More lies for Profit- Who benefits from bird flu scare?
I have been very sceptical about this whole bird-person-person avian flu scare, and considering the source it has been coming from…I tend to trust this guy…
Gary Butcher is trained as a veterinarian specializing in avian diseases, and has a Ph.D. in poultry virology.
Experts dismiss scare over bird flu
Butcher fields phone calls and e-mails about avian flu every day.
Lately, he’s been traveling the world, speaking to alarmed government officials and industry groups dispelling the myths and reinforcing the realities of avian influenza or so-called “bird flu.”
“The emphasis of all my work has changed to dealing with this madness,” Butcher said Friday, while briefly back at his office on the UF campus in Gainesville. “Realistically, avian influenza is not a threat to people, but everywhere you go, it has turned into a circus.”…
Butcher said that of the billions of people who have probably been exposed, only about 120 have been reported to have fallen ill with avian flu. They were people who worked closely with chickens and came into contact with the birds’ blood and feces.
Butcher also said that there has yet to be a proven case in which one person is known to have passed the illness on to another.
So what gives? Why are they spending so much time scare-mongering when this doesn’t even really seem like an issue? Could this really be something so simple as unbridled greed? Considering the billions that are being asked of the American taxpayers and the fact that Rumsfeld served as Chairman of Gilead, the company that developed Tamiflu from 1997 to 2001 just before he became part of the Bush Administration, that does seem to be the case. Rumsfeld has at least $5 million worth of stocks in Gilead that have risen in value from $35 in April to $47. Former Secretary of State George Shultz is also on Gilead’s board and has sold more than $7 million worth of Gilead in 2005. It’s like the biotech equivalent of the Carlyle group.
Thanks to Fortune magazine for this interesting information…
As the bird-flu issue heated up earlier this year, according to a senior Pentagon official, Rumsfeld considered unloading his entire Gilead stake to avoid any perceived conflict of interest. He sought the advice of the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the federal Office of Government Ethics. When those agencies didn’t offer an opinion, Rumsfeld consulted a private securities lawyer, who advised him to hold on to the stock and be vocal about his earlier recusal from all matters involving Gilead, rather than sell and run the risk of being accused of insider trading. Holding on has paid off-it’s made the Pentagon chief, already one of the wealthiest members of the Bush cabinet, at least $1 million richer. In late October, Rumsfeld had the Pentagon’s general counsel issue instructions on what he could and could not do in the event of an epidemic.
