WHO Slams H1N1 Critics as "Irresponsible"

(AP)  The World Health Organization on Monday slammed as "irresponsible" critics who claim H1N1 (swine) flu is a fake pandemic created for the benefit of drug companies.

The U.N. health agency said the outbreak of a new strain of H1N1 influenza in North America last year had all the scientific characteristics of a pandemic, adding the WHO was never improperly influenced by the pharmaceutical industry that has benefited from huge government orders for vaccines and anti-viral drugs.

"The world is going through a real pandemic. The description of it as a fake is wrong and irresponsible," the WHO said in a strongly worded statement Monday.

CBSNews.com Special Report: H1N1 Virus

A WHO spokesman declined to spell out who the World Health Organization was responding to in its statement, saying only that "this applies to anyone who believes it is not a real pandemic."

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, a human rights watchdog based in Strasbourg, France, recently recommended that the EU investigate WHO's H1N1 flu pandemic declaration to see if the health agency acted under undue influence. WHO officials are due to meet Tuesday with the Council of Europe, which is not an official European Union body and has no power to act against WHO.

According to a WHO tally dated Jan. 17, more than 209 countries and territories have reported laboratory confirmed cases of H1N1 flu, including at least 14,142 deaths. This is far fewer than would be expected to die each year from seasonal flu, but the figure is likely to exclude many unreported cases, according to WHO.

WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said the relatively low number of confirmed deaths from H1N1 flu didn't mean the virus wasn't a pandemic.

"A pandemic has nothing to do with severity or number of deaths," he told The Associated Press. "A pandemic literally is a global spread of a disease."

He said WHO was "always very measured and sober in what we said and we always described the virus as causing overwhelmingly mild disease. "We cannot control how people react to this information," he added.

In its statement, WHO said it had put in place numerous safeguards to prevent conflicts of interest among its advisers, including requiring them to provide a signed declaration detailing any professional or financial interest that could affect their impartiality.

"WHO takes allegations of conflict of interest seriously and is confident of its decision-making independence regarding the pandemic influenza," it said.

[patrons99]

For succinct enunciations of the risks found in ALL vaccines, see the December 2009 article titled _Forced Vaccinations, Government, and the Public Interest_ and the March 2007 article titled _The Danger of Overvaccination with the Present Vaccine Policy_ by Russell Blaylock, M.D.

http://www.thenhf.com/vaccinations/vac_299.htm
http://www.thenhf.com/vaccinations_125.htm

[MinorityView]

Gosh, so there isn't any funny business going on? Then why the two different definitions of pandemic on the WHO web-site, one from May and one a bit later?

Here is a link to the article with the details: http://insidevaccines.com/wordpress/2010/01/24/pandemic-when-did-the-definition-change/

[barbaram99]

I always get the reg flu shot every year..My roomate wanted me to get the H1N1 shot..I got it even tho I did not want to.He knew I did not want the shot...He got his..I really don't want the flu. It is not free. I have heard some states are making people get the shot I really don't know..

[tmittelstaed]

It really wasn't a benefit for big Pharma as much as it was for Little Pharma.

Every last fragging pharmacy/clinic/you name it that I investigated recently that was giving Swine Flu vaccines wanted a minimum of $15 bucks to "administer" the shot. They didn't give a tinker's damn that the shot itself was freely provided to them by the government.

In past years when I've gotten the seasonal flu shot the cost of "administering" AND the shot itself was LESS than $15.

My dog's RABIES shot was $15 at Petco a few months ago, once more,
for BOTH the shot, administering it, metal tag, plus the baloney paperwork the vet has to file with the county.

Pharmacies and clinics have gotten to where they see the seasonal flu shot as a way to get you in the door to then sell you a bunch of more expensive drugs. They were obviously hoping this time around that the Swine flu shot would let them sell a ton of seasonal flu shots as well as swine flu - that didn't happen so they are going to dig their heels in and get their damn $15.

There's no way that Big Pharma got anywhere near $15 per shot for the swine flu vaccines.

In any case, I got sick as a dog in Nov. - I always get whatever the hell is going around in Nov. - and I recovered. The news has said that they just wern't seeing cases of seasonal flu this year - it was all Swine Flu - so I probably had it in Nov. and don't need the shot now.

I suspect the same is true for most people.

[anti-global3]

well if it was not a bailout then I am sure the WHO will not mind telling us exactly how much money big pharm made as a result of vaccine production.