From Spanish flu to bird flu, someone stands to make a fortune

IT is now evident that bird flu has become synonymous with vaccination. What does that tell us about other scares in the past linked to vaccines?

At the end of World War 1, newspapers orchestrated a warning that soldiers were returning from battlefields infected with dangerous diseases and everyone should avail of the life-saving jabs immediately. And that is what hysterical populations did, with the result that from 50-100 million died from the virulent viruses in the vaccines.

What newspapers omitted to tell their readers was that sufficient quantities had already been stockpiled to vaccinate the whole world, the scare having all too obviously been anticipated. Just like today’s bird flu.