Diseased African Monkeys Used to Make Swine Flu Vaccines; Private Military Contractor Holds Key Patents

Mike Adams

Natural News
Wednesday, August 5, 2009

To most people, vaccines sound medically harmless. “They’re good for you!” say the doctors and drug companies, but they never really talk about what’s in those vaccines. There’s a good reason for that: If people knew what was really in those vaccines, they would never allow themselves to be injected with them.

Aside from the dangerous ingredients many people already know about (like squalene or thimerosal), one of the key ingredients used in flu vaccines (including the vaccines being prepared for the swine flu pandemic) is the diseased flesh of African Green Monkeys. This is revealed in U.S. patent No. 5911998 – Method of producing a virus vaccine from an African green monkey kidney cell line. (http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5…)

As this patent readily explains, ingredients used in the vaccine are derived from the kidneys of African Green Monkeys who are first infected with the virus, then allowed to fester the disease, and then are killed so that their diseased organs can be used make vaccine ingredients. This is done in a cruel, inhumane “flesh factory” environment where the monkeys are subjected to a process that includes “incubating said inoculated cell line to permit proliferation of said virus.” Then: “harvesting the virus resulting from step (c); and… (ii) preparing a vaccine from the harvested virus.”

Aside from the outrageous cruelty taking place with all this (”incubating” the virus in the kidneys of living monkeys, for example), there’s another disturbing fact that has surfaced in all this: The patent for this process is held not just by the National Institutes of Health, but by another private corporation known as DynCorp.

This, of course, brings up the obvious question: Who is Dyncorp? And why do they hold a patent on live attenuated vaccine production using African Green Monkeys?

What you probably didn’t want to know about Dyncorp

DynCorp, it turns out, is a one of the top private military contractors working for the U.S. government. In addition to allegedly trafficking in under-age sex slaves in Bosnia (http://www.corpwatch.org/article.ph…) and poisoning rural farmers in Ecuador with its aerial spraying of Colombian coca crops (http://www.corpwatch.org/article.ph…), Dyncorp just happens to be paid big dollars by the U.S. government to patrol the U.S. / Mexico border, near where the H1N1 first swine flu virus was originally detected.

DynCorp also happens to be in a position to receive tremendous financial rewards from its patents covering attenuated live viral vaccine harvesting methods, as described in four key patents jointly held by DynCorp and the National Institutes of Health:

(6025182) Method for producing a virus from an African green monkey kidney cell line

(6117667) Method for producing an adapted virus population from an African green monkey kidney cell line (http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6…)

(5911998) Method of producing a virus vaccine from an African green monkey kidney cell line

(5646033) African green monkey kidney cell lines useful for maintaining viruses and for preparation of viral vaccines

Government collusion?

One of the key inventors in these patents now held by DynCorp was Dr. Robert H. Purcell. Who is Dr. Robert Purcell? He’s one of the co-chiefs of the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases operating under the National Institutes of Health of the U.S. government. (http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/labs/abou…)

That office, located at 50 South Drive, Bethesda, MD 20892, is less than 15 miles away from the headquarters of DynCorp.

It’s not too many more miles to Washington D.C., where U.S. government health authorities awarded over $1 billion in swine flu vaccine contracts to pharmaceutical companies. Can you guess which company received one of the largest vaccine manufacturing contracts? Baxter Pharmaceuticals, the very same company using ingredients derived from African Green Monkeys in precisely the way described in the patents held jointly by DynCorp and the NIH. Remember, Baxter is the company that was caught inserting live viruses into vaccine materials distributed to 18 different countries.

Are you following all this?

So far, we have the U.S. government awarding swine flu vaccine manufacturing contracts to a major U.S. vaccine manufacturer (Baxter) that uses vaccine ingredients from African Green Monkeys (sick!), derived from a process covered in a patent invented by U.S. government NIH researchers (Dr. Purcell and others) and now held jointly by the NIH and a private military contractor named DynCorp — the very same company that’s paid to monitor the U.S. / Mexico border where H1N1 swine flu first appeared.

And just today, there’s yet another development in all this: A Tamiflu-resistant strain of swine flu has just been discovered. Care to guess where? On the U.S.-Mexico border (http://www.google.com/hostednews/af…).

Once you understand all this, some obvious questions come to mind: Could H1N1 swine flu have been intentionally created and released into the wild (in Mexico) in order to create a windfall of vaccine profits that would financially benefit both the drug companies and the vaccine production patent holders? Because it certainly appears that a grand conspiracy between the NIH, the vaccine makers and private military contractors could have pulled this off.

But wait: Would a private military contractor really resort to such tactics just to make money?

Decide for yourself. Dyncorp has already been accused of crimes against humanity and genocide (http://www.corpwatch.org/section.ph…). According to the Wikipedia page on Dyncorp: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DynCor…)

Since the late 1990s, the United States has paid private contractors an estimated $1.2 billion, both to eradicate coca crops and to assist the Colombian army put down rebels that use the illegal drug trade to finance their insurgency. DynCorp has been awarded under competitive bid more of this business than any other company. In September 2001, a group of Ecuadorian farmers filed a class-action lawsuit against DynCorp under the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), the Torture Victim Protection Act and state law claims in US federal court in the District of Columbia. The plaintiffs claimed that from January to February 2001 DynCorp sprayed the herbicide almost daily, in a reckless manner, causing severe health problems (high fever, vomiting, diarrhea, dermatological problems) and the destruction of food crops and livestock of approximately 10,000 residents of the border region. In addition, the plaintiffs alleged that the toxicity of the fumigant caused the deaths of four infants in this region. The plaintiffs alleged under ATCA that DynCorp’s intensive aerial spraying of a toxic fumigant amounted to torture, a crime against humanity and cultural genocide.

And on the issue of DynCorp’s people engaging in the sex slave trade:

According to whistleblower Ben Johnston, a former aircraft mechanic who worked for [DynCorp] in Bosnia, employees and supervisors of a predecessor company to today’s DynCorp International engaged in sex with 12 to 15 year old children, and sold them to each other as slaves.

On June 2, 2000, members of the 48th Military Police Detachment conducted a sting on the DynCorp hangar at Comanche Base Camp, one of two U.S. bases in Bosnia, and all DynCorp personnel were detained for questioning. CID spent several weeks working the investigation and the results appear to support Johnston’s allegations. For example, according to DynCorp employee Kevin Werner’s sworn statement to CID, “during my last six months I have come to know a man we call ‘Debeli,’ which is Bosnian for fat boy. He is the operator of a nightclub by the name of Harley’s that offers prostitution. Women are sold hourly, nightly or permanently.”

Could this same company — which admittedly sprays poison on family farms in Colombia and Ecuador — have engaged in another crime against humanity with the release of swine flu virus in Mexico?

Important questions that need to be asked (and answered)

This apparent conspiracy brings up several important questions that need to be answered:

1) Why are key viral vaccine patents jointly held by the NIH and a large private military contractor?

2) Given the atrocious vaccine material handling safety record of Baxter Pharmaceuticals, why did the U.S. government choose Baxter to manufacture vaccines for public consumption?

3) Why is no one talking about the African Green Monkeys who are infected, incubated and then killed for harvesting vaccine ingredients used in the swine flu vaccine?

4) Is it just coincidence that the swine flu virus (and now the Tamiflu-resistant mutation of the virus) first appeared at the U.S. / Mexico border near where DynCorp has a security presence?

5) Why would the inventors of a key vaccine technology agree to hand over ownership of the patent to a private military contractor like DynCorp?

6) Why has nobody in the mainstream media noticed any of this yet (or not bothered to report on it?)

7) How much money is DynCorp collecting on the vaccine patents due to the sudden large-scale manufacture of swine flu vaccines taking place right now?

Why does the U.S. government continue to do business with criminally-minded organizations and incompetent vaccine manufacturers?

The pieces of the puzzle (opinion)

It’s difficult to consider all the evidence presented here and not come to the rational conclusion that something sinister is afoot in America today. Let me paint a picture for you of a plausible scenario of what I think is happening right now. Note, carefully, that this is merely speculation, but it’s a theory that makes sense:

Back in the late 1990’s, evil leaders of the U.S. government decided they needed to launch a covert population control measure that could reduce the population while deflecting blame for the deaths. The obvious choice for this was a viral pandemic, so using the viral samples and knowledge already attained by U.S. Army virologists, they engineered a combination swine / avian / human influenza virus patterned after the 1918 influenza that devastated the world population nearly a century ago. The plan, of course, would be to release the virus into the wild and let nature do the rest.

But killing off a lot of people isn’t profitable enough all by itself. The plan is a lot smarter if you add a profit center to it… and that’s where the vaccines come into play. First, the patents had to be secured in order to guarantee profitability. DynCorp was offered partial ownership of the patents (together with the National Institutes of Health) in exchange for its responsibility to covertly release the engineered virus in Mexico, assuring the global spread of the next influenza pandemic. It will be paid back in patent royalties from the pharmaceutical companies that are awarded the government-funded vaccine manufacturing contracts.

Baxter was chosen by the U.S. government precisely because of its expertise in inserting live viruses into vaccine materials. And just to make sure the drug companies would play along, the U.S. government (under the Bush administration) granted them all complete immunity against product liability for all vaccines. This removed any financial risk from the drug companies while setting the stage for a massive human die-off following the vaccine injections.

Once the injections begin and people start dying, the deaths will simply be blamed on the virus itself. The drug companies have complete legal immunity, and DynCorp gets its share of the profits as the holder of the patents. Key conspirators are rewarded with bonus stock options and / or the threat of being killed if they talk.

Through this plan, several important things are accomplished:

1) The population gets reduced (with no blame on the national leaders).

2) Billions of dollars get funneled to powerful corporations.

3) The pandemic outbreak itself allows government to declare a State of Emergency where yet more rights and freedoms can be stolen away from the People. (And companies like DynCorp can be hired to run domestic prison camps or “isolation camps.”)

4) The government and the pharmaceutical industry both get to position themselves as “heroic” for apparently attempting to stop the pandemic with vaccines. No matter how many people actually die, Big Pharma will claim many more would have died without the vaccine.

5) Those who survive the pandemic (and the vaccine) become immune compromised due to the vaccine, and they later emerge as repeat customers for future medical procedures (cancer, Parkinson’s, etc.).

Of course, this is all just a theory. Some people might even call it a paranoid theory. But I ask them one question: Why does a top U.S. military contractor share ownership of key vaccine patents with the U.S. government’s National Institutes of Health?

Merely attempting to explain that will lead you down the path to all kinds of eye-opening information about collusion between government, the pharmaceutical industry and the military-industrial complex. And you know what they all have in common? They’re all promoters of death.

But it’s not enough to just kill you; they want to make money while they’re doing it.

Read your history

Finally, I feel the need to preempt the naive critics who will inevitably post comments to this story like, “Corporations and governments would never knowingly harm people for power or profit.”

Such naivete is almost not worth responding to, but I’ll do it in advance just to be sure: Read your world history. Not only is world history full of examples of governments and corporations knowingly harming people for profit, it could be accurately stated that world history is largely a collection of precisely such things!

Read your Noam Chomsky, or Naomi Klein, or Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins. His newest book is a real eye-opener about the way governments really work: The Secret History of the American Empire: The Truth About Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and How to Change the World (http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Histor…).

Although I can’t prove it yet, I believe this current swine flu vaccine push is also part of a grand military-industrial-pharmaceutical conspiracy designed to harm the people while extracting huge profits. Only time will tell if this is an accurate assessment of the current situation.

In the mean time, you may wish to avoid being injected with viral material taken from African Green Monkeys (unless you’re some sort of sicko).

Sources for this story include:
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DynCor…

Corpwatch.org:
http://www.corpwatch.org/section.ph…

Patentstorm.us:
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5…

DynCorp:
http://www.dyn-intl.com

US To Buy H1N1 Vaccines From Four Firms

FYI – The standard “aduvant” in flu vaccine is Thimerasol (mercury salts) and the preservative is formaldehyde.

(Updates with amounts of contracts and adds details throughout.)

Nasdaq.com
By Jennifer Corbett Dooren
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The U.S. government signed contracts with four companies worth a total of almost $1 billion to purchase ingredients used to make vaccines against the new H1N1 influenza virus.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Monday that the department will commit $884 million to purchase supplies of two key ingredients for a potential H1N1 vaccine.

The funds will be used to place additional orders for bulk H1N1 antigen and adjuvant on existing contracts with U.S. units of Sanofi-Aventis SA (SNY) and AstraZeneca Plc (AZN), along with GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK) and Novartis AG ( NVS). In May, the government earmarked $1 billion to spend on vaccine development. The bulk of the additional contracts announced Monday goes to Novartis with a contract worth about $690 million. Sanofi’s contract is worth about $61.4 million; Glaxo’s totaled $71.4 million while a contract signed with AstraZeneca’s MedImmune unit totals about $61 million.

Antigen is the active ingredient in a vaccine that causes the human body’s immune system to develop antibodies that help fight an invading virus, HHS said. An adjuvant boosts the body’s response to a vaccine and could potentially reduce the amount of antigen necessary for the body to recognize and fight a virus.

The government said vaccine ingredients will become a part of the pandemic stockpile, for use if a vaccination campaign is necessary. Last week, federal officials said they were planning for a vaccination campaign aimed at school-age children, the age group among the hardest hit by the new virus that was first detected in April. Vaccinating health-care workers would also be a top priority.

Any H1N1 influenza vaccines would be administered separately from seasonal influenza vaccines because production is almost complete for seasonal vaccines.

Vaccine makers are currently developing H1N1 influenza vaccine pilot lots that would be used for tests that are expected to start next month. The Food and Drug Administration is planning a meeting next week to discuss the clinical trials.

The earliest doses of an H1N1 influenza vaccine wouldn’t be available until mid-October and that’s assuming clinical tests show the proposed H1N1 vaccines are safe and likely to be effective.

Federal officials have said they expect tests and the manufacturing process of H1N1 vaccines would be similar to the process for seasonal vaccines. Any H1N1 vaccine campaign would likely be carried out over a several-week period as additional vaccine becomes available. Initially the government is expected to control the vaccine supply and could partner with local health departments and schools to deliver the vaccine.

Separately, a new study of the H1N1 virus published online in the journal Nature Monday suggests the virus is stronger than previously believed. Research led by Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, showed the H1N1 virus infects the lungs of mice, ferrets and monkeys, making the virus more likely to cause pneumonia compared to seasonal flu, which typically infects cells in the sinuses and throat. Researchers said tests of antiviral drugs in mice showed the drugs worked and suggested the drugs will be effective at combating H1N1 infections in humans.

-By Jennifer Corbett Dooren, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9294; jennifer.corbett@dowjones.com

  (END) Dow Jones Newswires
  07-13-091738ET
  Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

Virologist to make his case for lab origin of swine flu

PETER’S NEW YORK, Wednesday, July 1, 2009–The scientist who made headlines in May by positing a laboratory origin for the swine flu that has swept the world will defend his theory in the scientific literature, Peter’s New York has learned.

Dr. Adrian Gibbs, a Canberra, Australia-based virologist with more than 200 scientific publications to his credit, said that over the weekend he submitted his latest work on the swine flu to a prominent scientific journal, and is awaiting a response.

Gibbs, 75, was part of a team that developed the antiviral drug Tamiflu.

Dr. Adrian Gibbs, Australian Virologist, on Bloomberg TV

Back in April, when the first cases of swine flu were diagnosed in Mexico, Gibbs examined the genetic structure of the virus that had been posted on a public database. His analysis led him to speculate that the virus may have been the result of a laboratory error. He contacted the Geneva, Switzerland-based World Health Organization with his conjecture, and scientists there scrutinized his findings, concluding, however, that the virus was most likely a product of nature.

In a series of email exchanges with Peter’s New York, Gibbs said he was not satisfied with the WHO’s critique, indicating that the basis for it was ambiguous.

“The WHO stated that they had no evidence to support my suggestion,” Gibbs said. “They made a very fair statement. However the principle reason for my conclusion remains-that none of the genes of the new virus had been sampled/found/caused epidemics since at least 2000, despite probably coming from at least two different parents on two continents, where other strains had been sampled.”

Gibbs said that might have been a coincidence, but the unusual placement of the virus on what what virologists call phylogenetic trees-a sort of schematic family history of the virus–also peeked his interest.  On top of that, Gibbs observed that there was a lack of evidence that pig populations in North America, from which the virus is believed to have emerged, had been infected. Only the pigs on one farm in Canada have as yet been shown to have contracted the virus.

It has been established, said Gibbs, that swine easily contract the new flu from humans, and spread it among themselves. The absence of infection in the North American swine, Gibbs noted, may be evidence that the swine had already contracted the disease and built up immunity, or that they were vaccinated against viruses that resembled the novel swine flu closely enough for them to have been protected against it. Gibbs said the one Canadian herd that came down with the novel swine flu had not been inoculated, and that the evidence therefore leans toward inoculation as the reason North American pigs are disease free. That, in turn, would support a theory, according to Gibbs, that “the virus in the vaccine may be the immediate progenitor of the new human virus.”

Gibbs said he would have been more satisfied if scientists at the WHO had examined the lists of all the vaccines licensed for production in the United States and Mexico and determined that none of them harbored strains from which the swine flu could have descended. He said he had been unable to locate such lists to make the determination himself.

Gibbs spells out fairly clearly how he thinks the new virus might have emerged due to a laboratory error. In manufacturing a vaccine, each of the viruses to be protected against must first be bred and then sterilized to prevent their further multiplication. When a subject is inoculated, the body reacts to the “killed” viral fragments and produces antibodies that provide protection against the live virus. Gibbs said that if the sterilization process was not carried out properly, pigs could end up being given live viruses, and instead of being protected, would contract the disease. The live viruses would then have a chance to multiply and exchange genetic material within the infected pig in a process known as reassortment, and a new virus could emerge and spread to humans as a “swine flu.”

The study of viruses is overlaid with a complex nomenclature and labyrinthine concepts and arguments in the field of genetics that are unfamiliar to the average layman. But the implications are far reaching, a fact not lost on the general public or on Gibbs.

Early this year, the Deerfield, Ill. based drug firm Baxter International Inc. shipped experimental vaccines for human flu that were contaminated with the bird flu. The cocktail of influenzas, if it had not been discovered by alert laboratory specialists in the Czech Republic in February, could have been administered to subjects, after which, some experts feared, the two viruses could have undergone reassortment, producing a new virus that possessed the lethality of bird flu and the communicability of human flu. Bird flu is a deadly disease that kills close to half its victims, but resists spread from human to human. Human flu, on the other hand, is far more benign, but is easily spread through human contact. A recombined virus with the characteristics of each of the two could conceivably wipe out almost half the world’s population.

Gibbs steers clear of elaborate intrigues that some believe are behind the new flu’s emergence. “Whenever I’ve thought something has resulted from a conspiracy, it usually turns out to be from a ‘cock-up,’” he said. The importance of establishing whether or not the flu emerged from a laboratory, he emphasized, is “to try to avoid a recurrence.”

He did admit, however, that there was a definite risk to the public of escaping pathogens held in government and private facilities.

“There are many historical precedents that are conveniently forgotten,” said Gibbs. “The recent Baxter incident seems to have been one.”

“The reappearance in 1977 of the H1N1 (virus) last seen in 1950 after a period of non-evolution,”  which he speculated could represent “suspended animation in a freezer,” was another instance in which pathogens might have escaped from a laboratory. Gibbs also cited the escape of foot-and-mouth disease from a British government laboratory facility in 2007.

Asked if the resurrection of the viral agent for the deadly 1918 “Spanish” flu, which was reconstituted in 2005 by scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for research purposes, was a safe proposition, he answered, “No, definitely not.”

“It’s exactly the same principle as should apply to all high security labs,” said Gibbs. “If it ain’t ‘there’ it can’t get out, whereas if it is, then there is always the possibility, however remote, that it might get out.”

The 1918 flu, which spread to every corner of the globe in the two years immediately following World War I, had a rate of lethality some 30 to 50 times greater than other strains of human flu. Tens of millions of people died in the pandemic worldwide.

While some aspects of his presentation have been updated, Gibbs said his basic premise remains unchanged, and has, in fact, been reinforced by recent additions to the scientific literature.

And while the WHO gave the appearance of having put the final nail in the coffin of Gibbs’s theory, in a rare show of scientific honesty for a public institution, it affixed the lid rather loosely, leaving itself room to revisit Gibbs’s hypothesis once it is published.

In the mid-May press conference in which the WHO addressed Gibbs’s analysis, which by that time has spread far and wide throughout the mainstream media, Assistant Director Keiji Fukuda praised the virologist who had contributed to the field for more than fifty years of professional work, calling Gibbs “a credible scientist, a credible virologist.”

In answer to a reporter’s question about whether Gibbs’s theory had been refuted, Fukuda said: “I think that it is fair to say that in the world of science, nothing is ever totally excluded, nothing is ever ended.” On the issue of whether Gibbs’s theory may actually prove true or not, he said: “We feel very comfortable based on the analyses which have been done, based on the rigor in which it has been looked at, that we are not dealing with a laboratory-created virus. However, I do not expect that the debate itself will stop.”

The world awaits Gibbs’s response.

www.petersnewyork.com

Internal Glaxo Smith Kline memo: Free hallucinogenic Tamiflu for employees!

Internal Glaxo Smith Kline memo shows the company is implementing “pandemic flu plan,” employees being provided with Tamiflu or Relenza prescription anti-virals medication.  Employees are asked to determine whether they should take prescription drugs on their own, without a prescription or doctor visit.

The following is from Tamiflu.com:

People with the flu, particularly children and adolescents, may be at an increased risk of self injury and confusion shortly after taking TAMIFLU and should be closely monitored for signs of unusual behavior. A healthcare professional should be contacted immediately if the patient taking TAMIFLU shows any signs of unusual behavior.

Tamiflu is hallucinogenic, and in some doctors’ opinoins breeds stronger more dangerous flu viruses.  This would be akin to a drug company passing out free antibiotics.  We need to use these drugs to treat only what they’re intended to treat, to avoid building up resistant strains.

Relenza does not sound much safer:

In studies, the most common side effects with RELENZA have been headaches; diarrhea; nausea; vomiting; nasal irritation; bronchitis; cough; sinusitis; ear, nose, and throat infections; and dizziness. Other side effects that have been reported, but were not as common, include rashes and allergic reactions, some of which were severe.

Certainly both of these drugs should be prescribed after confirmation of actual influenza virus, not just left up to patients to guess whether they have the flu or a cold, strep, or any number of other possible infections that could be confused for the flu.

GSK internal email about Swine Flu:

Activation of GSK’s Pandemic Flu Plan:
what US employees need to know and do

The swine flu story dominating the news has detailed the movement of the virus from Mexico to other parts of the world. The global spread of the disease has led the World Health Organization to upgrade its alert system to Phase 5, meaning the virus has spread from human-to-human across countries. The declaration of Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and the time to prepare is now. This is reason for concern; however, it is not a reason to panic.

GSK has a robust pandemic flu preparedness plan in place that the Corporate Executive Team is now activating. As North America President of US Pharmaceuticals, I am responsible for implementing the pandemic flu plan for the US, and would like to take this opportunity to share with you the following information about the plan and what you need to do to help protect yourself and your family.

The Flu Information Source on myGSK
All employees should frequent the Flu Information Source on the home page of myGSK. There you will find everything you need to know about the company’s comprehensive plan to sustain GSK’s supply of critical medicines for patients, and to protect GSK’s employees and their families in the event of a flu pandemic. All flu updates for employees will be posted to this valuable resource, located on the “Flu info source” tab on the Global News gadget in the upper, middle column of myGSK.

All employees should view the “Protect Yourself Learning Module” on the Flu Information Source, and remember that frequent hand-washing is one of the best ways to protect yourself from the flu.

GSK’s antiviral program
The GSK pandemic preparedness plan provides one course of anti-viral therapy (either Relenza or Tamiflu) to each employee and his/her eligible family members. As a precaution, all countries in the GSK network are continuing to prepare for distribution of these medicines, though most are not dispensing to employees at this time. Mexico and the US are exceptions: we will be dispensing anti-virals to employees in those states in the US where swine flu infections have been confirmed.* If you live in one of these affected states and have registered your prescription with Sav-Rx, you will soon receive your medicine by mail.

Employees will only receive one treatment pack of anti-virals for each individual. You will receive the treatment pack as a precaution; you should not take the medicine unless you think you have the flu. Please read the instructions that come with your treatment pack to determine when it is appropriate for you to take the medicine.

If you have not registered for this program yet, you will first need a prescription from your doctor for each individual. Then go to the Flu Information Source to register your prescription online. Once there, click on the “Country info & other resources” tab and then click on “Obtain your flu medicines” link. Then follow the prompts.

Travel and meeting advice
We’ve asked all business / site leaders to not travel so they can remain in place to manage our pandemic response, given that the situation is rapidly changing. However, the travel guidance issued on 27 April still remains, i.e., travel to Mexico by GSK employees should be limited to business or public health critical reasons, and given the uncertainty of the current situation, GSK employees should give careful consideration as to the need for any travel for business reasons. Employees who feel unwell should not travel. We would like business to continue as usual; however, you should use your best judgment, particularly in those states where flu is circulating. Do not put yourself at risk. In all cases, employees should abide by public health directives in local areas.

Questions or Concerns
If you have any questions regarding GSK’s pandemic planning, please contact the GSK Response Center at 877-329-7264.

Employees should consult the Flu Information Source on myGSK which will be updated regularly, including the FAQ section, and a Contact US area, where specific questions can be directed.

Again, it is time to prepare, not to panic. Our goal is to protect our employees in the event of a pandemic, and to ensure that we can continue to provide critical medicines to patients who depend on us. We will keep you informed as new information becomes available about this public health situation and GSK’s response.

Thank you,

Deirdre Connelly
President, North American Pharmaceuticals

* States in which swine flu cases are currently confirmed: Arizona, California, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, and Texas.

Virus mix-up by lab could have resulted in pandemic

Times of India
6 Mar 2009, 0002 hrs IST, AGENCIES

It’s emerged that virulent H5N1 bird flu was sent out by accident from an Austrian lab last year and given to ferrets in the Czech Republic

before anyone realised. As well as the risk of it escaping into the wild, the H5N1 got mixed with a human strain, which might have spawned a hybrid that could unleash a pandemic.

Last December, the Austrian branch of US vaccine company Baxter sent a batch of ordinary human H3N2 flu, altered so it couldn’t replicate, to Avir Green Hills Biotechnology, also in Austria. In February, a lab in the Czech Republic working for Avir alerted Baxter that, unexpectedly, ferrets inoculated with the sample had died. It turned out the sample contained live H5N1, which Baxter uses to make vaccine. The two seem to have been mixed in error.

Markus Reinhard of Baxter says no one was infected because the H3N2 was handled at a high level of containment. But Ab Osterhaus of Erasmus University in the Netherlands says: “We need to go to great lengths to make sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen.”

Accidental release of a mixture of live H5N1 and H3N2 viruses could have resulted in dire consequences. While H5N1 doesn’t easily infect people, H3N2 viruses do. If someone exposed to a mixture of the two had been simultaneously infected with both strains, he or she could have served as an incubator for a hybrid virus able to transmit easily to and among people.

Homeless die after bird flu vaccine trial in Poland

21 people died after being given the vaccine

The medical staff, from the northern town of Grudziadz, are being investigated over medical trials on as many as 350 homeless and poor people last year, which prosecutors say involved an untried vaccine to the highly-contagious virus.

Authorities claim that the alleged victims received £1-2 to be tested with what they thought was a conventional flu vaccine but, according to investigators, was actually an anti bird-flu drug.

The director of a Grudziadz homeless centre, Mieczyslaw Waclawski, told a Polish newspaper that last year, 21 people from his centre died, a figure well above the average of about eight.

Although authorities have yet to prove a direct link between the deaths and the activities of the medical staff, Poland’s health minister, Ewa Kopacz, has said that the doctors and nurses involved should not return to their profession.

“It is in the interests of all doctors that those who are responsible for this are punished,” the minister added.

Investigators are also probing the possibility that the medical staff may have also have deceived the pharmaceutical companies that commissioned the trials.

The suspects said that the all those involved knew that the trial involved an anti-H5N1 drug and willingly participated.

The news of the investigation will come as another blow to the reputation of Poland’s beleaguered and poverty-stricken national health service. In 2002, a number of ambulance medics were found guilty of killing their patients for commissions from funeral companies.