influenza

Uncle Sam's $1.3 billion paper weight

You've heard all the sickening stories before. The $200 hammers... the $700 ashtrays... a cool $350,000 a year to sponsor a NASCAR driver who has never won a race.

The way Uncle Sam throws around your cash, you ought to feel more fleeced than a herd of Scottish sheep. And it looks like he has his shears out again.

Because according to a damning new study from a leading global research collaborative, our government has just wasted BILLIONS of our dollars on the one thing they could have picked up for free at any business office in America.

Paper weights.

That's right. A massive investigation by the prestigious Cochrane Collaboration has discovered that the MILLIONS of doses of anti-flu medication our government has been stockpiling for a decade are nothing but expensive paper weights.

The new study, just published in BMJ, analyzed 46 clinical trials and found there isn't a shred of evidence supporting our government's hare-brained scheme to stockpile Tamiflu for some mythical flu apocalypse.

In fact, researchers found that flu sufferers choking down Tamiflu daily only reduced the duration of their symptoms from 7 days to 6.3 days -- a measly 16 hours! It wasn't any more effective than Tylenol.

But it was a hell of a lot more expensive. Our government has spent more than $1.3 billion stockpiling Tamiflu and other unproven antivirals -- money the Cochrane folks say has been "thrown down the drain." That's because Tamiflu isn't just a lemon a used car salesman would be embarrassed to sell -- it also has a short shelf life, and millions of doses are getting ready to expire.

That junk can't rot fast enough for me. Tamiflu has been linked to headaches, nausea and vomiting, and some say it could even make you crazier than a bag of cats. Eight flu sufferers in Japan actually committed suicide after Tamiflu reportedly unleashed a tidal wave of alleged psychotic side effects.

Well, that sickening thud you hear isn't just the sound of more Tamiflu victims jumping out windows -- it's the sound of the other shoe dropping. Just a couple weeks back, I told you about how a team of British and American scientists were cooking the books on Tamiflu research in a pathetic bid to get governments around the world to plunk down more tax dollars on new doses.

But the science doesn't lie, and these 46 studies are revealing a shocking truth you'll never hear from the lying lips of Big Pharma execs. Tamiflu is as unreliable as a 1971 Ford Pinto. It didn't make us any healthier, and it didn't ward off some influenza Armageddon.

All it did was fleece us, one dangerous dose at a time.

Are scientists manipulating data to sell billions in Tamiflu?

You could practically set your watch by it, couldn't you? Every couple of years, our members of Congress -- you know, the same folks you haven't seen since LAST Election Day -- get off their duffs and return home.

There they are, parading down Main Street, kissing babies, slapping you on the back, and making every tired, old promise in the world -- and it's all because they need your vote.

Well, not all politicians come clad in Armani suits, friend. In fact, some wear lab coats. And right now, a group of slick medical scientists could be pulling the political con job of the century, trying to win votes for a Big Pharma wonder med that's going to cost you and your fellow taxpayers BILLIONS.

British and American scientists are collaborating on new research claiming that Tamiflu -- the "anti-flu" drug that's linked to everything from diarrhea to hepatitis -- reduced your risk of dying from swine flu (H1N1) by 25%.

Good thing these Keystone Cops are on the case, right? The swine flu outbreak happened five years ago, and these researchers are FINALLY getting around to studying whether the medicine we used worked at all.

Why now? Let me give you a hint -- its green, you fold it, and it's not that cheap suit you bought last St. Patrick's Day. Government stockpiles of Tamiflu around the world are getting ready to expire, and countries everywhere have to decide whether to purchase new doses of this potentially dangerous drug.

And Big Pharma isn't about to leave those decisions to chance.

Well, my friend, they can cook the books all they want, but here's a little equation that Albert Einstein himself couldn't solve -- how do you reduce ZERO by 25%?

Because according to our government's own data, your chance to catching swine flu and EVER needing a single dose of Tamiflu is basically zero. Swine flu killed as few as 2,500 Americans in 2009 -- that means you had a 40% greater chance of DROWNING that year.

Tamiflu didn't save millions of lives -- it just cost billions of dollars while unleashing a horror show of side effects on unsuspecting victims. Our government spent $1.5 billion tax dollars stockpiling Tamiflu before the swine flu outbreak, and they're going to just keep throwing more cash in that kitty until we make them stop.

So the next time you spot your Congressman strolling down Main Street bending over to kiss babies, make sure you take a second to bend HIS ear. Tell him to stop wasting your money on a drug we don't need or use. And then tell him to haul those expired stockpiles of Tamiflu right to the trash where they belong.