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WHO Scientist: Swine
Flu Pandemic Was "Completely Exaggerated"
International inquiry hears "evidence base
is weak", charges of collusion with drug companies
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 A
scientist with the World Health Organisation has testified,
during ongoing hearings in Strasbourg, France, that the swine
flu pandemic was part of an overblown "angst campaign",
devised in conjunction with major drug companies to boost profits
for vaccine manufacturers.
Professor Ulrich Keil, director of the WHO's Collaborating
Centre for Epidemiology, slammed the organization and its flu
chief, Dr Keiji Fukuda while giving evidence before The Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
"With SARS, with avian flu, always the predictions are
wrong...Why don't we learn from history?" Keil said. "It
[swine flu] produced a lot of turmoil in the pubic and was completely
exaggerated in contrast with all the really important matters
we have to deal with in public health."
The WHO adviser on heart disease, added that the decision had
led to a "gigantic misallocation" of health budgets.
"We know the great killers are hypertension, smoking,
high cholesterol, high body mass index, physical inactivity
and low fruit and vegetable intake," he said. "In
spite of all these facts, governments instead wasted huge amounts
of money by investing in pandemic scenarios whose evidence base
is weak."
PACE, a 47 nation body encompassing democratically elected
members of parliament, will determine whether a "falsified
pandemic" was declared by WHO in June 2009 on the advice
of medical advisors, many of whom have close financial ties
to the very pharmaceutical giants - GlaxoSmithKline, Roche,
Novartis, - that produced the H1N1 vaccines.
It will also look into the controversy surrounding the fact
that two shots were initially advised when it was later revealed
that one dose was entirely suitable, as well as investigating
concerns over hastily developed vaccines containing adjuvants.
Pharmaceutical companies are thought to have made a profit
of somewhere in the region of $7.5-$10 billion on H1N1 vaccines,
recouping the billions they had invested in researching and
developing pandemic vaccines after the bird flu scares in 2006
and 2007.
The worldwide death toll from H1N1 is thought to be around
13,500, just over a third of the number who die from regular
flu every year in the U.S. alone.
Heading the hearings is the former chairman of the Health Committee
of PACE, Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg. A former German lawmaker, a medical
doctor and epidemiologist. Wodarg has referred to the swine
flu pandemic as "one of the greatest medical scandals of
the century."
Wodarg has pointed out that the WHO softened the definition
of a pandemic from an outbreak in several continents at once
with an above-average death rate, to one where the spread of
the disease is constant.
Just one month after changing the definition, and with just
144 people having died from H1N1, the flu was given the highest
threat classification possible, a "stage-six pandemic alert".
By comparison, the mildest 20th Century pandemic killed a million
people.
"I have never heard such a worldwide echo to a health
political action," Wodarg, an epidemiologist who formerly
led the health committee for the Council of Europe, said at
Tuesday's hearing.
"It was stated in panic- stricken terms that this was
a flu that could threaten humanity and a great number of humans
could fall ill. This is why billions of dollars of medications
were bought." Wodarg said.
He added that the the change in definition "made it possible
for the pharmaceutical industry to transform this opportunity
into cash, under contracts which were mainly secret."
“In my view, the WHO undertook an incomprehensible action,
which cannot be justified by scientific evidence. The Council
of Europe should investigate this to see how WHO can undertake
this kind of dangerous nonsense,” said Dr Wodarg.
WHO's flu chief, Dr Fukuda, insisted that its swine flu scientists
do not have conflicts of interest owing to close links with
pharmaceutical companies.
"Let me state clearly for the record - the influenza pandemic
policies and responses recommended and taken by WHO were not
improperly influenced by the pharmaceutical industry."
Fukuda told the inquiry.
He said those calling the epidemic fake were wrong and irresponsible.
PACE's findings are expected to be announced January 29 and
will likely be followed by an in-depth study and recommendations
to European governments.
Sources for this story and further reading:
Swine
Flu Didn't Fly
Drug
firms 'drove swine flu pandemic warning to recoup £billions
spent on research'
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