Pandemic Blues
It comes as no surprise to learn that American companies do not want to make flu vaccines. According to them, it just isn't a venture that can be made profitable.
This is an example where adherence to economic principle has nobody's self-interest in mind. This is unfortuante. With a interconnected global market and increased overcrowding, a Pandemic is a statistically probable event. Ironically, it is also preventable:
1. The consumption of flu vaccines must be subsidized locally. It's in everybody's self interest to have everybody you come in contact with vaccinated. This means a proactive push to involve the poor and homeless.
2. The production of flu vaccines must be subsidized nationally. If we lose a appreciable percentage of our poorer working population to the flu, it's going to give our economy a drastic hit. We're talking serious economic Depression here.
3. The distribution of flu vaccines must be subsidized globally. Little critters, such as the bird flu, do not originate in industrialized nations. They come from poorly sanitized, overcrowded populations like southeast Asia. Distributing flu vaccine soley to the countrys that can afford them is an excercise in futility.
Establishing the yearly habit of global vaccine overproduction/use is not an insurmountable obstacle. Of course there's no profit margins on paper. However, I would compare it to a necessary cost for basic community protection, like the fire department. After all, maintaining the fire department is cheaper socially than watching one house in fifty burn to the ground. . .
Seriously, it's in our own best interest.
posted by Chris W. @ 5:17 PM
