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GlaxoSmithKline Released 45 Liters of Live Polio Virus
ferespo sends this news out of Belgium: As reported to ECDC by Belgian authorities, on 2 September 2014, following a human error, 45 liters of concentrated live polio virus solution were released into the environment by the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline in Rixensart city, Belgium. The liquid was conducted directly to a water-treatment plant (Rosieres) and released after treatment in river Lasne affluent of river Dyle which is affluent of the Escaut/Scheldt river. Belgium's High Council of Public Health conducted a risk assessment that concluded that the risk of infection for the population exposed to the contaminated water is extremely low due to the high level of dilution and the high vaccination coverage (95%) in Belgium.
You're talking about the same Europe where people have actually been put on trial for 2 different genocides, which is the only continent where anyone has ever done that?
Nonsense. There is a long history of "victor's justice" on every continent. I'll only be impressed when the winners put their own people on trial. Lt William Calley got off with the "Nuremberg defense" that he was only following orders, while his superiors got off with the defense that "Hey, I was just giving orders, I didn't actually shoot anyone myself."
Why do we always conflate "not perfect" with "completely incomparably bad".
I'm just saying that Europe has actually demonstrated a history of attempting to punish institutional mass murder on some occasions.
It appears that someone accidentally dumped the wrong bucket down the drain . From that, you infer:
> create incentive systems that encourage the violation of the same policies, and claim immunity, ... Nominal financial penalties for those who were negligent are in order. But extraordinary penalties, amounting to all the pay and bonuses collected by the upper management in the last five or ten years should be assessed.
>
It is 45 liters of concentrated virus. It is polio this time it could be just simple salmonella or E Coli next time or ebola. The point is not to look one person dumping the wrong bucket. Something as serious as concentrated polio vaccine should not have reached this person pouring stuff down the drain. Every ml every drop of dangerous viruses and bacteria must be accounted for. There should be clear audit trails about who is getting what and how it was disposed of eventually. There should be a clear protocols to track it. One should not be able to get 45 liters of polio in ones hand to dump. Setting up procedures like this costs money. That is where the company cut costs. That is where perverse incentives come in. The top honchos will have a policy directive that says "you must follow these procedures to handle viruses classified as ABC". Then do not hire enough people to enforce the policy. If any team lead points it out, ruin that person's advancement and as an example to others. Nothing on paper. But everyone understands why the promising career of Dr XYZ suddenly foundered. That is how it is done. That is what we should go after.
It would be far too easy to fire some low level schmuck and pretend everything is hunky dory.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Tell that to the community when an outbreak starts because some narcissistic celebrity didn't want their child afflicted with a disorder that make their parent look bad. Then we can talk about what compassion actually is.
Kind of. He died during his trial. That is the true European way: not harsh prison sentences, but Kafkaesque trials that last until the defendant dies, freeing Europe of the necessity of feeling bad for having imposed a sentence.
But due to European human rights laws the punishment is usually a slap on the wrist.
And if the slap is a bit too hard the criminal gets about 20 million euros in compensation.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
We are regularly told that advanced Western nations shouldn't worry about Ebola, because we have advanced Western medicine, and aren't like those poor and primitive African nations. And then things like this happen. Or the recent CDC biohazard scandals. Or the hospital in Texas, just trained about Ebola, sends a recent arrival from Liberia who is showing symptoms back to his relatives with some antibiotics. And then, after he vomits on the sidewalk on the way back to the hospital, people without protective gear "clean it up" with a pressure hose, while a sandal-wearing woman walks by . And they reuse the ambulance before they decontaminate it. And the family violates their quarantine.
So when Top Men tell us there's no danger of an outbreak here, I am not reassured.
Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
Point one, it's deactivated, not diluted.
Point two, it isn't diluted to the point where it's statistically pure water.
But apart from that, you're 100% correct.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
It was very nearly eradicated. Then the CIA had stooges in Pakistan take DNA samples during polio vaccinations to "track down bin laden", and (reasonably) there is now a suspicion that vaccines are some kind of american evil project there, and resistance. derp.
They could have buried a fake corpse at sea a few years earlier and saved a lot of lives and disability-years of life instead. I'd like to have heard the logic that came up with that plan.
Sent from my PDP-11