- Members of Britain's elite have been selected as priority
cases to receive scarce pills and vaccinations at the taxpayers' expense
if the country is hit by a deadly bird flu outbreak.
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- Workers at the BBC and prominent politicians - such as
cabinet ministers - would be offered protection from the virus.
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- Ken Livingstone, the London mayor, has already spent
£1m to make sure his personal office and employees have their own
emergency supplies of 100,000 antiviral tablets.
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- If there is an avian flu pandemic in the coming months
there would be enough drugs to protect less than 2% of the British population
for a week.
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- The Department of Health has drawn up a priority list
of those who would be first to receive lifesaving drugs. Top of the list
are health workers followed by those in key public sector jobs.
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- Although senior government ministers would be among the
high-priority cases, the department said this weekend that it had not decided
whether to include opposition politicians.
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- BBC employees would be protected because the corporation
is required to broadcast vital information during a national disaster.
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- Politicians and the media have been placed before sick
patients, heavily pregnant women and elderly people by government planners.
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- Yesterday, leading BBC presenters were surprised to learn
that they would be given preferential treatment. Jeff Randall, the BBC's
business editor, said: "Are you really telling me that I am on a priority
list for bird flu jabs? Marvellous. I always knew there would be an advantage
from working at the BBC."
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- John Humphrys, presenter of BBC Radio 4's Today programme,
said: "I think if I were offered the jab I would probably pass it
on to someone 40 years younger than me."
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- Nick Clarke, presenter of BBC Radio 4's World at One,
said: "I'm sure I wouldn't qualify. My programme has news and comment
and the one thing you can do without in a pandemic is comment . . . They
would want to have Huw Edwards and reassuring newsreaders on radio."
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- Fears that a "doomsday" virus may sweep the
world have been heightened by the recent spread of the lethal strain of
avian flu, H5N1. The death toll, estimated at 120, has been of people whose
work brought them into close contact with infected birds. Scientists have
warned that millions could die if H5N1 mutates.
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- The Department of Health would not currently be able
to cope with such an onslaught. Although it has ordered 14.6m doses of
Tamiflu, an antiviral drug thought to be effective against the H5N1 strain,
only 900,000 doses are in stock so far. The full supply will not be delivered
until March 2007, at a total cost of about £100m.
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- Besides the NHS and BBC, firemen, police and the armed
forces are among those listed in the two top-priority groups to receive
the vaccine.
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- http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
article/0,,2087-1753892,00.html
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