Bush asking for more bioterror vaccines, drugs

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Misty

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Bush Asking for MORE Bioterror Vaccines, Drugs

> Dr. Doyle ® 01/30/2003, 07:11:16

 

Get ready to roll up your sleeve, if George Dubya has his way,

Americans will have to take MORE vaccines. He is also asking for

more " bioterror drugs. "

 

I wish that I had bought into Pharmaceutical stocks. Pharmaceutical

companies can't loose. They are virtually guaranteed freedom from

law suits from anyone one who was killed or serverely injured by the

vaccines and drugs they produce, moreover, with Bush's backing will

have a wider market to sell their products. This is a " win win "

situation for the companies and a " no win " situation for the public.

 

 

HREF= " http://news.findlaw.com/scripts/printer_friendly.pl?

page=/politics/s/20030129/bushbioterrordc.html " >

http://news.findlaw.com/scripts/printer_friendly.pl?

page=/politics/s/20030129/bushbioterrordc.html</A>

 

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--WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush on Tuesday proposed what he

called a comprehensive new plan to help protect Americans from

biological attack by speeding the development of new vaccines and

drugs.He asked Congress to allocate nearly $6 billion over 10 years

to develop new vaccines against the most likely germ weapons such as

anthrax, ebola, plague and botulinum toxin.

 

In his State of the Union Address he also asked that the Food and

Drug Administration be given powers to make experimental drugs

available for use in an emergency. He called the overall plan

Project Bioshield. "

 

The budget I send you will propose almost $6 billion to quickly make

available effective vaccines and treatments against agents like

anthrax, botulinum toxin, ebola and plague, " Bush said. " We must

assume that our enemies would use these diseases as weapons, and we

must act before the dangers are upon us.

 

" The United States has already started vaccinating 400,000 health

workers against smallpox, a disease eradicated in 1979. These

workers would then be ready to vaccinate the general public in case

there was a smallpox attack.There is also a vaccine against anthrax,

but because anthrax can be easily treated with antibiotics if it is

diagnosed in time, it is not widely used. Researchers are working on

a better version of an anthrax vaccine that would work in fewer than

the current six-dose regimen.

 

There was once a vaccine against plague, which can also be treated

with antibiotics, but the company that made it stopped in 1999. Work

is underway on a plague vaccine.

 

Experiments are underway to find a vaccine against Ebola, a recently

discovered and deadly virus that experts fear could be used as a

biological weapon.Botulinum toxin is best known as a food poisoning

agent and the ingredient in Botox injections used by plastic

surgeons and in medicine. It is highly deadly and work is underway

to develop anti-toxins that can counteract its effects.