Tuesday, July 27, 2010

'Minister ignored advice over swine flu vaccine double dose plan'/ Dutch News

The Dutch health minister overbought swine flu vaccine, ignoring official advice of authorities in Holland.  What did WHO recommend at that point in time?  From Dutch News:
Health minister Ab Klink ignored advice from both the Dutch vaccine and public health institutes when he bought 34 million doses of swine flu vaccine last year, RTL news reports.
The tv programme says the vaccine institute told Klink that two shots per person would be unnecessary. And the public health institute warned Klink delivery would be too late for a mass vaccination programme...
In the end only young children, the elderly and some categories of workers were vaccinated, leaving 19 million doses of vaccine unused. Nearly 18 million of them are now in the process of being destroyed because they are past their 'use by' date...
It emerged last year that the country's chief virologist Ab Osterhaus, who advised the government to buy a double dose of the vaccine, has close links to drugs firms. He denied any conflict of interest.

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