Comments on: Bird Flu Kills 5th In Indonesia http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/bird_flu_kills_5th_in_indonesia/ Online Journal of Politics and Foreign Affairs Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:12:43 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Respectfully from the Left http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/bird_flu_kills_5th_in_indonesia/comment-page-1/#comment-58041 Respectfully from the Left Mon, 19 Sep 2005 05:45:38 +0000 http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/12034#comment-58041 The Chinese have infringed the copyright and are feeding an anti-viral to their chickens. This is a truly frightening development, because this will give rise to more virulent, resistant strains of the virus. As the Brits gave us Flesh-eating bacteria, the Chinese are poised to give us a killer mutant and anti-viral resistant flu virus. The Chinese have infringed the copyright and are feeding an anti-viral to their chickens. This is a truly frightening development, because this will give rise to more virulent, resistant strains of the virus. As the Brits gave us Flesh-eating bacteria, the Chinese are poised to give us a killer mutant and anti-viral resistant flu virus.

]]> By: cj http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/bird_flu_kills_5th_in_indonesia/comment-page-1/#comment-58023 cj Sun, 18 Sep 2005 23:26:23 +0000 http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/12034#comment-58023 I have recently heard about Tamiflu(?), which appears to be able to mitigate flu symptoms and holds promise in alleviating deaths caused by avian flu. I believe this is made by Roche, and from a 20/20 (or some such report) I saw recently, it appears the US only has 2 million doses (many other countries have stockpilied 10 times as many doses). Here's my question. Given that this is a humanitarian disaster in the making, wouldn't it be ethical for the US (or any other country) to infringe on the patent and start manufacturing such vaccines/Tamiflu in order to alleviate a world-wide pandemic? (Stipulating that gearing up such manufacturing would, in fact, be possible -- I realize this could devolve into a whole host of questions regarding why so few manufacturers do this -- when, in fact, it seems the very thing that gov'ts should be funding wide-scale.) When does "in the interest of humanity" outstrip "in the interest of proprietary information claims"? I have recently heard about Tamiflu(?), which appears to be able to mitigate flu symptoms and holds promise in alleviating deaths caused by avian flu. I believe this is made by Roche, and from a 20/20 (or some such report) I saw recently, it appears the US only has 2 million doses (many other countries have stockpilied 10 times as many doses).

Here's my question. Given that this is a humanitarian disaster in the making, wouldn't it be ethical for the US (or any other country) to infringe on the patent and start manufacturing such vaccines/Tamiflu in order to alleviate a world-wide pandemic? (Stipulating that gearing up such manufacturing would, in fact, be possible -- I realize this could devolve into a whole host of questions regarding why so few manufacturers do this -- when, in fact, it seems the very thing that gov'ts should be funding wide-scale.)

When does "in the interest of humanity" outstrip "in the interest of proprietary information claims"?

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