Drug Firms Accused of Turning Healthy People Into Patients.

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Drug Firms Accused of Turning Healthy People Into Patientshttp://www.truthout.org/issues_06/041206HA.shtmlNew studies accuse the pharmaceutical industry of "disease mongering." Healthy people are being turned into patients by drug firms which publicize mental and sexual problems and promote little-known conditions only then to reveal the medicines they say will treat them. "Our ideal is not the spirituality that withdraws from life but the conquest of life by the power of the spirit." - Aurobindo.

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The flu epidemic

 

A bonus for rubber glove manufacturers!

 

U.S. Plan For Flu Pandemic Revealed

Multi-Agency Proposal Awaits Bush's Approval

 

Sunday, April 16, 2006; President Bush is expected to

approve soon a national pandemic influenza response

plan that identifies more than 300 specific tasks for

federal agencies, including determining which

frontline workers should be the first vaccinated and

expanding Internet capacity to handle what would

probably be a flood of people working from their home

computers.

The Treasury Department is poised to sign agreements

with other nations to produce currency if U.S. mints

cannot operate. The Pentagon, anticipating

difficulties acquiring supplies from the Far East, is

considering stockpiling millions of latex gloves. And

the Department of Veterans Affairs has developed a

drive-through medical exam to quickly assess patients

who suspect they have been infected.

 

The document is the first attempt to spell out in some

detail how the government would detect and respond to

an outbreak, and continue functioning through what

could be an 18-month crisis, which in a worst-case

scenario could kill 1.9 million Americans. Bush was

briefed on a draft of the implementation plan on March

17. He is expected to approve the plan within the

week, but it continues to evolve, said several

administration officials who have been working on it.

Still reeling from the ineffectual response to

Hurricane Katrina, the White House is eager to show it

could manage the medical, security and economic

fallout of a major outbreak. In response to questions

posed to several federal agencies, White House

officials offered a briefing on the near-final version

of its 240-page plan. When it is issued, officials

intend to announce several vaccine manufacturing

contracts to jump-start an industry that has declined

in the past few decades.

The background briefing and on-the-record interviews

with experts in and out of government reveal that some

agencies are far along in preparing for a deadly

outbreak. Others have yet to resolve basic questions,

such as who is designated an essential employee and

how the agency would cope if that person were out of

commission. " Most of the federal government right now

is as ill-prepared as any part of society, " said

Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for

Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the

University of Minnesota. Osterholm said the

administration has made progress but is nowhere near

prepared for what he compared to a worldwide " 12- to

18-month blizzard. "

Many critical decisions remain to be made.

Administration scientists are debating how much

vaccine would be needed to immunize against a new

strain of avian influenza, and they are weighing data

that may alter their strategy on who should have

priority for antiviral drugs such as Tamiflu and

Relenza. The new analysis, published in Proceedings of

the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that

instead of giving medicine to first responders and

health-care workers, as currently planned, it might be

wiser to give the drugs to every person with symptoms

and others in the same household, one senior

administration official said.

The approach offers " some real hope for communities to

put a dent in the amount of illness and death, if we

go with that strategy, " a White House official said.

Each year, about 36,000 Americans die from seasonal

influenza. A worldwide outbreak, or pandemic, occurs

when a potent new, highly contagious strain of the

virus emerges. It is a far greater threat than annual

flu because everyone is susceptible, and it would take

as much as six months to develop a vaccine. The 1918

pandemic flu, the worst of the 20th century, is

estimated to have killed more than 50 million people

worldwide.

Alarm has risen because of the emergence of the most

dangerous strain to appear in decades -- the H5N1

avian flu. It has primarily struck birds, but about

200 people worldwide have contracted the disease, and

half have died. Experts project that the next pandemic

-- depending on severity and countermeasures -- could

kill 210,000 to 1.9 million Americans. To keep the 1.8

million federal workers healthy and productive through

a pandemic, the Bush administration would tap into its

secure stash of medications, cancel large gatherings,

encourage schools to close and shift air traffic

controllers to the busier hubs -- probably where flu

had not yet struck. Retired federal employees would be

summoned back to work, and National Guard troops could

be dispatched to cities facing possible

" insurrection, " said Jeffrey W. Runge, chief medical

officer at the Department of Homeland Security.

The administration hopes to help contain the first

cases overseas by rushing in medical teams and

supplies. " If there is a small outbreak in a country,

it may behoove us to introduce travel restrictions, "

Runge said, " to help stamp out that spark. " However,

even an effective containment effort would merely

postpone the inevitable, said Ellen P. Embrey, deputy

assistant secretary for force health preparedness and

readiness at the Pentagon. " Unfortunately, we believe

the forest fire will burn before we are able to

contain it overseas, and it will arrive on our shores

in multiple locations, " she said.

As Katrina illustrated, a central issue would be " who

is ultimately in charge and how the agencies will be

coordinated, " said former assistant surgeon general

Susan Blumenthal. The Department of Health and Human

Services would take the lead on medical aspects, but

Homeland Security would have overall authority, she

noted. " How are those authorities going to come

together? "

Essentially, the president would be in charge, the

White House official replied. Bush is expected to

adopt post-Katrina recommendations that a new

interagency task force coordinate the federal response

and a high-level Disaster Response Group resolve

disputes among agencies or states. Neither entity has

been created.

Analysts at the Government Accountability Office found

that earlier efforts by the administration to plan for

disasters were overly broad or simply sat on a shelf.

" Our biggest concern is whether an agency has a clear

idea of what it absolutely has to do, no matter what, "

said Linda Koontz, director of information management

issues at the GAO. " Some had three and some had 400

essential functions. We raised questions about whether

400 were really essential. " In several cases, agencies

never trained for or rehearsed emergency plans, she

said, causing concern that when disaster strikes,

" people will be sitting there with a 500-page book in

front of them. "

The federal government -- as well as private

businesses -- should expect as much as 40 percent of

its workforce to be out during a pandemic, said Bruce

Gellin, director of the National Vaccine Program

Office at HHS. Some will be sick or dead; others could

be depressed, or caring for a loved one or staying at

home to prevent spread of the virus. " The problem is,

you never know which 40 percent will be out, " he said.

The Agriculture Department, with 4 million square feet

of office space in metropolitan Washington alone,

would likely stagger shifts, close cafeterias and

cancel face-to-face meetings, said Peter Thomas, the

acting assistant secretary for administration. The

department has bought masks, gloves and hand

sanitizers, and has hired extra nurses and compiled a

list of retired employees who could be temporarily

rehired, he said. A 24-hour employee hotline would

provide medical advice and work updates. And as it did

during Katrina, Agriculture has contingency plans for

meeting the payrolls of several federal departments

totaling 600,000 people.

Similarly, the Commerce Department has identified its

eight priority functions, including the ability to

assign emergency communication frequencies, and how

those could be run with 60 percent of its normal

staff. Operating the largest health-care organization

in the nation, the VA has directed its 153 hospitals

to stock up on other medications, equipment, food and

water, said chief public health officer Lawrence

Deyton. " But it's a few days' worth, not enough to

last months, " he added.

Anticipating that some nurses may be home caring for

family members -- and to reduce the number of patients

descending on its hospitals -- the VA intends to put

nurses on its toll-free hotline to help veterans

decide whether they need professional medical care. At

many VA hospitals, nurses and doctors would stand in

the parking lots armed with thermometers and laptop

computers to do drive-through exams. Modeled after its

successful drive-through vaccination program last

fall, the parking-lot triage is intended to keep the

flow of patients moving rapidly, Deyton said.

Much of the federal government's plan relies on quick

distribution of medications and vaccine. The Strategic

National Stockpile has 5.1 million courses of Tamiflu

on hand. The goal is to secure 21 million doses of

Tamiflu and 4 million doses of Relenza by the end of

this year, and a total of 51 million by late 2008. In

addition, the administration will pay one-quarter of

the cost of antivirals bought by states. The Pentagon,

VA, USDA and Transportation Department have their own

stockpiles -- and most intend to buy more as it

becomes available.

Blumenthal, the former assistant surgeon general,

questioned why two years after Congress approved a

$5.6 billion BioShield program to develop new drugs

and vaccines, so little progress has been made.

Homeland Security's Runge has a different concern:

" One of the scariest thoughts is, if this country has

successfully developed a vaccine within six months of

an outbreak or our supply of antivirals is greater,

there may be a rush into the United States for those

things. " And even if those fears do not materialize,

officials have warned that the federal preparations go

only so far. Much is left to the states, communities

and even individuals. " Any community that fails to

prepare -- with the expectation that the federal

government can come to the rescue -- will be

tragically wrong, " HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said in

a speech April 10. The administration is posting

information on the Internet at

http://www.pandemicflu.gov .