major outbreak of disease - possibly because the manufacture of vaccines is governed by profit.

"We are talking about a killer influenza that would kill probably tens of millions of people," said John D. Clemens, director of the International Vaccine Institute. "We're not talking about if, we're talking about when."

The United States is suffering a shortage of flu vaccines after a British supplier, Chiron Corp., was barred from shipping between 46 million and 48 million doses to the nation because of contamination at its plant.

"The current shortage of vaccine in the United States can be attributed to reliance on too few producers," Clemens said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press. "Globally, in terms of vaccine development and production that could respond quickly to a killer influenza pandemic, we're inadequately prepareClemens - whose institute has been helping to introduce new vaccines against diarrhea infections, bacterial meningitis and mosquito-born viral diseases for developing nations since 1999 - warned that similar supply disruptions could hit vaccines against other pandemics.

"Something like 80 percent of the world's measles vaccines come from one company in India," Clemens said. "If that company had a problem like Chiron had, it would be a disaster."

"The vaccines that tend to be most affected ... are the vaccines that are the least profitable and of less interest," he said. "Maybe it's a bit risky for a society to rely purely on free market economics to guarantee a stable reliable supply of vaccines."

Last week, scientists reported that, for the first time, malaria vaccines had protected some children in Mozambique. Malaria kills more than a million people a year, 700,000 of them children. The experimental vaccines were made by GlaxoSmithKline.
While most pharmaceutical companies are unwilling to produce drugs that don't generate a profit, Clemens said the malaria experiments indicated positive progress.

"It is very unlikely that even a highly effective malaria vaccine can be very profitable. Yet GSK, one of the world's largest multinational producers, is actively involved in the creation of the malaria vaccine," he said.

A lack of adequate funding remains one of the biggest obstacles for developing affordable vaccines. Billions of dollars of donations are yet "a drop in the bucket in coverage of vaccinating children in developing nations," Clemens said.

But hopeful signs are emerging because many developing nations, including India, have started to produce generic drugs.

He said a large number of high quality manufacturers have emerged in developing countries in the last couple of years through partnership with big multinational drug companies.

"It's a win-win situation through the transfer of technology," Clemens said.

The International Vaccine Institute, which conducts feasibility studies in a number of developing countries and helps them to produce more affordable vaccines, is set to open its US$150 million (euros 118 million) headquarters and lab in Seoul next week. It is largely funded by international donors, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the South Korean government.

Got an e-mail from my Mom (Bush supporter) that she forwarded to me yesterday. There were hundreds of names on the forward (he didn't cloak - which is my next lesson for her on the computer )

Have you seen this one?

Subject: FW: Flu Shot Info

How the vaccine works:

Influenza vaccine is produced by growing the virus in eggs. The
virus is killed and processed to create the vaccine, which is given by injection under the skin. The body then produces antibodies to the virus over the next two to four weeks. If the immunized person then comes into contact with the influenza virus, the antibodies attack and kill the virus before it has a chance to cause infection. The vaccine contains the 3 most likely strains to be active during the "flu season"

Why the shortage:

Almost half of the nation's flu vaccine will not be delivered this
year. Chiron, a major manufacturer of flu vaccine, will not be
distributing any influenza vaccine this flu season. Chiron was to make 46-48 million doses vaccine for the United States. Chiron is a British company. Recently British health officials stopped Chiron from distributing and making the vaccine when inspectors found unsanitary conditions in the labs. Some lots of the vaccine were recalled and destroyed.

Why is our vaccine made in the UK and not the US?

The major pharmaceutical companies in the US provided almost 90% of the nations flu vaccine at one time. They did this despite a very low profit margin for the product. Basically, they were doing us a favor. In the late 80's a man from North Carolina who had received the vaccine got the flu. The strain he caught was one of the strains in that years vaccine made by a US company. What did he do? He sued and he won. He was awarded almost $5 million! After that case was appealed and lost, most US pharmaceutical companies stopped making the vaccine. The liability out weighed the profit margin. Since UK and Canadian laws prohibit such frivolous law suits UK and Canadian companies began selling the vaccine in the US.

By the way...the lawyer that represented the man in the flu shot law suit was a young ambulance chaser by the name of John Edwards.

End E-mail




So, see. It isn't lawyers in general that have caused the flu vaccine shortage... It's JOHN EDWARDS specifically!!!!


BTW, there is no evidence of such a case that I have been able to find.

squinney - can you please forward that email to me? bpb has my e-ddress if you don't.

maybe you can get your mom to send you more of those? it would be very useful.

please please please

Even MORE useful would be any corroboration or refutation of the anecdotal statement... "a man from North Carolina" is not specific enough to be checked easily... which is propbably what the propagandist had intended...

. Chiron is a British company?
Another misstatement. Chiron is an American company based in California.

About 45% of Chiron is owned by Swiss Novartis

Okay. Do you mean with all of the forward e-mails included?

I get these things all the time from her. She knows I'm a serious Kerry supporter, so I'm not sure if she is trying to change my mind or is relying on me to debunk each one (which I do) so she doesn't have to look it up herself using long distance dial-up service.

The other one yesterday was the 17% premium increase for medicare patients ad .

You should have it now.

Walter
What happened to your post that gave the link "History of Chiron". In any event it listed the headquarters of Chiron as being in California. Indeed it listed the town as well.

one thing one should remember when reading headlines about very high legal awards is, that newspapers usually report what a jury has recommeded. they hardly ever report what the actual award was - because it is usually much lower and therefor not worth the headline. hbg

Does the real problem not rest with the CDC? I thought that the main problem was the amount that they ordered.

No, the real problem is that it was ordered from only two sources. The Europeans do not have that problem because they ordered their serum from multiple sources.

But was it the CDC?

I have no idea who does the ordering. Or under whose auspices the ordering is done. However, I get the impression the government has no hand in it.

I would like to keep it that way!

maybe 'wallmart' should do the ordering ? and their 'sales associates' could administer the shots ? hbg

That would be a better option than the government taking charge of healthcare. I don't care who is in office, it would be a total failure!

The govt taking over health care would ruin the system.