The former CDC director, Dr. Julie Gerberding, was hired by Merck in December to serve as president of the vaccine department. While in charge of the CDC, Gerberding came under intense criticism for bonuses she gave to employees who worked closely with her. And during the Bush presidency, Gerberding oversaw a drastic, multi-year revamping process at the CDC in which dozens of the organization's most respected experts quit their jobs.
The Washington Post reported on August 31, 2004 that a number of CDC officials thought the restructuring plan was "part of a larger administration effort to politicize science." In one organizational shift, vaccine safety was moved out of the domain of the National Immunization Program.
Robert A. Keegan, a high-level official, circulated a memo among the CDC's top leaders in which he revealed that employees who disagreed with official data had been "cowed into silence," the Post reported on March 6, 2005. Margaret Scarlett, who spent 15 years in the Centers' AIDS program before leaving in 2001, was quoted as saying, "Political ideology is being substituted for science."
A possible source of monetary influence by drug makers is the CDC Foundation, a nonprofit organization which raises money for the CDC's efforts through private donations.
Whether or not money is altering the WHO and CDC's data, clearly, the capacity and incentive of drug makers to lean on science are enormous.
Pandemic Profit
All US contracts for H1N1 vaccines went to just five companies: CSL Limited, Novartis, Sanofi Pasteur, GlaxoSmithKline, and MedImmune. All five also produced shots for either SARS or avian flu. When the response to swine flu took full flight in the second and third quarters of 2009, these firms' earnings skyrocketed. According to British MP, Paul Flynn, that was part of drug-makers plan.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
3
2
2
