i need more info..flu vaccine

[movie_girl99]

i posted a thread last week about a freep in my office spouting shite about the shortage of flu vaccine having something to do with John Edwards. Now i get this from my ex-husband:
How the vaccine works:
>
> Influenza vaccine is produced by growing the virus
> in eggs. The
> virus is killed and processed to create the vaccine,
> which is given by
> injection under the skin. The body then produces
> antibodies to the virus
> over the next two to four weeks. If the immunized
> person then comes into
> contact with the influenza virus, the antibodies
> attack and kill the
> virus before it has a chance to cause infection. The
> vaccine contains
> the 3 most likely strains to be active during the
> "flu season".
>
> Why the shortage:
>
> Almost half of the nation's flu vaccine will not be
> delivered
> this year. Chiron, a major manufacturer of flu
> vaccine, will not be
> distributing any influenza vaccine this flu season.
> Chiron was to make
> 46-48 million doses vaccine for the United States.
> Chiron is a British
> company. Recently British health officials stopped
> Chiron from
> distributing and making the vaccine when inspectors
> found unsanitary
> conditions in the labs. Some lots of the vaccine
> were recalled and
> destroyed.
>
> Why is our vaccine made in the UK and not the US?
>
> The major pharmaceutical companies in the US
> provided almost 90% of
> the nations flu vaccine at one time. They did this
> despite a very
> low profit margin for the product. Basically, they
> were doing us a
> favor. In the late 80's a man from North Carolina
> who had received the
> vaccine got the flu. The strain he caught was one of
> the strains in that
> years vaccine made by a US company. What did he do?
> He sued and he won.
> He was awarded almost $5 million! After that case
> was appealed and lost,
> most US pharmaceutical companies stopped making the
> vaccine. The
> liability out weighed the profit margin. Since UK
> and Canadian laws
> prohibit such frivolous law suits UK and Canadian
> companies began
> selling the vaccine in the US.
>
>
> By the way...the lawyer that represented the man in
> the flu shot
> law suit was a young ambulance chaser by the name of
> John Edwards.
>
Any ideas/advice as to what I can come back at him with?

[Branjor]

1. Chiron is based in California.......n/t

[sharp_stick]

2. Reply to Freeper Moron

The manufacturing start to the email is basically true.

Chiron is an American company, it has its vaccine production facilities in Britain.

John Edwards had nothing to do with any lawsuit against a manufacturer for flu vaccine. Ask him to prove it, he'll find nothing but urban legend sites. Why oh why do freep idiots so want to believe in urban legends that can be so easily disproved?

Pharmaceutical companies in the US don't make vaccine because it doesn't make economic sense for them to do it. If the government guaranteed a certain number of sold shots it would go a long way to reviving the practice. Making the vaccine is easy, predicting the strain is hard and that part of the job goes to the CDC in any case. The manufacturers do not try to predict the strain, thereby relieving themselves of legal liability as in the case of the really dumb John Edwards lie.

The reason we are short flu vaccine is that the government refuses to guarantee purchase of a certain number of shots. IMO a relatively cheap expense if it can reduce the average 35,000 deaths in this country every year from influenza. 35,000 deaths BTW is a non-epidemic normal year.

[Meryton]

3. faux news, says snopes

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/flushot.asp

saw this pile of you know what yesterday

[movie_girl99]

4. oh geez this is fabulous!! thanks!

one of the arseholes in my office spouted this same crap last week. Its amazing how this sh*t makes the rounds.