Global News Journal
Beyond the World news headlines
from Summit Notebook:
Swine flu sales: windfall or hard work?
Swine flu is turning out to be a sales bonanza for drug companies - just don't call it a windfall, says GlaxoSmithKline.
As one of the world's top suppliers of both vaccines and antiviral medicine, CEO Andrew Witty resents the implication that billions of dollars of business simply fell into his company's lap when the World Health Organisation declared H1N1 a pandemic in June.
"For me the word windfall means you're walking down the street and something fell out of the sky," he told the Reuters Health Summit. "We've spent the best part of 15 years investing for this situation and our ability to manufacture and supply potentially 500 million or so doses (of vaccine) is all because of these investments."
Swine flu vaccination finally starts
Swine flu vaccination is under way in the US, although the CDC admits it is a bumpy start .
The World Health Organization is worried that people may believe rumors about the safety of the vaccine and avoid it . What could happen with H1N1 anyway?
from Maggie Fox:
Swine flu update
WHO has given up on trying to keep any kind of precise count on swine flu, which is just about everywhere now. It's fairly mild but hardly anyone has any immunity, so it will infect far more people than seasonal flu does in an average year. That may mean more serious cases and more deaths than usual, just by virtue of sheer numbers.
It is affecting lots of kids but there are some clear guidelines for health care workers to protect themselves and their families.
Swine flu– too many to count
The World Health Organization, which had been patiently publishing every single confirmed case of swine flu, now finally says there are too many too even try counting. This will ease confusion, as the 94,000 confirmed cases were clearly only the tip of the iceberg:
Click here for WHO’s statement.
And while the pandemic is still fairly mild, government are not taking chances — and vaccine makers are feeling the strain
Changing the pandemic rules
The World Health Organisation literally changed the rules of the game while playing it last week, when it said it was rethinking the criteria it would use to declare a global flu pandemic is underway.
Britain and other countries affected by the newly-discovered H1N1 virus were pushing WHO Director-General Margaret Chan to pause before raising the six-point pandemic scale to its highest notch, as her United Nations agency’s rulebook says she should do once it is spreading in more than one region of the world.
