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flu vaccine

Indonesia to West: We Will Trade Virus for Your Vaccine

Indonesia is refusing to hand over its flu viruses to Western researchers, and that means flu vaccines this year may be less effective. Flu shots are basically created on a gamble that that popular Asian virus strains will come West by winter flu season. Epidemiologists study Asian viruses, predict which strains will come West, and make shots that immunize against them. But Indonesians are getting pissed off about a lousy tradeoff where they hand over virus samples from flu that killed a bunch of their people, and then get nothing in return. That's why Indonesia and other developing nations have stopped letting researchers take flu samples unless vaccine manufacturers meet their demands. More »

7:40 AM on Thu Nov 15 2007
By Annalee Newitz
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