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Article: The futures of flu: an economist and an infectious disease doc launch futures market for flu.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
- Article from:
- Risk & Insurance
- Article date:
- April 15, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Axon Group. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Business owners and public-health experts might have the tool they have been waiting for to help them gauge the likelihood of an influenza pandemic. Called the Avian Flu Market, the tool is a prediction futures market that taps into the knowledge of health-care workers around the world to help anticipate the course of the dreaded H5N1 strain of influenza.
"Our hypothesis is that there still is a lot of information, and different people have different pieces of information from different professional backgrounds that may be helpful," says Dr. Phil Polgreen, an infectious disease physician, reed-school professor and medical director of the project. "Markets are ...