Get Out of Dodge!

Get it at: Wikileaks

On the risk of Avian Pandemic Influenza (Avian/Bird Flu) negotiations at the World Health Organisation (WHO)

There’s not enough flu vaccine to go around in the event of a pandemic. If it happens, you can bet that the rich will be vaccinated, and the poor will suffer…. and that multinational drug companies will make a fortune. Remember Tamiflu?

Ever since Indonesia began withholding flu viruses from the WHO to protest the injustices of the system, governments have been trying to renegotiate the terms of international flu virus sharing. Although Indonesia, African countries, and others in Asia and Latin America have put detailed proposals on the table, wealthy countries are staunchly resisting making any major concessions to make the system more fair.
This text, drafted by the Australian chair of the WHO negotiating group, purports to be a balanced take on various countries proposals; but it’s not. It’s more like business as usual. Under the scheme put forward by Australia, developing countries would continue to be ripped off, and continue to submit their viruses to WHO “for global public health”, only to see those viruses claimed by multinational companies and put into products too expensive for them to afford.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 15th, 2008 at 6:53 pm and is filed under Pestilence. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.