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Preview: H1N1 Vaccine

October 30, 2009 5:45 PM

Scott Pelley reports on the manufacture, distribution and safety of the H1N1 flu vaccine.

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by donzi22 November 1, 2009 7:47 PM EST
If You Don't Know About Peramivir, You Need To Now !


Senator Lieberman Please Help

Peramivir H1N1 IV Anti-Viral Crisis


H1N1 Crisis Is Exploding -Vaccine Shortages Exposes U.S. Population To Massive ICU Crisis and Deaths




Senator,

Thank you for your efforts in helping to push the issue for the release of Peramivir under the Emergency Use Authorization process. This process/effort is way off course. The EUA process of acquiring Peramivir is no better than the old E-IND process. An MD has to go on line, fill out pages of needless information, only to wait 24 hours to possibly get the drug. Not acceptable. Cases have already been documented where people have died because of the delay in getting the drug. The drug must be allowed to be stocked in the hospitals where access is immediate. Children are hitting the ICU in a matter of hours?on their death bed. Waiting 24 hours or more is not acceptable. What will happen when deliveries are hampered by snow storms, delays, etc. Press this issue very hard sir?this is stupidity at its highest level with our population at risk. Stocking at the hospital level is the first major issue to resolve.


Second major issue. The manufacturer of Peramivir has limited supplies of the drug. The U.S. has not issued a stock pile order to secure the health of our population . On a recent conference call with BioCryst , the CEO was asked about availability to the U.S. vs foreign countries. The response was ? first come, first serve? . Sir, if the limited supply of Peramivir is taken up by other countries because they order first, I don?t think anyone will want to be answering how come the U.S. stood by and did nothing. If you think there is anger/frustration over the vaccine shortage, there would be no words to describe the outrage if we ran out of Peramivir because other countries ordered up the limited inventory. Try explaining that to the next 5,000 parents of children that die in the ICU. We don?t have weeks or months to fix this?days. Projections suggest we may need 300,000 to over a million treatments of Peramivir in an ICU setting. Where is it ?

Senator, this is a freight train going towards the proverbial brick wall of epic proportions. H1N1 exploding, vaccine shortages, large scale ICU bound patients, and we are messing up the availability of the only known IV life saving drug?Peramivir?funded and paid for by U.S. tax pay dollars.

Please demand that Secretary Sebelius resolve this in the upcoming hours. There really is not much time left if other countries secure the limited supply of the drug.


Respectfully,

XXXXXX


Letter Sent To Health and Human Services and Secretary Sebelius?NO RESPONsE

From: paul
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 11:06 AM
To: 'EUA.OCET@fda.hhs.gov'
Subject: Peramivir..Stock IN THE HOSPITAL PHARMACIES NOW URGENT MESSAGE FOR SECRATARY SEBELIUS

Thank you for finally moving on the EUA for Peramivir. Now you must get realistic and stock Peramivir in the hospital pharmacies as well as all acute care facilities. Anything else is not acceptable and will result in needless deaths. The virus /infection moves too swiftly to wait 24 hours. In addition , you realize by now that the vaccine delay will result in tens of thousands more arriving in the ICU. You can?t possibly think an on line form request system serving people on their death bed in ICU is the answer.
Before you have debacle # 3 on your hands (#1 the long delay in issuing the EUA, #2 The delay in vaccine availability for most of the U.S. population). Perhaps I mean #4 because the first debacle was not making public the availability of Peramivir via E-IND in the first place. That only cost us about 1,000 lives.

And please, announce that the U.S. government has placed an order for Peramivir before another country beats us to the punch line.

GET PERARMIVIR INTO THE HOSPITALS BEFORE SEBELIUS IS SITTING IN FRONT OF LIEBERMAN AGAIN ASKING ? WHO IS RUNNING THIS PROGRAM?

P.S. It really is ok to forward this to Kathleen?because if you don?t, and it ends up as matter of public record, you may have to answer for it. Best to send it now. Thanks.
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by Dank779 November 1, 2009 7:22 PM EST
Nice report but I wish you had reported on more topics such as: using the insect eggs instead. Currently done in Mexico. I wish you had asked about the girl who can only walk backwards after the H1N1 shot. I wish you had ask about "what if you are allergic to eggs"?
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by smartasss1 October 31, 2009 1:34 PM EDT
The H1N1 vaccine in the US is very safe. Our vaccine does not have any adjuvants and the multi-dose vaccine that has the thimerosal is only given to adults who are not pregnant. What more can you ask for.

The process to make the H1N1 vaccine is identical to the seasonal flu vaccine which we been taking for many years now.

Every year the CDC selects 3 flu strains to put in the seasonal flu vaccine. The H1N1 strain is just like one of those seasonal flu strains that is put in the seasonal flu vaccine every year.
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