Complaint to WHO about swine flu scare

The Council of Europe criticizes the WHO for the "scare tactic" in swine flu
WHO rejects allegations: "No pressure from the pharmaceutical industry for H1N1"

Has the World Health Organization "WHO" supported a panic monger in swine flu? At any rate, WHO experts at a hearing in the Council of Europe said in a public hearing on Tuesday, "Dealing with the H1N1 pandemic: Is more transparency needed?" in front. But the WHO rejects all allegations that there has been "no pressure from the pharmaceutical industry".

During the outbreak of the swine flu of the pathogen H1N1 increased critical voices among experts and scientists. The question was, is the swine flu really so dangerous, if the course of disease is quite mild in comparison to other influenza viruses. And why was the swine flu classified as very dangerous? These and other questions had to ask the WHO. A sober and critical résumé of the Münster professor of medicine Ulrich Keil: "Unbelievable amounts of money are wasted in pandemics, which are not really any". The medical professor Keil advises the WHO since 1973 and yet it did not prevent the experts to go to court with the WHO hard.

The issue of why WHO Director-General Margaret Chan declared swine flu a "pandemic" in June 2009 was particularly controversial. At that time, the WHO had proclaimed the highest pandemic level, whereupon the "national pandemic plans" came into force everywhere in the world. Incredibly large sums of money were spent worldwide to order vaccines from the pharmaceutical industry. In Germany alone, 50 million doses of vaccine were ordered. The federal government called on the population to vaccinate. Did the pharmaceutical industry influence WHO? So Prof. Keil said: "Interestingly, there were already binding contracts with Glaxo Smith Kline", one of the vaccine manufacturers. In this context, it is also worth mentioning that some states had already made contractual arrangements with some pharmaceutical companies in 2006 and 2007. The Flensburg doctor and epidemiologist Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg "the companies were practically only waiting for this business".

However, according to all current findings, the course of the swine flu compared to other flu illnesses is quite harmless. On average, up to 20,000 people die from the "normal" annual flu in Germany every year. However, only a few people have died of swine flu. However, WHO Deputy General Director Keiji Fukuda defended the measures taken. The pandemic is not over, Fukuda said. Worrying is the fact that, especially among young people, the swine flu has led to serious illnesses and deaths, so Fukuda.

However, the head of the Health Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly in the Council of Europe, Wolfgang Wodarg (SPD), does not want to accept this reasoning. While a pandemic according to the original WHO definition leads to high rates of disease and death, WHO changed this criterion in May 2009, Wodag said. This made it possible to turn a "normal flu" into a pandemic. As a result, millions of people were unnecessarily vaccinated. In addition, German health authorities have participated in the scare tactics. Although it was already clear in October 2009 that the flu would take a harmless course, the Robert Koch Institute and the Paul Ehrlich Institute "against better knowledge would have told people, there could be a second wave," said the SPD politician against the Berlin Tagesspiegel.

But WHO resists such reasoning. Above all, the suspicion that the pharmaceutical industry had a strong influence, the WHO does not apply. There is no evidence, WHO special adviser Fukuda. According to the special advisor, there is no "unjustified influence of the pharmaceutical companies' research departments on the WHO." However, in shaping transparency towards the population, the Fakura admits that "things could have gone better here".

In addition to representatives of the WHO, representatives of the pharmaceutical industry were also consulted. Here one defends oneself energetically against the charge, one acted from pro-maximization. Luc Hessel from the European Association of Vaccine Manufacturers said that they had invested at their own risk. "It was not at all clear when a 'return on investment' will take place," Hessel told the Council of Europe. (sb, 27.01.2010)

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