WHO To Review Self On H1N1 Scare

Reuters reported this week that the World Health Organization (WHO) would review its role in the great Swine Flu panic. This announcement comes amid harsh criticism from the international community regarding the agency's wildly inaccurate predictions on the spread of H1N1 worldwide. As reported in the Daily Mail (UK), the European Union's Health Committee Chairman, Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg (an epidemiologist), has labelled the H1N1 pandemic "one of the greatest medical scandals of the century." And of the global hysteria surrounding it he commented, "We have had a mild flu - and a false pandemic." In his criticism over WHO's handling of the outbreak, however, Dr. Wodarg points the finger of blame at [hold your breath] the pharmaceutical industry. Huh? According to the doctor, Big Pharma must have pressured WHO into over-hyping the seriousness of H1N1 so as to capitalize on worldwide fear and rake in billions in profits.

So now the finger-pointing begins. When apocalyptic death tolls fail to materialize, those who fanned the flames of fear have targeted the dreaded drug companies as their scapegoat, which doesn't make sense to me. Based on their own analyses (faulty as they have proven to be time and again), it is WHO and world governments who are to blame here. Weren't they the ones who demanded Big Pharma to develop the needed vaccine post-haste? Weren't they the ones who urged us to take these vaccinations immediately, or risk death?

In my earlier post, I credited Michael Fumento with covering the developing (and eventual fizzling) of this H1N1 scare. In a National Review column from this past November, Fumento surmised that "what’s truly unprecedented about swine flu is its incredible mildness." Using CDC figures on both H1N1 and seasonal flu, he concluded that "seasonal flu is three to 12 times deadlier per case." How then could we (the world) have been so misled by the so-called experts?

When the avian flu pandemic fizzled some six years ago, the World Health Organization was left standing with egg on its face (and millions of unused doses of vaccine). So just prior to the swine flu outbreak last April, WHO conveniently reworked its own definition of a pandemic; one that was not based on death rates (which would help explain how on earth the agency could declare swine flu a pandemic with only 144 deaths worldwide!) I'm not a mathematician, but I think their computations could be summed up as garbage in = garbage out.

It'll be interesting to learn the findings of the review that WHO promises, but don't hold your breath. WHO spokeswoman, Fadela Chaib, has not set a date certain for such a review, nor has she mentioned the names of any experts who may conduct said review. Until then we can only ponder who the real bogeyman is - our public health officials or the pharmaceutical industry. And given these choices, which outcome is more frightening?