
The last great swine flu epidemic  - peter123
http://www.salon.com/env/feature/2009/04/28/1976_swine_flu/index.html
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kyro
You know, the dark entrepreneur in me can't help but feel like all this swine
flu craze could be a great opportunity for someone to make some cash.

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rms
You can stock up on Indian generic Tamiflu in case of martial law. I'm not
sure how you could sell it without getting arrested (or just having it
seized). Craigslist probably wouldn't work.

[http://www.nicepricepharmacy.com/Products2.asp?ID=3543&T...](http://www.nicepricepharmacy.com/Products2.asp?ID=3543&T=a)
(this was listed for $79 48 hours ago)

~~~
falsestprophet
I bet one of the overseas pharmacies has an affiliate program.

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Tichy
It's easy to be all cool about it, as long as you are not coughing.

I have a hard time believing that there might be a huge crisis, but that
doesn't guarantee it won't happen. I bet the inhabitants of New Orleans never
expected to be drowned (just mentioning another example of cases where modern
life CAN be turned upside down).

Medicine doesn't seem to be very successful in stopping the normal (average)
flu, so I am not sure how effective countermeasures against a really bad flu
would even be.

As for politicians, I guess it is a difficult decision if a lot of lives are
at stake. What is worse - being called out for wasting a couple of billions on
catastrophe prevention for a catastrophe that never manifested, or being
called out for letting a catastrophe with millions of victims happen? (Not
sure how directly you could translate those billions spent on flu prevention
to other deaths that could have been prevented, but you get the idea).

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yters
Well, uh, where's the avian flu (late years' scare)?

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Tichy
What do you mean? I have never heard of "avian flu". The last bigger scare I
remember was SARS.

Maybe the current "scare" is all backed by the makers of Tamiflu, who earn
lots of money by now. Possible - just saying that another pandemic could be
possible, too. There are lots of diseases that medicine can't handle yet
(HIV?).

~~~
yters
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avian_influenza#H5N1>

