Global Capital And Swine Influenza
Global Capital And Swine Influenza
The mankind has faced many major catastrophes for centuries; such as Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and etc. Besides all these,there have also been far more effective catastrophes in human history, which were qualitatively different from the others in terms of the number of people who died. These are epidemics. It was recorded that over 20 million people died in the Spanish Flu epidemic between the years of 1818-1819. When the population of the world at that time was considered, it was notified that one of every 100 people in the world die of this outbreak.
In recent years, on the other hand, people have been living and breathing with the fear of epidemics rather than the epidemic itself: firstly EBOLA, then SARS, avian flu (Bird flu) and swine flu ... The States have spent large sums of money in order to protect their citizens against these outbreaks, or the countries where the epidemic has spread have been experiencing economic difficulties. It was claimed that China lost 5% of GDP, when SARS emerged in the country. The Bird Flu in Turkey, on the other hand, has brought almost to the end of white meat sector and some firms in the sector went into Bankrupt, despite of the state aid. The gap seems to be a horrible way; when the amount of the money spent by the states to protect their citizens, their economic losses and the number of people affected by these outbreaks have been compared. This situation raises the questions of whether these outbreaks were exaggerated too much were spread for some purposes? The publication of such news in the media as “the administratorsof some large pharmaceutical companies were in charge of WHO and had the authority to decide whether to announce an emerging disease as epidemic” has enhanced the clouds of doubt.
The health sector is one of the biggest industries in the world, financially. In Turkey, it is the third largest sector following energy and education sectors, respectively. Some information regarding corruption has been reflected in the media from time to time. It was observed in Turkey in the past that some of Turkey's pharmaceutical companies, and public administrators were arrested collectively with some claims.
Moreover, the people who had a voice in the arm industry and in the American administration, such as Donald Rumsfeld, and their relations with the drug industry were reflected in the media in the past[1]. This makes the public agenda, a number of other questions: whether the pharmaceutical industryis used as a means of economic and political conflict? The reliable answers of these questions will provide disperse of the clouds of doubt on the drug companies, which serve for the continuation of a healthy life and help people to cure their ailments.
In this study, themed as Global Capital & Swine Flu, through the example of Swine Flu Epidemic basically, we, as Monitoring Centre for International Human Rights Violations (MCIHRV), tried to look for answers to the doubts of the public. What is an epidemic disease? What are the requirements of a disease to become epidemic? What is swine flu? How does H1N1 become the name? What are the symptoms, and where and how did they get started? Is it really an epidemic of swine flu? Why and on what terms has it been declared as an epidemic by WHO? Is there anything to do with drug companies?Is there any other disease caused by the vaccine? Does the vaccine can provide a real protection? Which global funds were impressed by all the processes by how and to what extent? We have tried to present the compilation of news and comments in the written and visual media; and of many points regarding the subject as adding less comments as possible. We hope that we drawn up a file for the public use.


[1]  http://www.gidahareketi.org/Griplerdeki-Domuzluk-199-yazisi.aspx (June 2010).
 
Record Date : 6 - 7 - 2010
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