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    • Topic: 
    • Contaminated Flu Vaccines....
  • From: Baelladonna
  •   To: All
  • 1 of 1
  • 3/12/09
I was just wondering why I haven't seen any coverage of this story on ABC. Apparently Baxter International Shipped a slew of vaccines that were contaminated with a highly infectious form of the avian flu.

Here's the article I got the story from. And here's another one that really burned me up.

Here's an excerpt from the first article:
"Baxter International Inc. in Austria 'unintentionally contaminated samples with the bird flu virus that were used in laboratories in 3 neighbouring countries, raising concern about the potential spread of the deadly disease'. Austria, Germany, Slowenia and the Czech Republic - these are the countries in which labs were hit with dangerous viruses. Not by bioterrorist commandos, but by Baxter. In other words: One of the major global pharmaceutical players seems to have lost control over a virus which is considered by many virologists to be one of the components leading some day to a new pandemic."
Or, put another way, Baxter is acting a whole lot like a biological terrorism organization these days, sending deadly viral samples around the world. If you mail an envelope full of anthrax to your Senator, you get arrested as a terrorist. So why is Baxter -- which mailed samples of a far more deadly viral strain to labs around the world -- getting away with saying, essentially, "Oops?"

But there's a bigger question in all this: How could this company have accidentally mixed LIVE avian flu viruses (both H5N1 and H3N2, the human form) in this vaccine material?
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Apparently it's getting a lot of coverage in various european outlets, but I haven't seen any coverage here in the US. I'm constantly reminded by my doctor and pharmacist every fall to 'get my flu vaccine' as if it's as good for you as eating your green vegetables. I've always been skeptical, ever since my mother got one and came down with a nasty reaction.

Now I read this story and it's almost apparent that this contamination could not have happened by mistake. And if it did, this company should be out of business! I'm outraged and flabbergasted as to why such an important story, that could potentially impact every man woman and child on the planet isn't getting coverage on ABC in the US.
 
 
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