A report released by the Council of Europe…accuses the World Health Organization and European governments of vastly exaggerating the public health risks of swine flu and making secretive decisions that benefited pharmaceutical companies.
Tag Archives: swine flu
Teaching Doctors the Price of Care, Organic Foods, and 71 Million Unused H1N1 Vaccines
Patients don’t know what anything really costs? The doctor doesn’t either.
Study: People who eat cookies labeled “organic” believe the cookies have 40% fewer calories. Obviously, Mayor Bloomberg and the other nanny state enthusiasts are trying to regulate the wrong things.
The U.S. has 71 million unused H1N1 swine flu doses. Health officials say anyone who has not been vaccinated should still try, just in case.
New Orleans Hospitals Liable, Swine Flu Reprint, and Other Swine Flu Coverage
Less generous swine flu coverage previously at this blog: the reaction of hospitals, the lack of vaccines, and a decentralized approach to pandemics.
Hits & Misses #2 – 2009/9/30
Hits & Misses #2 – 2009/8/27
Hits & Misses – 2009/5/12
What causes depressions? Wars, financial crises and pandemics.
Should you attend a swine flu party? Some seek out the infection instead of avoiding it.
Are face masks effective against the spread of the flu? Not really.
Pandemic Update #2
Pandemic Update
Casting Pearls Before Swine
David Brooks agrees with Tyler Cowen: The best defense is a decentralized approach to pandemics. Then there is this worrisome reminder about pandemics of the past:
Influenza pandemics have occurred as far back in history as we can look, but the four we know about in detail happened in 1889, 1918, 1957 and 1968…… The worst influenza pandemic, in 1918, killed 675,000 in the United States. And although no one has a reliable worldwide death toll, the lowest reasonable number is about 35 million, and some scientists believe it killed as many as 100 million – at a time when the world’s population was only a quarter of what it is today.
In all four instances, the gap between the time the virus was first recognized and a second, more dangerous wave swelled was about six months.
Melinda Beck reminds us of the 1976 swine flu fiasco, in which 40 million people were vaccinated. Number of people killed by the flu: 1. Number of people killed by the vaccine: 25. Henry Miller recounts that China’s attempt to control avian flu in 2006 actually made things worse. To keep this in perspective, the Wall Street Journal reminds us that:
Some 36,000 Americans and a million people world-wide die each year from the common flu.