But please, please don't take it unless you've been diagnosed with the flu.

tamiflu is not OTC.

@nakedscience: Eh whatever, it's not like this well be a pandemic. Just another SARS, bird flu, etc.

"Over the counter"?

The box of Tamiflu sitting in my medicine box is Rx only. So unless it's been reclassified recently, it's not OTC

CEO: "How can we cash in on this swine flu scare, gentlemen?"

Lacky: "I've got it!..."

Since Tamiflu is by prescription only, anyone else think that sign might just mean "if you happen to have received a prescription for tamiflu, please come to our Walgreens to get it filled in one hour or less"?

I don't think anything about the sign says that Tamiflu is over the counter, only that they have it. Presumably, if you wandered in all glassy-eyed, thinking you would be able to get some to stockpile in your bunker, you'd be wrong because it's prescription only.

Hey, what happened to all those people who rushed to Mexico to buy unregulated boxes of Tamiflu when they though Anthrax was being spread through the mail or when SARS was in the news or whatever the last scare was?

@pecan 3.14159265: That's what I was thinking. Too bad that news article required subscription or something.

Well, that's only slightly less sleazy than the Walgreens we patronized (because they were the closest 24-hour one) with their "Stock up on swine flu supplies!" end-cap. All the face masks, gloves, and OH DEAR GOD MAKE THE CASHING-IN STOP

The gist of the article is that many pharmacies in the DFW area have Tamiflu on backorder because they've issued so many prescriptions for it.(And masks.) If you have a prescription you might not be able to get it filled right away. Except at Walgreen's in Colleyville--evidently they have plenty.

(replies not working for me again)

@drjayphd CVS in my area had the same thing, and the sad thing was it wasn't very well stocked. They were moving a lot of product from it.

@Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus TinyBug: Consumerist Fail

@drjayphd: Ha! I was just getting ready to post about the EVERYBODY PANIC!!! SWINE FLU!!! Walgreens endcap. My husband is home sick (OMG!!! SWINE FLU!!!), so I wanted some hand sanitizer. There was apparently a run on the stuff at Target so I dropped by Walgreens. The endcap practically jumps up and slaps you as you walk in the door. Tack-ay.

Incidentally, that Walgreens' Take Care Clinic was jam packed when I was there. Guess the SWINE!!! FLU!!! PANIC!!! is doing its job. Cha-ching.

Yeah, a lot of school districts down here in DFW are closed down because of confirmed swine flu cases. Also a lot of pharmacies and hospitals are out of stock of tamiflu, which you can't buy without a prescription. I guess now if I get sick I'll know where I can actually get some medicine.

My guess is the Consumerist poster is confusing Tamiflu with Theraflu, easy to do, but not correct. As others have noted, Tamiflu is prescription only.

@nakedscience: Terrible advice. By the time you have a fever tamiflu is mostly useless. It works best as prevention. If you are in a house with a couple of sick people, it might make sense to take it.

@pecan 3.14159265: It's not OTC. I find it odd people think it is based on a photo.

@Juliekins: Boy howdy. My retail-managing girlfriend was a bit miffed about it, but at least the Walgreens employees felt the same. To think someone at the store level had the common sense to say that maybe it isn't the best idea to have all the cashiers wearing masks, especially considering this location's right near a hospital.

At least this is happening somewhere that someone's actually been diagnosed with swine flu (of course, he's fully recovered, but never let the facts get in the way of an upsell)...

@Corporate_guy:
Don't complain when their is a super bug that anti-virals won't work on. Just cause too many people took them when they where not sick.

@sir_eccles: I hope the American public isn't stupid enough to buy Tamiflu for Anthrax.

Our district manager (CVS) sent out a memo the other day letting us know that "Tamiflu is back in stock!!!" and to immediately call doctors in the area and let them know so that we can "get ahead of the swine flu hysteria and capture our share of scripts from the concerned public!!!!" (except the memo was in all-caps)

@Corporate_guy: They think it is based on the HEADLINE. The photo just says they have the drug in stock.

Has anyone else seemed to notice that more and more insane news postings and reasons to panic are coming from Texas? I live in the capitol here, and I gotta say, a lot of these things that are posted (The No Job fairs @ HEB, Zombies Ahead Signs *To be fair, don't remember if that was on consumerist or not*, This Tamiflu thing) coming from Texas. And not just on consumerist, but all over the interwebs! It's almost as if my state is either the center of the universe, or center for the most completely, reprehensibly stupid people in the universe.

I think now is a good time to move.

@Nick1693 I'm guessing he's confusing Tamiflu with Cipro. Cipro became a household name during the anthrax scare; Tamiflu became well known after the bird flu scare (and made Donald Rumsfeld millions by pure coincidence).

The sign really needs "!!!" at the end and "OMG!" prefacing it. Otherwise it lacks the needed sense of urgency.

@JoseRZ: Personally I'd just follow the advice of the pharmacist (who is required by state and federal law to provide advice regarding medication).

This will always be my favourite pharmacy sign:

I have no idea what it's meant to be selling.

@JulesNoctambule:
Damn it! Where'd my link go?

[i56.photobucket.com]

This is sorta like the duct tape rush a while back .

If people would realize they are fighting and mostly winning battles against all kinds of diseases , bacteria and germs on a daily basis I think many would accept this over reported story for what it is .

Always room for a conspiracy theory though ...

Your fact-checking staff is pretty cute! I can see why they maybe don't focus as much as they should though. Maybe remove the exercise wheel and suspend all yogurt drop snacks until further notice?

An aside. This swine flu is one of the most ridiculous things I've seen out of the modern media (and there have been lots of things of late.)

The normal flu kills 35,000 people just in the US every year. Swine flu has so far killed 1. Almost all the people that get infected get sick and have to stay home for a few days to a week. Just like normal flu.

In 1976 there was a scare for the swine flu. The flu ended up killing 1 person. The vaccine ended up killing 10 people.

Nearly every other thing you have around you every day is FAR FAR more hazardous. Talking on your cell phone, having electrical appliances all around you. Eating at McDonalds...

I tune out the normal mass media 90% of the time now. I'm just wondering why in the world some people still call it trustworthy?