# 2896
I very rarely editorialize in this column.
Frankly, while I'm imbued with a healthy sense of self appreciation, I can't begin to fathom why anyone would care to hear my views on politics or religion, or any of a hundred other issues.
Instead, I try to present the news and the latest research on pandemic influenza, and try to put things in context.
I figure my readers are smart enough to make up their own minds on `the issues'.
But today, I am going to break with this format a bit and give an opinion.
My apologies in advance.
Over the past several weeks, I've received dozens of emails asking me about the Baxter H5N1 `vaccine' mishap in the Czech Republic that I reported on in late February.
The blogs I've published (in reverse order) are:
Branswell Updates The Baxter H5N1 Story
More On The Baxter `Vaccine' Story
Bloomberg Updates The Baxter Vaccine Mishap Story
Ferreting Out A Problem In the Laboratory
The early story was that H5N1` contaminated vaccine' was sent to labs in the Czech republic for testing on ferrets.
Later reports, particularly the one by Helen Branswell, indicate that this may have been an `experimental virus material' - not a vaccine - used to challenge vaccinated ferrets.
Frankly, I don't know what the truth is here.
The `experimental virus material' story makes more sense to me than a contaminated vaccine . . . but that doesn't make it correct.
While it's been more than two-weeks since the Branswell story came out, a day hasn't passed when my Google Alerts hasn't brought a new `story' to my inbox about what supposedly transpired. Almost all refer back to the Bloomberg and Branswell stories of February, but have `added detail'.
The details of some of these stories, quite frankly, stretch credulity. And every day, the story gets `worse'.
The Internet, you see, abhors an informational vacuum, and in the absence of solid information `something' will fill that void.
In this case, the silence by Baxter on what actually happened is making things worse. For Baxter, and for the vaccine industry as a whole.
Obviously, whatever the circumstances, this was a colossal screw up.
And I'm sure it's under investigation by the appropriate European agencies. But Baxter needs to get out in front of this story now, before it morphs some more.
Since I don't know what actually happened, and I have a low level of confidence in much of the reporting I've seen over the past week, I don't plan to feature any of them in this blog.
I'll wait for reporting from sources I know and trust.
But there is a lesson here, one that every government agency, and every business and organization needs to take to heart.
In this age of instant Internet communications, and millions of bloggers, you can no longer afford to sit on `bad news' and hope it will fade over time.
It won't.
The only cure is to come out with the truth, no matter how damaging it might be, and do so immediately.
Do anything less, and I guarantee . . . you will come to regret it.
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