Unintended consequences

You know about Tamiflu, right? Tamiflu is the anti-viral drug that many people are stocking up on, in case of a flu pandemic. Never mind that it's not at all clear that it will work.

Well, there is worse yet. A new study suggests that the use of Tamiflu for a pandemic will have potentially damaging effects on the environment, as well as create the conditions for new, resistant strains of flu virus. This is pretty familiar - the reason we have so many antibiotic resistant bacteria is because of the widespread use of antibiotics.

So, here it is - we are doing something that makes us feel safer, but getting ourselves into worse trouble. Sound familiar? I think a blog post about that phenomenon might be in order, at some point.