# 377
Okay gang, how many errors can you find in this report posted on WIRF TV 23 Freeport/Rockford, Illinois’ website? There are only 61 words (okay, 63 if you count the misleading title), so how many could there possibly be?
Medical Breakthrough
Posted: 7:23 PM Jan 29, 2007
A medical breakthrough to report tonight. Researchers in Taiwan are claiming they've found a vaccine that cures bird flu.
Taiwan's Health Institute has spent 13 months on the new vaccine that counteracts the deadly virus.
In a lab, the vaccine worked 70% of the time on rats and the institutes planning to mass producing the vaccine by the end of 2007.
Granted, this is TV news, and so a certain amount of hyperbole is to be expected, but this does seem a bit excessive.
First, there is no `Medical Breakthrough’ here. The Taiwanese have produced an experimental vaccine that has only been tested on mice. Human trials haven't begun, and completion is more than a year away.
Second, a vaccine is not a `cure’. A cure implies that it works after you contract an illness. A vaccine must be administered prior to exposure.
Third, the timetable announced in this article is somewhat contrary to other reports today. AFP (Agence France-Presse) reports the following version:
The vaccine, using cell culture technology, needs validation by the health ministry before human tests are undertaken.
They are due to be completed before the end of June next year.
If all goes to plan, mass production of the vaccines -- running up to a million doses a year -- would begin late 2008, Chuang said.
With a population of 23 million, Taiwan’s mass-production capability won’t be enough to handle their own needs. They estimate they can manufacture 1 million doses a year. So whether production begins at the end of 2007 or 2008, it isn't likely to effect the inhabitants of Rockford.
While this is progress, and a good move on the part of the Taiwanese, this `medical breakthrough' is a long way from being able to deliver us from the threat of an avian flu pandemic.
On the plus side, however, the good citizens of Illinois are probably comforted this morning by all this as they sip their coffee and watch their local newscasts.
