A Government Business Partnership

One of my favorite quotes is that of the French health official tried for his part in keeping blood products with known HIV contamination in use. He said, "I am responsible but not guilty." Perhaps something was lost in translation.

But did you know this? The U.S. companies extracting clotting factors from whole blood in the early 1980's paid donors, including prisoners and drug users. The guidelines were not followed (e.g. screening hepatitis) and, at the time, AIDS could not be tested for.  When American hemophiliacs contracted HIV after using the injected, blood-clotting drug made from unheated blood concentrates, the FDA recommended that Bayer dump their surplus on Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Argentina. That way the company could work off their inventory and still make profits from sales, despite it being pulled from the US market. In Hong Kong and Taiwan alone it is estimated that over one hundred hemophiliac patients contracted HIV after using the tainted medicine.

While it is perhaps easy to dismiss the soulless decisions of companies and government as mechanical and bureaucratic, behind every decision is a person. What is this? Emergent behavior?