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Here’s a quick tour of drug and vaccine news from around the globe:

Swine-flu shots are going begging in Germany, and the government is selling some of its vaccine on the foreign market, NPR’s Shots blog notes. Only 5% of the overall population and 15% of doctors have gone to the trouble of getting vaccinated. It’s one of a few European countries where demand for the vaccine has been low.

The CDC put out new estimates today on the first six months of the swine flu (H1N1) pandemic in the U.S. A few quick numbers: 22 million cases, 98,000 hospitalizations, 3,900 deaths.

So what do those numbers mean?

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup are among several large New York City employers that got doses of the H1N1 vaccine, which remains in short supply. WSJ’s Betsy Mckay discusses Wall Street’s latest public relations nightmare on The News Hub.

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With unemployment hitting new highs, WSJ’s Jonathan Weisman explains how this is putting pressure on President Obama to create more jobs. Plus, an uproar over swine flu vaccines for Wall Street firms. WSJ’s Betsy McKay reports, in the News Hub.

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Should companies be allowed to buy large quantities of medicine like Tamiflu to have on hand in case their employees develop the H1N1 flu virus? Not according to the law in South Korea, where it’s illegal for non-medical professionals to purchase big lots of drugs. Punishment is up to five years in prison.

Kellogg said it’s removing the great big banner on the front of Rice Krispies boxes that says the cereal “helps support your child’s immunity.”

The move seems a bit odd, that it was only July when the company rolled out the new claim, which went along with a new formulation of the cereal that included higher amounts of vitamins A, B, C and E. In a brief statement announcing the end of the immunity banner, Kellogg said:

Just in case you’re wondering, there’s no industry money behind this rather slick video that features two former senators pushing for new vaccine technology. Instead, taxpayers are picking up the tab through a commission set up by Congress to thwart weapons of mass destruction. “Every penny — and it wasn’t very much — was all government funds from the WMD commission,” the commission’s executive director told the Health Blog. We’ll explain after the video.

The H1N1 flu is now widespread in 46 states — it’s as if we’re at the peak of the flu season, as this flu tracker shows. Yet as of Friday, only about 16 million doses of swine flu vaccine had been shipped to U.S. warehouses; officials had previously estimated that there would be 40 million doses by the end of October.

President Barack Obama declared the H1N1 virus a national emergency, giving hospitals a green light to put emergency plans into action should swine flu cases increase. Video courtesy of Fox News.

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