Reply #27: This doesn't make sense to me [View All]

[muriel_volestrangler]

Some of these ideas -- such as stockpiling vaccines -- are sensible, whether or not bird flu turns into a human disease and begins to spread rapidly.

But other ideas aren't. A few scientists have suggested "priming" people with a dose of the new vaccine against H5N1 before we even know whether a pandemic is coming. Vaccinating large numbers of people against a disease that may never appear carries its own risks.

There's not point in having a vaccine if you don't use it. If you wait until the pandemic starts, it's too late - the vaccine takes time to have an effect. So why stockpile something that you have to use earlier rather than later - and by the time you know the pandemic has started, it'll be too late?