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| WHO accused of mishandling H1N1 flu pandemic |
| 2010-01-13 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] The World Health Organization is to examine its handling of the H1N1 pandemic, the group said on Tuesday, after accusations by some politicians that it exaggerated the dangers of the virus under pressure from drug companies. The United Nations health agency will review the way it dealt with the outbreak of swine flu once the pandemic has subsided, WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told a news briefing. "Criticism is part of an outbreak cycle. We expect and indeed welcome criticism and the chance to discuss it," she said, adding the WHO's review would involve independent outside experts and its results would be made public. But she said it was too soon to say when the examination would take place or which experts would be involved. In the latest complaint about the way authorities have dealt with the pandemic, the Council of Europe, a political forum of most European countries, is to determine whether drug companies influenced public health officials to spend money unnecessarily on stockpiles of H1N1 vaccines. Chaib said the WHO took its work of providing independent advice to its 193 member states seriously, and guarded against the influence of vested interests. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #7 ION WAFF > EU LIKELY TO SUE GREECE + EU'S NEW FINANCE MINISTER ACCUSES GREECE OF FRAUD [statistics fraud ala 2004-2009 BUDGET DEFICIT + PUBLIC DEBT FIGURES]. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-01-13 21:15 |
| #6 To the friend of the family who had H1N1 a few months ago, it was no joke. The guy was sick for weeks. We've had a few H1N1 fatalities in the area, and they were people who were otherwise in good health. Somebody (I think on the Burg earlier) said that H1N1 plan could be considered a trial run for flu pandemics. Some things worked, some things didn't; let's hope the health systems got some good experience. |
| Posted by: mom 2010-01-13 19:00 |
| #5 I thought there wasn't a vaccine only the pointless Tamiflu. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2010-01-13 16:59 |
| #4 Good point phil_b. Flu viruses of this type typically spread in 4 or so waves, possibly with mutations during the troughs. And the big concern remains not the H1N1 variant that started this but the possibility it would transfer its human-human transmissibility to the H5N1 bird flu that is highly lethal. |
| Posted by: lotp 2010-01-13 16:36 |
| #3 Don't assume the H1N1 pandemic is over. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2010-01-13 15:25 |
| #2 While the WHO may have mis-handled the H1N1 problem, I do not agree that this is a fraud. H1N1 flu had the potential to be very dangerous, and it was good that we jumped on it. So okay, we have lots of vaccine left over. Would it have been better if H1N1 had indeed turned out to be a killer and we had no vaccine anywhere? I don't expect government to be efficient. I prefer that government err on the side of caution. The lessons we learn from handling H1N1 will be very useful when (and that's when, not if) the next big epidemic comes along. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2010-01-13 13:09 |
| #1 A similar article "Swine Flu 'False Pandemic' seems to be biggest Pharma-fraud of the century". "It was supposed to be a deadly pandemic, but is so far no more than a serious cold". Another scam ?? Linky |
| Posted by: Tom- Pa 2010-01-13 09:41 |