Flu Season Will be
'Significant' With Weak Vaccine, Tamiflu Shortages
Saturday, 03 Jan 2015 05:34 PM
By Sandy Fitzgerald
Pharmacies across the country are reporting intermittent
shortages of Tamiflu,
the main antiviral medication used to lessen influenza symptoms just days after
the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention designated
the disease at epidemic levels.
"For people in the risk categories, the young, the pregnant, people with diabetes, people over 65, if they do get the flu, it's important to get them on the anti-flu medications," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN Saturday.
The flu season has not yet reached its peak, Fauci said, and there is no way to predict where and when flu cases will hit in specific places.
"For people in the risk categories, the young, the pregnant, people with diabetes, people over 65, if they do get the flu, it's important to get them on the anti-flu medications," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN Saturday.
The flu season has not yet reached its peak, Fauci said, and there is no way to predict where and when flu cases will hit in specific places.
"It will be a significant season," Fauci said.
"Even if you don't know when it's going to peak, get your child
vaccinated."
The flu can be dangerous for people in the risk categories, said Fauci, so it's important to get those people to a physician so they can get on medication. He urged people with healthy children to keep them away from people who are sick, and to keep their children home from school if they do become ill.
Although there have been reports that this year's flu vaccine is only about 61 percent effective in fighting the current strain of the flu, it's still wise to have the shot, Fauci said.
"I think we will see a continuation, and I would not be surprised if we continue to see upticks," Fauci said of the epidemic. The vaccine can still help people with many other flu strains that are not prevalent this season, but still remain a danger, and can still help lessen the symptoms of the strain that is going around.
Pharmacies in some markets say they're having some difficulty getting Tamiflu. Further, the medication is expensive, running about $140 a pack, and many people without prescription or health coverage can't afford it.
The flu can be dangerous for people in the risk categories, said Fauci, so it's important to get those people to a physician so they can get on medication. He urged people with healthy children to keep them away from people who are sick, and to keep their children home from school if they do become ill.
Although there have been reports that this year's flu vaccine is only about 61 percent effective in fighting the current strain of the flu, it's still wise to have the shot, Fauci said.
"I think we will see a continuation, and I would not be surprised if we continue to see upticks," Fauci said of the epidemic. The vaccine can still help people with many other flu strains that are not prevalent this season, but still remain a danger, and can still help lessen the symptoms of the strain that is going around.
Pharmacies in some markets say they're having some difficulty getting Tamiflu. Further, the medication is expensive, running about $140 a pack, and many people without prescription or health coverage can't afford it.
"We actually went through more Tamiflu the first two weeks of the flu season this year than we did all of last winter," Smith Pharmacy owner Nic Smith, in Little Chute, Wis., told Green Bay's NBC affiliate Channel 26. "We ran out last Saturday and I called several pharmacies and nobody had it," he continued.
“Because we weren’t expecting the flu to be this bad this year, the company just isn’t making enough Tamiflu. So, we are seeing a shortage at all the pharmacies in town as well as Indianapolis,” Gina Games, of JR Pharmacy in Terre Haute, Ind., told CBS and FOX affiliate WTHI.
The owner of Curtis Pharmacy in Washington, Penn., just outside Pittsburgh, told The Observer-Reporter that its pharmacies are “fully stocked” in both the liquid and tablet forms of the medication, but just because it orders the antiviral drug in bulk amounts of three to four dozen packs at once.
Even with that, it's been hard to keep supply ahead of demand, which has been "pretty crazy" in the past few weeks, Erich Cushey told the newspaper.
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease is a division of the National
Institutes of Health.
Note: Ezekiel Emanuel
was a founding chair of the Department of Bioethics for the National
Institutes of Health, the health care policy adviser for the Barack
Obama administration, is a senior fellow at the Center for American
Progress, and Rahm I. Emanuel’s brother.
George Soros was a
supporter for the Center for American Progress, a benefactor for the Harlem
Children's Zone, and the
chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Center for American
Progress, the Harlem Children's Zone, the Brookings Institution
(think tank), and the Climate Reality Project.
Michael R.
Bloomberg was a benefactor for the Harlem Children's Zone, and is
the founder of the Bloomberg Family Foundation.
Bloomberg
Family Foundation was a funder for the CDC Foundation.
CDC Foundation
is a foundation for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Rahm I. Emanuel
is Ezekiel Emanuel’s brother, a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, the Chicago (IL) mayor, and was the White House chief of
staff for the Barack Obama administration.
R. Eden Martin is
the president of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP.
Newton N. Minow
is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and a senior counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP.
Michelle Obama
was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.
Barack Obama was an
intern at Sidley Austin LLP.
Sidley Austin
LLP was the lobby firm for Genentech, Inc. (The makers of Tamiflu),
and is the lobby firm for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of
America.
Akin,
Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP is the lobby firm for the Pharmaceutical
Research and Manufacturers of America, and was a funder for the Center
for American Progress.
Ezekiel Emanuel
is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, Rahm I.
Emanuel’s brother, was a founding chair of the Department of Bioethics for
the National Institutes of Health, and the health care policy adviser
for the Barack Obama administration.
Vernon E. Jordan
Jr. is a senior counsel for Akin,
Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, an honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), Valerie B.
Jarrett’s great uncle, a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg
(think tank), an Oak Bluffs (MA)
homeowner, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Cyrus F.
Freidheim Jr. is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think
tank), and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Valerie B. Jarrett
is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, the senior adviser for
the Barack Obama administration, and her great uncle is Vernon
E. Jordan Jr.
Louis W. Sullivan
is an Oak Bluffs (MA) homeowner, was the secretary for the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, and the president of the Morehouse
School of Medicine.
David Satcher was the
surgeon general for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the
interim president for the Morehouse School of Medicine, a director at
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and is a
board member of the CDC Foundation.
CDC Foundation
is a foundation for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Bloomberg
Family Foundation was a funder for the CDC Foundation.
Michael R.
Bloomberg is the founder of the Bloomberg Family Foundation, and a
co-chair for Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
Raben Group is
the lobby firm for Mayors Against Illegal Guns, and was the for the Morehouse
School of Medicine.
Eric H. Holder Jr.
is a trustee at the Morehouse School of Medicine, and the attorney
general at the U.S. Department of Justice for the Barack Obama
administration.
Melody C. Barnes
was a principal at the Raben Group, the domestic policy council,
director for the Barack Obama administration, the EVP for the Center
for American Progress, and is Barack Obama’s golf partner.
Ezekiel Emanuel
is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, and Rahm I.
Emanuel’s brother, was the health care policy adviser for the Barack
Obama administration, and a founding chair of the Department of Bioethics
for the National Institutes of Health.
National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease is a division of the National
Institutes of Health.
Barack Obama’s golf
partner is Melody C. Barnes, the president of the Barack Obama
administration, and was an intern at Sidley Austin LLP.
Sidley Austin
LLP was the lobby firm for Genentech, Inc. (The makers of Tamiflu),
and is the lobby firm for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of
America.
Tamiflu
Genentech
Genentech, Inc.
(The makers of Tamiflu) was a contributor for the 2013 Barack Obama
inaugural committee.
Kleiner
Perkins Caufield & Byers was an investor in Genentech, Inc. (The
makers of Tamiflu), and a donor for The Climate Project.
The Climate
Project is a merged organization with the Climate Reality Project.
Albert A. Gore Jr.
is the chairman for the Climate Reality Project, a partner at Kleiner
Perkins Caufield & Byers, and David W. Beier was his domestic
policy adviser.
David W. Beier
was Albert A. Gore Jr’s domestic policy adviser, and a VP at Genentech,
Inc. (The makers of Tamiflu).
Thomas J. Perkins
was the chairman for Genentech, Inc. (The makers of Tamiflu), and
is a partner emeritus at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
Ask a Patient
SIDE EFFECTS FOR TAMIFLU & PATIENT REVIEWS
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