"What Just Happened?": a view from the State House (and other musings)

The swine flu hype: who benefits?

September 12, 2009

Tags: pharmaceutical co., drug companies, swine flu

Flu season is approaching, and we’re being barraged almost daily with news reports about the swine flu. Interesting fact: on a recent visit to Vermont, David H. Newman, an emergency room physician at St. Luke’s in NYC who also teaches at Columbia, reported that while about 500 people have died of the swine flu so far in the U.S., 50,000 people die of the “regular” flu every year.

So why all the hype, and more significantly, who stands to benefit? (more…)