Editorial Advises Ropes & Gray: Stop ‘Hoarding’ Tamiflu
Ropes & Gray is apparently serious about keeping employees at the office.
The law firm has more than 40 high-end coffee machines that are said to keep employees at the office and away from Starbucks. And now the firm is also stockpiling Tamiflu for its employees, the Boston Globe reports in an editorial that condemns the practice.
Ropes & Gray is among about 300 companies that have arranged for special supplies of the drug to combat the swine flu virus. Ropes & Gray employees will be able to get a Tamiflu prescription while they are healthy so they can take the drug when they have flu symptoms.
The editorial says physicians worry that indiscriminate use of Tamiflu will make the drug less effective. According to the Globe, “Ropes & Gray should quit hoarding and have its employees await their doctors’ orders like most of the rest of the world.”
Ropes & Gray defended its Tamiflu program in a previous Boston Globe story. “There is no higher priority at Ropes & Gray than the health and safety of the firm’s employees,’’ spokesman John Tuerck told the publication in an e-mail. “Like many other professional services firms, we made the optional Tamiflu program available to our employees to combat the duration and severity of flu symptoms.’’
