By Drew Kaplan

The law of uninttended consequences pops up in almost every aspect of our lives. The government raises taxes to increase revenue resulting in decreased investment and ultimately less revenue. Increased regulation in one area persuades capital and investment to flow to a unregulated area with very few if any regulations. Using to much sunscreen to avoid skin care can lead to vitamin D deficiencies resulting in lower immunity for a host of diseases. Antibacterial soap can seep into our skin and get into our bloodstream or wash away “good bacteria” that helps the body heal cuts and swelling. We diligently get mammogram screenings to detect breast cancer only to find out they give us cancer. There is no end to the law of unintended consequences. So what are the uninttended consequences with the drug of choice to treat Swine flu? We have all heard about H1N1 becoming resistant to Tamiflu and mutating into a antiviral resistant flu. But here is a strange twist that very few researchers are focusing on: Tamiflu and birds. After a tremendous influx of people being prescribe Tamiflu due to the Swine flu , Tamiflu’s active ingredient, oseltamivir carboxylate is winding up in rivers. The drug is excreted through urine and then gets passed along to sewage plants. The problem is the sewage plants designed to remove many things does not remove oseltamivir carboxylate which gets passed along from the sewage plants to the rivers.
Scientists have known for many years that water plants do a lousy job removing Tamiflu from the water but most never anticipated such heavy usage as we are seeing now.

Many birds tend to migrate in fresh water rivers, especially near the warm waters by sewage plants. When birds drink the water they will in effect be taking Tamiflu! The birds now protected by Tamiflu will be able to fend off certain types of flu but as a result can develop other more antiviral resistant flu’s that they can pass on to other birds, animals and even humans. Birds are natural carriers of flu viruses including Avian Influenza (Bird Flu.) So what will the final result of the law of uninttended consequences be this time. We will have to wait and see.