Another bioweapon unleashed on an unsuspecting public?

Got the flu? You might want to use some Vicks Sinex nasal spray to relieve your symptoms. Or maybe not.

It seems that some 120,000 bottles of the popular nasal spray are being recalled for contamination with a bacteria (Burkholderia cepacia) that causes pneumonia. This type of pneumonia is associated with people with Cystic Fibrosis and has a 35% mortality rate.

The manufacturer, Proctor and Gamble, says that: "The bacteria poses little medical risk to healthy individuals but that clearly is not acceptable." Of course if your healthy, then why would you use a nasal spray like this?

Maybe the pharmaceutical companies didn't feel like they were getting a high enough death count from the swine (H1N1) flu to cause sufficient panic to get governments to keep wasting billions of dollars in public funds on vaccines and anti-viral medicines. So they decided to up the death count by spreading pneumonia causing bacteria in nasal sprays.

You've got to admit that would be a really clever plan. What better way to target flu victims than with a nasal spray intended to alleviate their symptoms. And what better delivery system than a spray that the unknowing victim would breathe deeply into his already infected nasal cavities. From there the bacteria would have an easy time entering into the lungs where it could finish off its victim.

And especially since most flu victims don't die from the flu itself, but from bacterial infections which result in pneumonia. And this particular bacteria is resistant to most common antibiotics, so by the time the results came back from tests the victim might already be dead.

But our government and/or pharmaceutical companies would never conspire to do something like that - would they?

Rest assured because P&G has taken complete responsibility and is offering "replacement coupons". See, they really do care about you. And of course they quickly updated their product web page to reflect the recall.

No? Uh, yeah, well I'm sure their working on that. Of course any good consumer would know to go down to the bottom of the page where there is a link in really tiny font to the recall page.

See that! "You're taken care of." Isn't that nice. And from there your only a few clicks away from the companies recall announcement.

CINCINNATI, Nov. 19, 2009 - The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) announced today it is voluntarily recalling three lots of its Vicks Sinex nasal spray in three countries: the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom.

The company said it is taking this precautionary step after finding the bacteria B. cepacia in a small amount of product made at its plant in Gross Gerau, Germany. There have been no reports of illness. However, the bacteria could cause serious infections for individuals with a compromised immune system, or those with chronic lung conditions, such as cystic fibrosis. B. cepacia poses little medical risk to healthy individuals.

P&G detected this problem during routine quality control at the plant and promptly took action. The company's analysis to date shows this problem is limited to a single batch of raw material mixture involving three lots of product. These three lots were sold only in the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom.

So I guess its "routine" to not check a product for bacterial contamination until after its shipped and on the shelves of pharmacies worldwide. Uh-huh. That makes sense.

And the announcement fails to mention anything about the risk to people infected with the swine flu. That does seem a bit deliberate given the current "pandemic" and swine flu "emergency" declared by President Obama. I guess it just never occurred to P&G management that someone that is sick from swine flu might seek relief with its Vicks Sinex product. But I'm sure the ever vigilant mainstream media will be quick to bring this question up - or not.

If you ask me this looks like an exercise in damage control. I wonder how many meetings they went through where managers insisted that the product not be recalled to avoid a panic, while low level technicians kept insisting that there was a real danger to the public. The press release continues.

This lot number is listed on both the outer carton and the bottle. Consumers should simply discard the affected product as they would any OTC medicine.

P&G is removing the product in question from store shelves and has informed regulatory authorities in the affected countries. P&G said it found the bacteria B. cepacia in a small amount of product from U.S. lot 9239028831 and is conducting testing on the U.K. and German lots that have been produced from the same batch of raw material mixture.

Anyone who has these specific lots of this product can call P&G for a replacement coupon or refund at the following numbers...

Yes Mr. and Ms. Consumer you would really be helping us out here in destroying the evidence by just dumping it in the trash. We wouldn't want to have an actual investigation of the facts to turn up that the "small" amount of contaminated product actually turned out to be much more. How do they know it's just a "small" amount of product? And since when is 120,000 of anything considered "small"?

But remember at P&G "You're taken care of." That's really all you need to know.