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FDA meeting to pick next winter's flu shot is canceled, in ominous sign for US

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Re: FDA meeting to pick next winter's flu shot is canceled, in ominous sign for US

#41

[flagged]

I think various parties have managed to frame political discourse in America as an us vs. them, ingroup vs. outgroup, purely partisan sport. All that matters to people is that their team scores points and the other team loses points. There are no real principles or foundational beliefs, evidenced by how easily people flip their opinions on issues depending on who's acting on them. Biden using Executive Orders? Bad. Trump using Executive Orders? Good.

It's just a game, and winning the game feels good.

Re: FDA meeting to pick next winter's flu shot is canceled, in ominous sign for US

#42

Is there a strategy here, or is this all emotional. Or is the strategy like, we can reduce social security spending if more old people die of the flu? This isn't entirely cynical, I do assume there are some pragmatists who might think this way.

It's about encouraging the free market. Drug makers will naturally compete and it's up to the American public to reward the flu shot with the most efficacy, or in some cases, not take a shot at all and rely on natural immunization. This will spur competition and bring prices down. At least that's what this forum has taught me.

> This will spur competition and bring prices down.

Without the effects known for months, it sounds a lot like gambling to me.

Re: FDA meeting to pick next winter's flu shot is canceled, in ominous sign for US

#43
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how does canceling a meeting to pick a flu strain for development of a flu vaccine help them to acquire money?

It’s a collusion to create chaos and dismantle the system that can track what they are doing. You think “flu vaccine”, they steal elsewhere. Today a vaccine, last week an email to justify jobs, earlier USAID, next week something else. It’s a distraction.

Its interesting to see so many conspiracy theories pop up on a more left-leaning site.

The last 6-8 years has largely seen democrats deriding republicans (or MAGA specifically) for sharing unproven claims of a deep state, pedophile rings, etc. Now we're seeing a growing list of conspiracy theories related to what and why the Trump administration is up to.

The theories may even be right in the end, that does happen. They're just currently based on speculation and presumed intent.

Re: FDA meeting to pick next winter's flu shot is canceled, in ominous sign for US

#45
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how does canceling a meeting to pick a flu strain for development of a flu vaccine help them to acquire money?

musks been getting more federal contracts during all this, so it's probably just cutting any spending he can to free up money for him

That doesn't make any sense

Re: FDA meeting to pick next winter's flu shot is canceled, in ominous sign for US

#46
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For people who get the flu? I thought that was just for mental health problems.

For any undesirables. It never ends with just the first outgroup.

Outgroups expand until only "True Scotsmen" remain.

Re: FDA meeting to pick next winter's flu shot is canceled, in ominous sign for US

#47

Is there a strategy here, or is this all emotional. Or is the strategy like, we can reduce social security spending if more old people die of the flu? This isn't entirely cynical, I do assume there are some pragmatists who might think this way.

Attempting to steel man the decision, they may not believe the vaccines work or are worth the expense and overhead.

They may even go one step deeper and believe the vaccines aren't proven properly to know whether they work well enough.

Re: FDA meeting to pick next winter's flu shot is canceled, in ominous sign for US

#48
post #5

Last I spoke to a nurse about this she explained something interesting to me - in selecting the next flu shot they actually watch the opposite hemisphere to predict most likely strain to vax. So despite US shenanigans rest of world may still be OK

Both hemispheres do this if I'm not mistaken. They look to the other hemisphere's winter and expect that 6 month delay will still help predict what's coming.

Re: FDA meeting to pick next winter's flu shot is canceled, in ominous sign for US

#49
post #17

Don't want to sign up. Are we not going to get a flu vaccine? Companies that make the vaccines can't do this on their own anyway?

The flu vaccines target specific strains that they expect to be common during flu season. In order to do this, the FDA collaborates with a bunch of different agencies and groups around the world to do collect data, track flu viruses etc. The sort of thing that a government agency is generally really good at doing and companies are generally really bad at. Normally it's around this time period that decisions around wh…

> manufacturers have no clue what to do.

Sounds like bad news. But can the manufacturers meet among themselves to hash it out? Would they? And if they did, would they make a worse or different decision than if the FDA were involved?

Just trying to see a way this could turn out ok.

Re: FDA meeting to pick next winter's flu shot is canceled, in ominous sign for US

#50

[flagged]

I think various parties have managed to frame political discourse in America as an us vs. them, ingroup vs. outgroup, purely partisan sport. All that matters to people is that their team scores points and the other team loses points. There are no real principles or foundational beliefs, evidenced by how easily people flip their opinions on issues depending on who's acting on them. Biden using Executive Orders? Bad. T…

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