H1N1 is a particular strain of influenza A that has made its way around the world and vaccination against this strain is being done separate from the seasonal flu shot. Concern over this strain is related to its virulence and early reports of death amongst young, immunocompetent individuals - people normally not adversely affected by influenza.
The common cold and the flu are not the same thing - there is a believed to be a high mortality from influenza ( http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/163/2/181 ) as compared to the cold (corona virus (with exception of SARSCoV, rhinovirus - deaths generally related to asthmatic patients). 40,000+ deaths per year is a significant mortality rate. Morbidity from influenza would be much more. It makes it difficult to believe that it should be overlooked.
Due to a long history of unethical behavior in the medical field, there are stringent requirements that require one to show a need for research and to demonstrate safety concerns before one can begin an investigation.
This often means that simple experiments that could show benefit and harm of an intervention will not be done because of a large body of circumstantial evidence.
There has to be a fairly even view of outcomes on both sides of a trial before it will be approved - or other studies showing possible efficacy of the side that is under question will need to be done first.
When these situations arise, one can often perform the experiment in a subset of the population in which vaccine efficacy is questioned and benefits are unknown.
The population of HIV infected individuals is one such population and there are double-blind placebo controlled trials done in this group.
The annals of internal medicine (an American College of Phyicians publication) http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/full/131/6/430 published an investigation showing the efficacy of the influenza vaccine in a population that was least likely to benefit from it. While mortality data is not available here, its results stand on their own as a testament to the clinical efficacy of the vaccine.
Bristol-Meyer-Squibb - a new york company getting federal help: http://www.cptech.org/ip/health/taxol/
novartis (not even a US company) benefitted from US gov money while developing imatinib:
http://medicynic.com/2008/03/04/generics-on-the-rise-get-glivec-gleevec-in-india/
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/01/26/stories/2006012601150500.htm
Here is some reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayh-Dole_Act - look specifically at the ritonavir section
Definitely not trolling, but missing the mark. The drugs only cost that much in the US - the rest of the world gets fairly fair prices from US/non-US pharma companies benefiting (sometimes indirectly) from US government funding.
Lets say I want to legally sell product X. A take down notice is issued and product X is delisted after a number of bids. I file a counterclaim and it doesn't go back up. I switch to say yahoo auctions (if it still exists?). Someone bids half of what the high bid on ebay was and it sells. I decide that ebay has now interfered with my business of selling second-hand goods. I think I might be able to make a case for liability.
amazing how a little "children can actually use" and "all slashdot readers" juxtaposition can lead an insightful comment to +5 funny. you know, a little mixed bag wouldn't have hurt (I just ran out of mod points).
The way I see it, we are in a good disposition to try and judge the technology. Readers of
and by capturing THAT generated wind and driving it back to the cities, we can power more machines to produce more heat! The less efficient the system the more heat we can produce! Bring back the incandescents!
Just when you thought I was done - there's more! By eliminating the birds, we reduce the reservoir for west nile... days at the beach are so much safer when aerial bombardment is taken off the table.
The boats on the Hudson wouldn't need to worry about planes making emergency landings.
Scarecrows could find better jobs...
Rodents could come out of hiding... lest there be cats...
Insects will only need to worry about man...
People pondering on dreary midnights don't need to fear ravens gently rapping, rapping at their chamber doors.
Children will realize that storks couldn't have possibly brought them...
the reservoir for rabies would be gone (ok this is bats, but come on - I had a good run with the birds).
I agree with the notion that corporate taxes are not necessarily passed on as it it post expense money that is taxed. They get to right off the development and production costs as it is, so it is only the money that reaches the corporations pockets that are taxed.
It may be prudent to scale these back - so long as you simultaneously put in place capital gains taxes and adequate taxes on dividends to compensate for this. Also, I don't buy the double taxation bit. Corporations provide protection to the investors and to some degree employees and board members against crimes of the corporation. If they are to be treated as separate entities, than they should do their part in maintaining the governments expenses.
As to dropping wages in california as a response to unemployment - minimum wage is $8 - federal min wage is $6.55. The best min wage you can get ni china is comperable to 60c per hour. Competition does not apply.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S.A._minimum_wages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage_law
I am assuming people pay for their orders
sorry, couldn't resist.
Never trust a computer you can't repair yourself.
