Has the US wasted $1.5 billion on Tamiflu?

Following up from their excellent expose a couple of months back, Shannon Brownlee and Jeanne Lenzer discuss the 'medical mirage' which is Tamiflu - an expensive drug with an horrendous side-effect profile which doesn't do what it's supposed to at an enormous cost to both our pockets and our health. Not to be missed - please forward this information far and wide.
The Truth About Tamiflu - The Atlantic (December 10, 2009)

Two months ago, we pointed out in our story on flu in The Atlantic that the antiviral drug Tamiflu might not be as effective or safe as many patients, doctors, and governments think. The drug has been widely prescribed since the first cases of H1N1 flu surfaced last spring, and the U.S. government has spent more than $1.5 billion stockpiling it since 2005 as part of the nation’s pandemic preparedness plan.

Now it looks as if our concerns were correct, and the nation may have put more than a billion dollars into the medical equivalent of a mirage. This week, the British medical journal BMJ published a multi-part investigation that confirms that the scientific evidence just isn’t there to show that Tamiflu prevents serious complications, hospitalization, or death in people that have the flu. The BMJ goes further to suggest that Roche, the Swiss company that manufactures and markets Tamiflu, may have misled governments and physicians. In its defense, Roche stated that the company “has never concealed (or had the intention to conceal) any pertinent data.”