Fatal Medicine (eBook)

Chapter One

Budapest, Hungary

Pollard Jennings stood on the balcony of his suite at the Gresham Hotel, in Budapest, looking out over the dark waters of the Danube River lit only by the lights of the Chain Bridge and the Buda Castle beyond. Although this familiar site was usually calming, tonight Pollard felt no relief. Lines of concern marred his usual composed expression. Pollard, president and CEO of Etreum, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, was used to things running smoothly. The vaccine business alone brought in billions of dollars per year for his company. And until recently it looked as if these profits would continue to roll in every year without fail. But disturbing recent developments had come to his attention that could cause the empire he had built to crumble.

Pollard barely registered the hand placed on his shoulder and was only roused back to the present by the sound of his son’s voice.

“Dad, are you ok?” Tristan said.

“Yes, sure, why do you ask?”

“Well, I just asked if you wanted a drink, and touched your shoulder without you responding. You have been acting like something is bothering you for months and I get the feeling this trip is not just a father-son vacation.”

Tristan held out the scotch he had brought out onto the terrace. Pollard took the glass, stretched his neck, and took a sip. He knew it was time to tell Tristan more about the company but was having a hard time figuring out where exactly to begin.

“Son, you have always been able to read me like a book, and it is time I told you more about the operations of our company,” Pollard said motioning his son to take a seat. Tristan remained quiet although his brain was running a million miles a minute. He had been working at his father’s company for several years and couldn’t imagine any aspect of it that he didn’t already know. And his father’s current strange behavior signaled that what he was about to learn might change his whole world.

Before starting, Pollard retrieved the remaining scotch, refilled his glass and set the bottle on a side table next to a bucket of ice. Tristan watched in silence, concern for his father building with each passing minute.

“Tristan, you have been involved in a large portion of the business end of our company, but I have withheld from you some of the actions I have taken over the years to ensure our company would grow. Some of these actions I am not proud of but were necessary and will continue to be needed if our company is to survive.”

“Dad, I trust you and I know you are a good man. So, whatever it is I am sure it was necessary.”

“Tristan, you may change your mind after I tell you my story, and I wouldn’t blame you. I have been uneasy all these years, but I didn’t see another way to do what I needed to do to build our company.” Tristan remained silent waiting for his father to begin.

“After college I went to work for my father’s pharmaceutical compounding company. It did a decent amount of business, but I didn’t think the future lay with just compounding drugs as prescribed by local doctors, but instead looked for manufacturing opportunities that could greatly increase our profits.”

“Our big chance came in 1976 when the swine flu hit. Despite the flu vaccine failures since 1938, the CDC convinced Congress that it was time for mass production of the influenza vaccine. They did such a good job of scaring Congress that $137 million was appropriated for production of the vaccine. This, of course, got my attention and I began preparations for our company to be one of those making the vaccine.”

“All the companies gearing up to produce the vaccine met in secret and decided that they would not produce the vaccine unless Congress passed laws protecting us from lawsuits that could arise from negative outcomes. Yes, this was a major C.Y.A. move, but if we hadn’t done this we would have lost millions when three elderly patients died after receiving the vaccine and several others were paralyzed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome.”

“But the risk of the vaccine must have been less than the risk associated with getting the flu, right? Tristan asked.

“Not really. Despite all the variations we have produced over the years we have never had more than 60% effectiveness and more often we get only 10%. And as you know these efficacy numbers are derived from killing the virus in the lab, not really how well it works in people.”

“Wait, then how has this vaccine become so widely recommended by the CDC if it doesn’t even work?” Tristan asked, a displeased frown on his face. Pollard took a deep sip of scotch before continuing.

“ We are getting ahead of the story, so let me continue with the history lesson. Initially the vaccine was only recommended for the elderly or those with immune problems. It didn’t work well, but everyone thought we just needed to design a better vaccine. To do this the CDC BSL-4 lab, yes their bioterrorism lab, recreated the Spanish influenza virus. They thought this might give them the key to redesigning the vaccine. But it didn’t. Instead, it just added another deadly virus to the bioterrorism armamentarium kept at the CDC.”

“After several more years of vaccine failure there were discussions within the CDC and the pharmaceutical companies about scrapping the entire project. But by this point it was a multi-million dollar industry worldwide and no one in the industry was willing to take such a loss. Nor was the CDC prepared to admit such a colossal failure, as it would undermine their entire reputation and power base. So, the shell company Foedus was formed.”

Tristan looked puzzled. “Foedus? I don’t remember seeing anything in company papers about that company.”

“Of course not. We set it up to be able to pay the right people to continue and expand the vaccine industry.”

“Wait, what do you mean you paid people?”

“While we could pay lobbyists to influence Congress, we couldn’t be seen paying anyone to write favorable reports or CDC recommendations from our legitimate companies, so we had to create a shell company in the Caymans. This company is contributed to by all the major players and has key people in the CDC, USDA, NIH, and the National Vaccine Program that are on our payroll via numbered accounts in an offshore bank.”

“I don’t understand. How does paying these people expand our business?” Tristan asked.

“More history will explain how this works. In 1976 the CDC only recommended that the elderly and those with immune problems be vaccinated. By 2003 the FDA approved the nasal aerosol version to be used on those 5-49 years. This form was a weakened virus, not a killed one, so they could spread the disease to immunosuppressed people. This meant the immunosuppressed had an even stronger reason to get the injected form. So, add the nasal spray and the injectable and you have a sizable increase in the production of the vaccine. Needless to say, this was a great profit boon for our industry.”

“Then in 2009, a new influenza virus strain was identified—the H1N1 and a vaccine to this virus was rapidly approved for production. It was <60% effective so the CDC recommended high dose therapy for those over 65 and the FDA approved production in 2010. Since then, we have been altering the vaccine to include first three and now four strains of the virus but the efficacy hasn’t really improved. Despite this low effectiveness the recommendations by the CDC have continued to expand so that now everyone over the age of 6 months, including pregnant women, are supposed to get the flu vaccine every year. Those in the healthcare industry even face a mandatory vaccination each year regardless of how well, or not the vaccine works.”

“And all this expansion of the vaccination program hasn’t had anyone raising a red flag?” Tristan asked.

“Well one group did publish a review of the published research and stated there was a strong positive bias in the industry reports, which were the reports most often quoted as justification for widespread use. They actually said they found no evidence to recommend a yearly vaccination. Obviously, this negative study has continued to be ignored.”

“But the CDC continues to recommend people get the vaccine?”

“Yes, and they have even suggested that people get a second dose when the vaccine was already not working this past year.”

“But why—?” Tristan asked in full disbelief.

“The why is Foedus and the consultant fees we pay out every year to the appropriate people. We also keep a lot of data on the CDC BSL-4 lab irregular incidents so if anyone really gets too nosey at the CDC and tries to play hardball with us we have the goods on them and could go public.”

“Whoa, wait, you are saying blackmailing the CDC is part of the plan?”

“We have not had to use the info; we just collect it. They have already been found to cover-up lab incidents like missing inventory, samples in the wrong places, etc. in both the Colorado and Puerto Rico facilities. They don’t want that stuff public and have even used the Bioterrorist Act of 2002 to not answer a lot...