Thursday, October 23, 2014

Indemnifying Pharma for Ebola Vaccines: Recipe for Problems?

When did pharmaceutical manufacturers demand to be indemnified by governments, when previously asked to produce vaccines?

First time:  1976 swine flu.  One soldier died of swine flu at Fort Dix, the virus never did spread through the US population, but 45 million Americans were vaccinated with an unecessary vaccine, several hundred developed Guillain Barre syndrome (GBS), and about 30 died from GBS.

Second time:  2009 Swine flu.  This H1N1 influenza A pandemic turned out to be no more dangerous than usual yearly flu A.  But adjuvanted Glaxo vaccine Pandemrix caused about 800 cases of narcolepsy in children, and additional cases in adults.

Now they want to be indemnified for Ebola vaccines.  What do the vaccine companies know about the risk, this time?  Once they gain indemnification. as they surely will, there is no incentive for them to make the safest vaccines.

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