Features

The One and Only... · #1

Source: http://www.sploid.com/news/2005/11/who_profits_fro.php

Who profits from bird flu hysteria? Donald Rumsfeld!

As Sploid reported on Oct. 24, Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld had an interesting job before George W. Bush put him back in the Pentagon in 2001: Rumsfeld was chairman of the pharmaceutical giant that patented ... Tamiflu!

Now, Fortune Magazine has revealed that Rummy holds a stake in Gilead Sciences worth up to $25 million, and that the current avian flu hysteria has already earned him a cool million dollars.

Today, as Rumsfeld gives a live "briefing" on CNN telling Americans to get used to the slaughter of U.S. troops in Iraq by the thousands and Bush launches his administration's plans for a full-scale American flu pandemic, there is exactly one patented and incredibly profitable drug that could possibly prevent or deflect full symptoms of a human-transmitted version of the Avian Flu, and Rumsfeld himself is getting richer with every hysterical prescription filled.

The Mafia and the Colombian drug cartels could only dream of such total control of supply and demand.

Roche produces Gilead's cash cow Tamiflu, and sales are through the roof:

Roche last week said it had temporarily suspended sales of Tamiflu in countries including the U.S., Canada, Germany and Switzerland to fill government contracts and ensure availability at the start of the traditional flu season. Roche said each country unit is deciding whether to take the action based on supply.

U.S. drug stores filled more than 221,000 prescriptions for Tamiflu during the 10 weeks ended Oct. 21, more than five times the year-earlier total of almost 41,000, according to data released Oct. 26 by Verispan LLC, a research company in Yardley, Pennsylvania.

But Rumsfeld isn't the only member of this GOP-pharmaceutical elite. Nixon-Reagan-Bush I-Bush Jr. insider George Shultz is on Gilead's board and "has sold more than $7 million worth of Gilead since the beginning of 2005." Former California Gov. Pete Wilson's wife is also on the board.

"I don't know of any biotech company that's so politically well-connected," says analyst Andrew McDonald of Think Equity Partners in San Francisco.

George W. Bush seems giddy at the prospect of turning Rumsfeld's armies loose on the American people should the bird flu suddenly turn into a human-transmitted disease.

The major goal of his Avian Flu Plan is to take away Americans' rights to sue pharmaceutical corporations for making dangerous or even deadly vaccines and medicines.

He's watching out for Rumsfeld and the rest of his super-rich pals, as well: The federal government will spend more than $7 billion on the purchase of Tamiflu and development of a vaccine for a sickness that does not actually exist today. A whole $1 billion is marked specifically for buying government stockpiles of Tamiflu.

Donald Rumsfeld's hands may be dripping with the blood of thousands of American heroes who died on his commands, but he's also the "luckiest" guy in Washington!

FartinMowler · #2

It's all bullshit...I'm outside everyday in the summer working and have, first hand seen the West Nile dead birds and I'm fine :/ These "bird" things are all hyper news crap. I was thinking about the fact that people actually spend so much time analyzing news and what "might" happen and it's really sad you stupid sad fucks.

ziggytrix · #3

I dunno how true this is, but I heard on the radio that all influenza comes from birds, so "avian flu" is actually redundant. Furthermore, most influenza is bird-only, and humans can't catch it.

But all this panic over "what if the bird flu mutates to transmit person-to-person" - well what if HIV mutates to transmit respiratorily? We'd be pretty fucked then, wouldn't we. Or what if the flesh-eating bacteria from last year's (wasn't it?) media panic suddenly decided it was gonna be a big deal? Or SARS or MAD COW OR what if the SKY WAS FALLING? OH MY GOD WE'RE DOOMED!

DOOOOOOOOOMED!

Immortal Goat · #4

It just so happens that every time Bush or his henchmen are under fire, something like this pops up. Same with the terror alerts. They only went up when his approval ratings went down.

FartinMowler · #5

Ha...I just thought of WKRP and the episode they dropped Turkeys on a mall parking lot and didn't fly, only to explode on impact

MLE · #6

Ahahahaha Ahahahaha Ahahahaha

Good one.

mburbank · #7

Okay, Rumsfled pandemic profiteering aside.

Many strains of influenza start in all sorts of different animals, undergo a mutation and species jump. Swine flu for instance, is so called beacuse it started in pigs. Birds are somewhat more dangerous vectors, in that in addition to thir widespread trade as food animals, they migrate. Mostly pigs don't do that.

Influenza mutates very easily. AIDS, well known for it's opropensity to mutate does not do so half as well.

Because of it's high propensity to mutate and species jump, strains of Influenze humans have little or no immunities for that blossom into pandemics are statistical inevitabilities. Much more so than say, large scale terrorist attacks which are not statistical inevitablities. Pandemics occur less frequently than really big ass earthquakes, but three or four a century is not an outrageous prediction.

There is no way of knowing if the current avian flu will mutate and jump to humans. The widespread and growing of Avian flu in both domestic and migratory birds makes it potentially more dangerous than a new strain of influenze appearing in say, Tazmanian Devils. Preparing public health infrastructure to try to cope with an in as much as possible contain whatever tthe next Pandemic strikes me as a rasonable investment.

Sars and West Nile were unknowns, and the respons to both was overblown. Avian Flu is influenza. If people choose to panic, that's unfortunate as it won't help. But the degree of attention this is finally getting is entirely appropriatte.

Geggy · #8

I agree, max, that the bird flu is real and it poses real danger but do you think the bush administration might be exaggerating a little when they said 2 million people in america are expected to die from the epidemic? Seems they're using the fear tactic yet again for their own profit.

kahljorn · #9

I like how they used a shitload of money to make a vaccine that may or may not work. Not saying it's bad, but what the fuck. His theory behind it was that it, "Might help".

mburbank · #10

Oh, these guys can apply ineptitude, graft and money waste to anything. I'm just saying that Pandemics are real, and as of like six months ago, no one in government was paying any attention.

Now in most cases I'd say some attention is better than none, but this administration is so fucked up, I actually think it could achive the opposite, and drain needed money away into blind alleys and corruption.