Bird Flu 'Oddities'

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Flu 'Oddities'

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Flu 'Oddities' Hot Articles are below the Breaking News.

FLU 'ODDITIES' BREAKING NEWS

Last updated: 02/16/2006 17:19:07

Bird flu pandemic would 'kill millions, shut down economy' 16 Feb 2006 Modelling of the consequences of a global outbreak of bird flu has predicted a worldwide recession and a massive death toll. Two papers have been released showing the likely impact of a pandemic.

Bird flu could kill 214,000 Aussies 16 Feb 2006 A serious worldwide outbreak of avian flu could kill up to 214,000 Australians, according to new projections by experts. The research shows the world death toll from a disastrous bird flu pandemic could be as high as 142 million, or 2.2 per cent of the earth's population, Fairfax newspapers report.

Hastert, Frist said to rig bill for drug firms 09 Feb 2006 Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert engineered a backroom legislative maneuver to protect pharmaceutical companies from lawsuits, say witnesses to the pre-Christmas power play. The language was tucked into a Defense Department appropriations bill at the last minute without the approval of members of a House-Senate conference committee, say several witnesses, including a top Republican staff member. Beyond the issue of vaccine liability protection, some say going around the longstanding practice of bipartisan House-Senate conference committees' working out compromises on legislation is a dangerous power grab by Republican congressional leaders that subverts democracy.

Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (Defense Department FY2006 Appropriations bill) The new law providing vaccine makers with protection against lawsuits --Among its key provisions are: It allows the secretary of Health and Human Services to issue a declaration that a "disease or other health condition or other threat to health constitutes a public health emergency." The secretary may also issue a declaration if there is a "credible risk" that there may be such a problem in the future. Excludes any state or federal court from reviewing the secretary's decisions under the law.

Democrats seek to repeal US vaccine liability law [passed in secret by the GOP] 15 Feb 2006 Congressional Democrats on Wednesday introduced legislation that would repeal a law that gives vaccine, drug and medical device makers broad protection against lawsuits in a public health or bioterror emergency. Massachusetts Democrat Sen. Edward Kennedy and 20 other House and Senate Democrats wrote a letter to Republican leaders saying, "The provision included in the bill is not limited to vaccines for pandemic flu or other major threats to the nation's health, but could instead be used to allow manufacturers of virtually any drug or vaccine to escape responsibility for gross negligence or even criminal acts." [When the avian flu pandemic arrives, the corpora-terrorists will pressue the Bush regime to make a vaccine mandatory, and there will be no recourse. Do you really trust the people who brought you the reponse to Hurricane Katrina (thousands dead) to handle a response to avian flu? Bush said in October 2005 that he would consider using the military to "effect a quarantine" in the event of an outbreak of pandemic influenza in the United States. In January 2006, KBR was awarded a Homeland Security contract worth up to $385M with four 1-year options to expand existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations Program facilities in the event of an emergency.]

Mass. says Wal-Mart must stock morning-after pill 14 Feb 2006 A Massachusetts regulatory board voted on Tuesday to require Wal-Mart stores to stock morning-after contraceptives, two weeks after three women in the state sued Wal-Mart for refusing to fill orders for the pills.

Bird flu spreading across Europe 15 Feb 2006 Two swans found dead in northern Germany have the virulent H5N1 bird flu virus, officials say, marking the first such cases in the country.

Germany says first cases of H5N1 bird flu found in swans 14 Feb 2006 The German government said that preliminary tests on two dead swans showed they were apparently infected by the H5N1 strain of bird flu.