8/14/2019 TheSun 2009-11-03 Page11 Poser as Swine Flu Vaccine Runs Dry in Us

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WASHINGTON: Mothers with youngchildren and pregnant women are beingturned away from swine flu vaccinationclinics in the United States, some in tears,many utterly frustrated by the shortageof vaccine.

But it could have been much worse.The new strain of H1N1 flu could havebeen much more virulent, and it couldeven have been bird flu, which, becauseof the way the United States produces flu

vaccine, could wreak havoc.Months back, when a swine flu vac-

cine was still just a glimmer in scientistseyes, US health officials were drivinghome the message that children, andespecially those with underlying healthconditions like asthma and pregnant

women were at great risk of dying from

H1N1 influenza and should be first inline for innoculation. But after rolling outthe vaccine last month, the authoritiesran into a problem: There wasnt enoughto go around.

The National Institutes of Healthand Centers for Disease Control andPrevention have done a very good jobof emphasising the importance of get-ting vaccinated. But then theres no

vaccine, said Steven Salzberg, directorof the Center for Bioinformatics andComputational Biology at the Universityof Maryland.

Salzbergs wife and younger daugh-ters were among thousands who queuedlast week in Rockville, a suburb ofWashington, for swine flu vaccinations.

They left when they saw the line was

about 1km long before the place was evenopen. There were many, many hundredsarriving by the second, Salzberg said.

Last week, as child deaths spikedwell above the annual toll for kids fromseasonal flu, vaccination clinics in thecounty that includes Rockville wereabruptly cancelled.

The countys supply of vaccine had

run dry.So what if this had been the next bigone, a flu on the scale of the pandemicthat killed tens of millions around theglobe in 1918? After all, the strain of fluthat caused the 1918 pandemic was alsoH1N1, the grandfather of todays swineflu pandemic.

If we had a really virulent highlyinfectious influenza strain today, it couldeasily be as bad as 1918, said Salzberg.

But David Beshai, associate professorat the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Schoolof Public Health, said progress in healthcare and nutrition mean a replica of1918 is not in the cards.

When you really need vaccinequickly, we just cant do it, and this hasnow been demonstrated, Salzberg said.

He said changing the way the UnitedStates makes flu vaccine was too costlyfor companies to put in place and wouldhave to come from the highest political

levels. AFP

newswithout borders11theSun | TUESDAY NOVEMBER 3 2009

Poser as swine flu

vaccine runs dry in US

A year later,Obamamaniatakes abeating

WASHINGTON: A year on from a historic elec-tion, the spirit of popular goodwill that yieldedAmericas first black president has retreated totepid support for Barack Obama as he presses hischange agenda.

Since the Nov 4 poll, Obamas visage has beeneverywhere, conspicuously on the streets of thenations capital where millions of foreign anddomestic tourists have visited over the past year,many of them snatching up poignant souvenirs.

A quick look around downtown Washingtonconfirms that the Obama trinkets are still for sale,but more than one strategically placed streethawker have found little point in displaying theT-shirts, posters, and Yes We Can buttons bearingthe new presidents image.

Indeed, Obamas honeymoon with the Ameri-can people lasted less than six months.

After his inauguration in January, his approvalrating soared to 70%. Early on, he tested Ameri-cans faith by diving headlong into controversialprogrammes to rescue the economy, including bail-ing out sinking auto manufacturers and unleashing

a US$787 billion (RM2.75 trillion) stimulus plan.In late April, at the end of the first 100 days in

office, Obama still enjoyed more positive reviewsthan his predecessors in the previous 20 years.

In July, his popularity dipped even below that ofpredecessor George W. Bush in the same period ofhis presidency. Since mid-October, it has hoveredjust above 50%, according to Frank Newport, editorin chief of the Gallup Poll.

High or low as it may be at home, Obamaspopularity abroad is irrefutable, argues ProfessorClyde Wilcox of Georgetown University in Washing-ton. He is the first African-American president, ayoung man who has won many honours and donegreat things. He is a cultural phenomenon in the USand around the world, Wilcox said. AFP

Two fined forinternational spamWELLINGTON:Two New Zealand-ers have been fined for their roles inthe biggest pharmaceutical spam-ming operation in the history of theinternet, officials said yesterday.

They were part of a businessbased in Christchurch that sentmore than two million unsolic-ited emails promoting Indian-madeherbal products to New Zealand ad-

dresses over four months in 2007,the Department of Internal Affairsreported. Shane Atkinson was finedNZ$100,000 (RM250,600) and Ron-ald Smits NZ$50,000 (RM125,300)in the Christchurch High Court lastweek, the department said.

The operation paid affiliatesaround the world to send spamemails marketing Herbal King, EliteHerbal and Express Herbal brandedpharmaceutical products, whichwere manufactured and shipped

by Tulip Lab of India.Current estimates suggest that

around 120 billion spam messagesare sent every day, officials said. dpa

Six corpses foundin rapists houseWASHINGTON: A total of sixbodies, some of them badly de-composed, have now been foundat the home of a convicted rapist

in the US, police confirmed.Post-mortems were continu-

ing, police said, but there wereinitial indications some of thevictims had been strangled.

The first two bodies werefound on Thursday when policecame to arrest Anthony Sowell,50, on a rape charge at his housein Cleveland, Ohio. A third wasfound a day later and policehave now confirmed three more. dpa

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