“The society which has abolished every kind of adventure makes its own abolition the only possible adventure.” Paris, May 1968


Wednesday 29 April 2009

The rich stockpile anti-viral drugs.

Great believer in the collectivist model of society I might be, but even I am not daft enough to think that an outbreak of a contagious disease is likely to bring people together. None the less the likelihood of a flu pandemic is very much a social problem and can only really be coped with on a social rather than an individual level. Hard pressed NHS workers will be on the front line and we need have no doubt that they will give of their best, as always. Anti-viral drugs, sufficient for half the population, have been stockpiled. Already there is talk of a "buddy system" for collecting and delivering medicine for the sick. Is this another example of us shedding the last vestiges of Thatcherism and pulling together at last? Alas there is a blot on my usual rose tinted landscape.
The rich are buying up prescriptions from private clinics in case they have need of the drugs at a later date. There are stockpiles of anti-viral drugs. Unfortunately they are all in Knightsbridge and Mayfair. The rich, will they always be with us?

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