Bird flu pandemic soon? Bird flu stocks

Discussion in 'Stocks' started by cgtrader, Feb 10, 2009.

  1. Panasonic to fly home workers' families over bird flu fears

    20 hours ago

    TOKYO (AFP) — Panasonic Corp. has ordered Japanese employees in some foreign countries to send their families home to Japan in preparation for a possible bird flu pandemic, a spokesman said Tuesday.

    Family members of Japanese employees in parts of Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Russia, former Soviet states and Latin America will fly back to Japan by the end of September, Panasonic spokesman Akira Kadota said.

    The firm decided to take the rare measure "well ahead of possible confusion at the outbreak of a global pandemic," he said.

    Eight people have contracted the H5N1 bird flu virus in China alone this year -- five of whom died.

    "The bird flu cases reported so far are infections from bird to human, but once an infection between human beings is reported, things can get chaotic with many other companies trying to bring back their employees," Kadota said.

    "We wanted to take action early before it gets difficult to book flight tickets," he said.

    The company did not say how many family members would return to Japan. Employees and their families in North America, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore will not be affected.

    The H5N1 strain of the virus that is most dangerous to humans first emerged in Asia in 2003 and has since caused nearly 250 deaths, according to World Health Organisation figures.

    Bird flu, or avian influenza, kills mainly birds but scientists fear it could mutate to jump from human to human, sparking a global pandemic.

    Panasonic said last week it was cutting 15,000 jobs and closing dozens of plants worldwide as it braces to fall deep in the red due to the global economic crisis.
     
  2. I heard a nobel prize winning team of scientists discovered a promising treatment, a cure if you will, for avian flu. It involves bed rest, chicken noodle soup and 7-up. Nothing to see here, people. Move along.

    Twenty-five people have died from bird flu in China since the disease re-emerged in 2003, according to World Health Organisation figures.

    -- AFP


    Yep, that's right. On average, over the last six years, 1 in 375 million Chinese have died from avian flu. Truly epidemic. Anyone care to guess how many Americans have died from the flu over that same period? Maybe I'm just too cynical.
     
  3. Rumsfeld made a killing with Gilead, baby! He was the ex-CEO, loaded to the gills with options up the yin yang and the hoo ha.

    They have the only H5N1 inoculation in the world - even though it's been proven it doesn't work, the U.S. government bought tens of millions of doses of it while Rumsfeld was Defense Secretary.

    Nice, huh.

    Coincidence?

    Ha.
     
  4. Why did Pfizer buy Wyeth?

    1. They have some good stuff in the pipeline
    2. Pfizer is run by morons who just wanted to waste 60 billion


    What do you think is correct answer?