here is a feature in 'the examiner' about donald rumsfeld having the potential to make mega bucks out of swine flu:
Thanks to media reporting on the swine flu, a pandemic wave of fear has already spread across our nation and world. People with only a cough or cold and virtually no chance of contact with the swine flu virus are staying home from work, some paralyzed by fear that they might die a victim of this impending pandemic being predicted by newspapers and TV news programs around the world. Yet what or who is really behind the swine flu and this pandemic of fear?
Newspaper headlines around America read like that of Monday's San Francisco Chronicle, "U.S. declares national health emergency." The venerable Center for Disease Control (CDC) states on their website, "If you are sick, you should stay home and avoid contact with other people as much as possible."
Yet we have to ask, should someone who lives in small town Nebraska with no chance of coming in contact with swine flu stay home if they get a cold? If your child has a cough, yet knows no one who has been to Mexico and no cases have been reported in your city, should they stay home? Why are the recommendations so out of proportion to the real risks? Is the media just feeding on the desire for sensationalism and spreading more fear than is warranted? Is the government acting out of proportion to the real danger?
To treat swine flu the CDC website states, "CDC recommends the use of oseltamivir or zanamivir for the treatment and/or prevention of infection with these swine influenza viruses." Oseltamivir is Tamiflu, the same drug recommended for the avian flu, which was promoted with such great fear only a few years ago. Yet Tamiflu was shown numerous times to be ineffective against avian flu, which in case you haven't noticed, never came close to being a pandemic.
In spite of its ineffectiveness for treating the avian flu, stock prices for the maker of Tamiflu, Gilead Sciences, soared because of sales of the drug, which was being recommended by the government as the best treatment. Few know that former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was chairman of the board of directors of Gilead in 1997.
Gilead stock increased so much that Britain's respected Telegraph reported on March 12, 2006 that Rumsfeld alone "made more than $5m (£2.9m) in capital gains from selling shares in the biotechnology firm that discovered and developed Tamiflu, the drug being bought in massive amounts by Governments to treat a possible human pandemic of [avian flu]."
Here are other key excerpts from that Telegraph article:
The drug was developed by a Californian biotech company, Gilead Sciences. Mr Rumsfeld was on the board of Gilead from 1988 to 2001, and was its chairman from 1997. He then left to join the Bush administration, but retained a huge shareholding. The 2005 report showed that, in all, he owned shares worth up to $95.9m, from which he got an income of up to $13m. The firm made a loss in 2003, the year before concern about bird flu started. Then revenues from Tamiflu almost quadrupled, to $44.6m, helping put the company well into the black. Sales almost quadrupled again, to $161.6m last year [2005].
Yet the massive stockpiles of Tamiflu built up by governments around the world to combat the impending avian flu pandemic were never needed. The pandemic never came close to happening. As prescription drugs like Tamiflu all have expiration dates that rarely go beyond a couple of years, the stockpiles are now all outdated and cannot be used. Thus Gilead is now gifted with another major opportunity in the current swine flu scare to fleece the public once again as it's stock prices soar.
How much can we trust government when huge profits are at stake? How much influence do the lobbyists of the huge pharmaceuticals have over our elected representatives? Is there a possibility that the government might even have had a hand in the creation of both the avian flu and swine flu? These are questions that warrant media and public attention as this current wave of fear spreads.
Regarding pharmaceutical lobbyists, a 2007 CBS News article states, "Congressmen are outnumbered two to one by lobbyists for an industry that spends roughly a $100 million a year in campaign contributions and lobbying expenses to protect its profits." Another powerful article shows how fear is used by certain wealthy, elite groups to manipulate the public and rake in the profits. Here are key excerpts from a revealing 2006 article in the Christian Science Monitor on the pandemic of fear created by government and media in relation to the avian flu.
Americans consider the United States to be a country where debate flourishes. Yet with regard to avian flu, hyped sound bites predominate. When President Bush asked Congress for $7.1 billion toward "pandemic flu preparedness," even his critics replied "not enough." What is lacking in the overall discussion about pandemic flu is disagreement, criticism, and skepticism - once the bedrock of science - from researchers willing to question and test the data. There are better ways to promote America's health than selling sickness through the language of fear.
Some experts publicly claimed that the avian flu was not a threat and was being used as hype. As one newspaper stated, "Dr. Marc Siegel, a practicing internist and associate professor of medicine at the New York University School of Medicine ... isn't buying into the scare scenario. 'If anything is contagious right now, it's judgment clouded by fear,' Siegel said." Notice the many similarities in all of this between the avian flu and swine flu.
At the same time as we question the media and government, we have to also ask ourselves, why are we so easily affected by fear and sensationalism in the media? Why is this what sells newspapers and TV news programs? What if instead of feeling an almost morbid fascination with all things sensational and fearful, we choose to look at fear as an opportunity for growth.
What if instead of imagining all of the terrible things that might happen to us, we imagine how in times of crisis we might come together to support each other and transform fear into love and community support? When we choose to shift fear within ourselves, a ripple effect is created which, when joined with the ripples of many others doing the same, create a wave of transformation which can pave the way for a brighter future for us all.
The box immediately below provides several ideas on what you can do to better educate yourself on the realities of the swine flu and the similar aspects of the avian flu scare, and to transform fear in yourself. We also invite you to comment below and let us know what you think. Does it serve the public for the government and media to promote such caution and fear in cases like the avian flu and swine flu?