Indonesia: The Stupid, it Burns

"The Stupid. It Burns!" I don't know where this Simpson-esque phrase comes from, but The Stupid burns pretty bright in the brains of Republican Governors Mark Sanford and Bobby Jindal who are refusing stimulus money for unemployment compensation even though their states have some of the highest unemployment rates in the nation. That's stupid. Like refusing help with avian influenza even if you have more cases of the disease than anywhere in the world. The Stupid isn't just an American disease.

Take Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari. Please.

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Source: plognark

Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari has called on the country’s medical institutions to carry out their own virus and DNA research free of foreign funding - to avoid “exploitation” from developed countries and the possibility of a future biological attack against the world’s largest Muslim nation.

“I’m truly afraid the world will use our viruses or DNAs to create a mass biological weapon that may be used to attack us,” she said.

Supari surprised the world when she abruptly stopped sending bird flu virus samples to the World Health Organisation in 2007. She reasoned that the WHO wanted the virus to create an effective bird flu vaccine using the Indonesian strain but offered nothing in return.

“Indonesia is perceived by many countries as both a potential object of exploitation and a promising market for new vaccines.” The minister said that the virus samples were given for free but Indonesia had to later purchase the vaccine — developed using those samples — at a high price.

Supari said that all research conducted in Indonesia should abide by a decree she issued in 2008 governing the use of biological substances, including viruses or DNA samples. She said the decree was issued to reduce Indonesia’s dependency on foreign funding especially for research of potentially pandemic diseases such as bird flu.

Supari said Indonesia should ideally be able to research its own viruses and produce its derivative products without having to depend on foreign intervention. She said that by being independent and mastering Indonesia’s own strain of viruses, the country would have stronger bargaining power in the world.

“Trust me on this one, there is no such thing as free help. When people offer big money to help you, they undoubtedly expect to benefit from it,” Supari said. (Alice Kok, Futuregov)

"There is no such thing as free help." Of course there is, but in this case the help is being offered and virus isolates sought for a real and tangible benefit to the rest of the world: warning about and devising the means to protect against a dangerous virus with pandemic potential. We've been clear that there need to be adjustments in the way intellectual property is handled for matters of global infectious disease concern. So Indonesia and other countries have a point. Just not the point that the Health Minister is making.

We've posted on this so often I have The Stupid fatigue (a few of many here, here, here, here, here, here). So I can hardly summon the energy to tap the keys again, but here's some more:

Supari urged Indonesian scientists and researchers to conduct their research independently and pledged that the Ministry of Health would try its best to help fund their projects.

Agus Purwadianto, Head of the Health Ministry’s Research and Development Agency said that researchers or institutions refusing to abide by the decree would have to face the consequences.

“We may revoke a researcher’s or institution’s license if they insist on conducting research that may harm the country’s sovereignty and we won’t recognise findings from the research,” he said.

The Stupid, it Burns.

More like this

Sometimes The Stupid makes me laugh so hard, I cry.

[Feb 7 2007] Indonesia, Baxter sign pact on bird flu vaccine
(Reuters) - Indonesia signed a memorandum of understanding with a unit of U.S. company Baxter International Inc. on Wednesday to develop a human bird flu vaccine, as Jakarta came under fire for not sharing samples of the virus.

[Feb. 20 2008] Indonesia accuses US of bird flu plot (Sydney Morning Herald) - The Indonesian Health Minister has said the United States and the World Health Organisation are part of a global conspiracy to profit from the spread of bird flu and the US may use samples to produce biological weapons.

[Feb. 25 2009] Officials investigate how bird flu viruses were sent to unsuspecting labs (Canadian Press) - Officials are trying to get to the bottom of how vaccine manufacturer Baxter International Inc. made "experimental virus material" based on a human flu strain but contaminated with the H5N1 avian flu virus and then distributed it to an Austrian company.

By Path Forward (not verified) on 25 Mar 2009 #permalink

And the BS rhetoric about this money may not burn, but it does stink. Taking that money has too many strings attached to it. If you take it, then you have to comply with all of the regulations associated with it, like healthcare programs that the states cant afford. It puts the states firmly under federal control to take it and then they have to raise taxes to spend it and then take care of the backside.

Unemployment benefits simply run out and then the states have to take up the slack after they do. Its not even a grant or a loan. You get it like a junkie from the street corner, you burn it through and then you need more and more and more. Extending Washington drug money is what it is. They lure you into their socialist trap and then you are stuck and cant get out.

You pay in, you take out... There is a finite amount before you'll go out to get a job at lower pay and keep yourself employed. And its not free money...Someone has to pay it it in and then the Politburo takes it back x 2.

Then one day the federal government cant print any more money.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94lW6Y4tBXs

The brits failed to fund their bond offerings today for the first time in 7 years. The train wreck is coming when our bond offering has the same outcome.

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AS for Supari... I would check for syphilis induced insanity. She is a nutcase of the highest order. And she is starting to feel the heat. She requested and got 500 million to start their own vaccine factory. So lets see, if they steal 20% like they did from the rest of the world as she said on TV, "Its only 20%?" with a most incredulous look on her face as she said it, it makes it about 100 million thats going to end up in Thailand. Why not build it there? Thats where their elite have their USGov paid for homes.

Now if they build the vax plant and start making vacccines... does that mean they are going to make bio weapons too? Who will they use them on, the Phillipines? Revere, you post often about this lovely lady... MIght it not be a good idea to give them heavily discounted vax? Otherwise you will have a nutcase in charge of a bioweapons facility. We spill enough stuff in the bio side now unintentionally. What are we going to do if she gets her hands on BSL-4 stuff and starts to play?

Now theres a real question.

By M. Randolph Kruger (not verified) on 25 Mar 2009 #permalink

Randy: LOL. When Sanford and Jindal (Republicans) do it, it's fine. When Supari does the same thing, she's syphilitic. LOL. Says it all, my friend. Says it all.

Revere, you should update this piece to include that vaccine nonesense.

The Stupid, it's plasma hot!!!

Revere

Is Madamn Supari not a senior advisor-director of the World Health Organization?

How exactly do you square that circle?

Funny how Baxter was able to send H5N1 contaminated vaccine to some Easter European countries, which could have spread H5N1 this fall if not detected.

Panasonic recalls it employees families sent overseas in preparation for a pandemic this fall.

NSSM 200 calls for a strategy to control/reduce population in certain countries, Indonesia among them, to preserve resources.

The Project for a New American Century stated development of biological agents which could be engineered to target certain ethnic groups would be politically useful.

And lets face it, like it or not, many of our actions, and that of the UN, have been harmful to developing countries.

So I would not say she is stupid, just a bit paranoid.

pft: Nothing funny about it, since what you say isn't the case. Baxter didn't send vaccine. It was material destined for the lab, not a commercial vaccine and Panasonic called for dependents to come home by next September.

Claws in the Ground in Indonesia

A collective effort has to be swiftly made to provide Personnal Protective Equipments to First Responders in conformity to most National Preparedness Plans.

A collective effort has to be made by the Indonesian Islamic Imans Council on the vaccination issues.

Veterinarians budget should be granthed, then may they produce their vaccines and ASAP.

Namru could be usefull in coordonnating swiftly and bodly all these measures and Entente,

Snowy

By Snowy Owl (not verified) on 26 Mar 2009 #permalink

Supari is NOT STUPID, if the rest of you were aware that YES they have weaponized the rabies and the BIRD FLU adenovirus and are just waiting to unleash this onto the world....takes some time but it is all there, Schnell, Koprowski,Gallo have all contributed and now we are waiting to get our dose of aggression like they have delivered to the Congo. Mad scientists, vaccines that help the virus go round.......our future is our past and yes it is monkey business

My instinctive feeling is that we need to impose quarantine periods on all travellers out of Indonesia. Living in a neighbouring country (Australia), I don't want to get Ms. Supari's intellectual property spreading around my neighbourhood.

Relative Proximity to Indonesia certainly awares consciousness.

Fear is not a good Leader for CommonWealth.

Specific Request emanating from the Prime Minister Rudd would Weight In.

JMHO

Snowy

Burning Stupid is I believe it is an oblique reference to the Lord of the Rings.

When Frodo and Sam capture Gollum just outside of Mordor they tie him up with elvish ropes. He screams in pain totally out of proportion to the tighness of the bonds yelling about how the ropes burn him. (I don't have the book handy for a direct quote.)

As the internet does, this has been transmigorified to "The Stupid, it Burns!"