As reported by Steve Watson, a recording of a recent Council On Foreign Relations symposium reveals attendees discussing ways and means of getting the public to take the H1N1 flu vaccine in spite of the mass resistance that has arisen due to questions over it’s safety.
The recording dates from October 16 when the CFR held a Symposium in New York entitled Pandemic Influenza: Science, Economics, and Foreign Policy.
The meeting was held in order to encourage a consensus for policy to present to the federal government concerning the so called swine flu pandemic. In attendance were professors and doctors from several influential universities and medical schools, along with media representatives from Science Magazine, The Canadian Press and The Financial Times. Other notable attendees included Robert E. Rubin, Former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and current Co-Chair of the CFR, along with John Lange, Senior Program Officer of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Health Program.
During part of the discussion on whether or not the vaccine should be made mandatory for health workers and school children, Lone Simonsen, Research Professor and Research Director at the Department of Global Health, George Washington University, suggests creating an artificial scarcity in order to ramp up demand for the vaccine.
“I think what would work better would be to say that there was a shortage and people tend to buy more of something that’s in demand. We saw that — there was one season where, really, people lined up all night to get a flu shot.” Simonsen says, much to the amusement of the other attendees at the symposium.
An edited version of this recording appears on the following short video; you can listen in its entirety on the CFR website.
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