Heroes Not Zombies

Remember the big swine flu scare? Where governments threw around Tamiflu by the bucket load? This antiviral which had never been shown to successfully treat or prevent swine flu was stockpiled by the government (apparently at  cost of about one pound for EVERY 200 pounds spent on the entire NHS in England and Wales in 2009!) and “prescribed” in the UK after telephone tick box consultations.

I was astonished at the time that so many millions and millions of pounds were spent on this drug. I don’t remember such mass, thoughtless prescribing before the Tamiflu debacle. It struck me as horrendously irresponsible of the authorities. Most of it, I thought would just be pee’d down the toilet without doing any good.

Well it’s an even more disturbing story than I knew at the time. A new piece of research reveals that the amount of Tamiflu in the toilet water which was flushed into the rivers has now caused resistance to this drug in the viruses.

If it was ever going to do any good, and that is seriously in doubt because after determined campaigning by researchers, scientists and journalists, it turns out that the evidence Roche didn’t publish shows that Tamiflu doesn’t even do what they claimed it did , that good is sure reduced now.

But then the drug company got its billions didn’t it?

And isn’t that the point of a drug company? To make billions?