Such a Deal

Psst! Are you looking for a sample of bird flu virus, H5N1? Have I got a deal for you.

Link

Indonesia, which has had more human cases of avian flu than any other country, has stopped sending samples of the virus to the World Health Organization, apparently because it is negotiating a contract to sell the samples to an American vaccine company, a WHO official said Tuesday.

The company, Baxter Healthcare of Deerfield, Illinois, stands, potentially, to make huge profits from this transaction. But at what cost?

One would assume that some things take precedence over profits, but apparently, a pandemic does not rise to that vaunted level. The bar has just been raised.