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“Some folks think the government and the big pharmaceutical companies are running a scam on the U.S. public. They look for ways to convince folks this is true. They will grasp at straws to do it, and trash folks who don’t buy into this with them.”

There is no reason to “trash” the CDC but there is no reason to treat the CDC as the picture of medical perfection either. It is a government agency - bulky, political and operating where the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing - like all big government institutions.

I agree with you that pharmaceutical companies are demonized beyond reality, but they too, are not perfect in their pursuit of profit and political insider status. Government and pharmaceutical companies have plenty of room for skecptism and examination.

After being involved in the medical research business for thirty years, I can promise you, there are no holy or perfect players in the field of medicine. Naturally all are self interested. Sometimes those interests are good for public health and sometimes they should be rejected.

Obama is trying to use this flu epidemic for more power and that is scary as heck. How can he call a “National emergency” when the flu data is not there to support such an extreme reaction? I think he is trying to spin CDC's failure to produce enough vaccine to cover those who want the vaccine in the country. That is going to backfire on him.

Exactly right... I couldn’t agree with you more here.

I realize the CDC isn’t perfect. I don’t believe they are above game playing either. Back in April they and the NIH were both gaming the H1N1 influenza for all it was worth.

Then by the end of September their own figures revealed that 0.0267% of those who contracted this influenza were dying. And that was just the people they could document. There were others that didn’t even go to a doctor or hospital.

While we were having this conversation up here, down in New Zealand and Australia, they were seeing the influenza play out without a massive mortality rate.

I read an article recently that stated the influenza in one of those nations turned out to be 70% H1N1 this (their) winter, and the rest was made up of the conventional influenza. I believe that’s what we’ll see here too. And like down there, I don’t believe we have nearly the need for fear that some have been saying we do.

I do believe the pharmaceutical companies are demonized, but I do believe they are problematic at times. I just think we need to keep things in perspective, and I don’t want to see people think they are all good or all bad.