Right Wing Forward
My sister, who lives in Oregon, likes to forward to me various pieces of internet flotsam that she receives by way of forwarding herself. It's generally prefaced by a note of wonder or shock. And without exception, they are completely bogus.
The following arrived in my inbox this morning, with the preface, "The last two paragraphs are the interesting ones which we haven't heard before. Be sure to read."
Subject: How the vaccine works:
Influenza vaccine is produced by growing the virus in eggs. The virus is killed and processed to create the vaccine, which is given by injection under the skin. The body then produces antibodies to the virus over the next two to four weeks. If the immunized person then comes into contact with the influenza virus, the antibodies attack and kill the virus before it has a chance to cause infection. The vaccine contains the 3 most likely strains to be active during the "flu season"
Why the shortage:
Almost half of the nation's flu vaccine will not be delivered this year. Chiron, a major manufacturer of flu vaccine, will not be distributing any influenza vaccine ! this flu season. Chiron was to make 46-48 million doses vaccine for the United States. Chiron is a British company. Recently British health officials stopped Chiron from distributing and making the vaccine when inspectors found unsanitary conditions in the labs. Some lots of the vaccine were recalled and destroyed.
Why is our vaccine made in the UK and not the US?
The major pharmaceutical companies in the US provided almost 90% of the nations flu vaccine at one time. They did this despite a very low profit margin for the product. Basically, they were doing us a favor. In the late 80's a man from North Carolina who had received the vaccine got the flu. The strain he caught was one of the strains in that years vaccine made by a US company. What did he do? He sued and he won. He was awarded almost $5 million! After that case was appealed and lost, most US pharmaceutical companies stopped making the vaccine. The liability out weighed the profit margin. Since UK! and Canadian laws prohibit such frivolous law suits UK and
Canadian companies began selling the vaccine in the US.
The lawyer that represented the man in the flu shot law suit was a young ambulance chaser by the name of John Edwards.
I didn't have to read further than the subject line to know this was bogus. But I dutifully went to snopes.com, typed "edwards flu" into the search field and got the debunking page, which I sent back to my sister. The only paragraph in this screed that is true is the first one. Chiron is an American company, pharmaceuticals were not chased out of the country by a lawsuit, and John Edwards has never been involved in a lawsuit involving flu vaccine. This stuff is just made up by someone and distributed around the internet to take in the gullible.
But speaking of gullible, surely by now everyone has seen the stupid faked Bush campaign rally photo showing a crowd of soldiers for Bush. Here it is:
Right after Bush this raly, Bush jetted off to Louisiana to address a rally of some of his loyal supporters in the Ku Klux Klan:
Leaving no vote unturned, he then buzzed down to Florida where he spoke to an admiring crowd of collies.
8:42:56 PM 
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