Killing for Money
I don't know how the mainstream news is currently covering the avian bird flu stuff, but online one thing is clear: people are getting excited.
Nothing like a little death-based panic to get the ol' policy wheels in action. With the threat of potentially millions of rich, first-world people getting killed by the next flu pandemic (currently being pegged by some as the H5N1 strain of avian flu), people have finally started to notice that, hey, maybe drug patent laws suck ass.
You bet they do and one of the only effective remedies to flu infections (Tamiflu) is under patent (by Roche) and really, really expensive because that's precisely what patents are designed to do: make things very, very pricey for an allegedly short time (if 20 or so years is "short" to you). Ignoring the bullshit rhetoric "justifying" patents (usually "property rights" or "one must profit" hot air), one thing is clear: patents grant at least 20-year-long monopolies. And, as is clear to anyone, monopolies increase prices in market economies.
Now, before one starts blathering about exceptions and suchlike for the "important" disease called invfluenza, think about something: already, the talked-about numbers of people have died in Africa because we're too stupid, short-sighted and greedy in the so-called "West". We've slaughtered millions of children, women and men in Africa (who don't matter because they're poor and black) precisely because they cannot afford our prices for AIDS drugs. With threats of more death (cutting off of all aid and loans), we've forced them to implement our patent regimes, which don't even make sense for us, let alone countries which can't afford food. You probably don't believe me, but go do your own research on TRIPS (Trade-Related Intellectual "Property" System) negotiations.
So, before everyone gets in a big, huffy panic about bird flu killing us all, it's useful to note that we probably deserve every single death (up to about a few million) we bring on ourselves due to shortsighted, elitist-serving laws.