H1N1 Flu Is a False Pandemic, Health Expert Claims

[Why Syzygy]

A leading health expert said the swine flu scare was a "false pandemic" led by drug companies that stood to make billions from vaccines, The Sun reported Monday.

Wolfgang Wodarg, head of health at the Council of Europe, claimed major firms organized a "campaign of panic" to put pressure on the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a pandemic.

He believes it is "one of the greatest medicine scandals of the century," and he has called for an inquiry.

An emergency debate on the issue will be held by the Council of Europe later this month.

The Council of Europe covers 47 European countries and seeks to develop common and democratic principles between the nations.

Wodarg said, "It's just a normal kind of flu. It does not cause a tenth of deaths caused by the classic seasonal flu.

"The great campaign of panic we have seen provided a golden opportunity for representatives from labs who knew they would hit the jackpot in the case of a pandemic being declared.

"We want to clarify everything that brought about this massive operation of disinformation. We want to know who made decisions, on the basis of what evidence, and precisely how the influence of the pharmaceutical industry came to bear on the decision-making."

He added: "A group of people in the WHO is associated very closely with the pharmaceutical industry."

The WHO recently reaffirmed its stance that the pandemic is not over. However, the number of swine flu deaths is dramatically lower than expected. (...)

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,582749,00.html

Cited @:
http://www.naturalnews.com/027984_swine_flu_vaccines.html

[gateley]

1. Nothing done with profit as the motive would surprise me. nt

[valerief]

2. Tell us something we don't know. nt

[bobburgster]

3. Since the beginning..

I said it was a scam to make money off the vaccines.

[Why Syzygy]

10. Several of us did.

I don't blame people for not wanting to see reality. It bites.

[HuckleB]

11. That's funny!

:rofl:

You really should see someone about that paranoia.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

17. and you have been proven demonstrably wrong.

[trotsky]

4. LMAO

Original source: The Sun (London tabloid)

I love getting my health news from the equivalent of the National Enquirer! :rofl:

[MineralMan]

9. Hey...a guy's gotta prop up his conspiracy theory somehow.

Any source will do, no matter how unreliable. Feh!

[LeftishBrit]

13. The Sun???

A hard-right hard-stupid sensational Murdoch-owned British tabloid, possibly best known for the headline, "FREDDIE STARR ATE MY HAMSTER".

I wouldn't take their word about *anything*!

[HuckleB]

14. But, but, but, "naturalnews" picked it up, so it's ok!

:banghead:

[SemiCharmedQuark]

15. What does the Page Three Girl have to say about all of this?

[Jim__]

5. An interview with Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg.

Wolfgang Wodarg: We are faced with a failure of the great national institutions charged with alerting us to the risks and responding to them should a pandemic arise. In April, when the first alarm came from Mexico, I was very surprised by the figures the World Health Organization (WHO) was advancing to justify the proclamation of a pandemic. I had suspicions immediately: the figures were quite weak and the level of alarm very elevated. There weren't even a thousand sick people before there was already talk of the pandemic of the century. And the extreme alert decreed was based on the fact that the virus was new. But the characteristic of flu-type illnesses is to develop very fast with viruses that take on new forms each time by moving in on new hosts - animals, people etc. There's nothing new in that. A new "flu" virus of that kind appears every year. In reality, nothing justified sounding the alarm at that level. That was only possible because the WHO changed its definition of pandemic at the beginning of May. Before that date, it was not only necessary that the illness break out in several countries at once, but also that it have very serious consequences, with a number of mortalities in excess of the usual averages. That aspect was erased from the new definition, while the only criterion retained was that of the rate of the illness's diffusion. And it was alleged that the virus was dangerous because populations had not been able to develop immune defenses against it. Which was false for this virus, since we had been able to observe that people over 60 already had antibodies, which is to say that they had already been in contact with analogous viruses. That's why there were practically no people over 60 who developed the illness. Yet, they were the people it was recommended to have be rapidly vaccinated.

Among the things that aroused my suspicions then, there was on the one hand, that desire to sound the alarm - and on the other, very curious facts. Such as, for example, the WHO's recommendation to perform two injections for the vaccinations. That had never been the case before. There was no scientific justification for it. There was also this recommendation to use only specific patented vaccines. Yet, no reason existed for not adding - as is done every year - specific anti-viral particles of this new H1N1 virus, thus "completing" seasonal flu vaccines. That wasn't done because it was preferred to use patented vaccine material that the big laboratories had elaborated and manufactured to hold in readiness should a pandemic develop. And by proceeding in this fashion, they did not hesitate to put vaccinated persons in danger. What danger?

More ...

[MineralMan]

6. Really? Well H1N1 vaccine is now available to anyone who wants

it. I got my shot a couple of weeks ago. Good luck to all of you who don't if the illness surges again.

You still have time to get vaccinated. The vaccine is pretty much available everywhere, now, and you can probably find a free clinic.

[trotsky]

7. The concern all along, of course, was never solely the severity of the disease...

(although it had a shockingly high - compared to "normal" flu - mortality rate among young people), it was the "novelty" of the virus and how so few people had any existing or natural immunity to it. Plus a history of having combined with other viruses pointed to a high probably of further mutations. Those, combined with the ease with which it spread (spreading WELL outside of normal flu season with dry air), sounded a lot of alarm bells.

Of course, this is also a lot like Y2K. A lot of ignorant and uninformed people think it was no big deal. It was, of course, no big deal - but only because of LOTS of hard work by dedicated professionals to keep it from being the chaos that people feared.

[MineralMan]

8. Yup. Many ignore the facts in favor of the fantasy.

For the families of the 56 people who died of it here in MN, the reality is fresh. For the thousands who spent a few days in the hospital, gasping for breath, I imagine the understanding of the severity of this flu is pretty clear. Nobody has died from taking the H1N1 vaccine that I have been able to find.

And so it goes...

BTW(and keep this hush-hush), did you hear that the H1N1 vaccine has killed more people than the H1N1 flu? I heard that. It was bullshit, but I heard it here on DU. Morons abound!

[HuckleB]

12. H1N1 takes its toll on Canadians' workplace productivity

http://www.vancouversun.com/health/H1N1+takes+toll+Canadians+workplace+productivity/2446654/story.html


Do you get any of this? It's not just about selling a vaccine.

Seriously, wake up.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

16. I wonder if the expert realizes that severity isn't the only factor in declaring a pandemic.

Statistics show that it has been much more deadly in children than the seasonal flu.

[trotsky]

18. Update from TIME magazine.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1956608,00.html?xid=rss-topstories

Keiji Fukuda, the WHO's special adviser on pandemic influenza, who will head a delegation to the Strasbourg hearing, counters that the WHO's definition of influenza pandemics has always been based on transmissibility and has never had anything to do with the lethality of a virus; it was no different with H1N1. In response to accusations of overreaction to what has amounted to a mild disease, Fukuda says that once the 2009 H1N1 pandemic had been declared, "WHO consistently made it clear that it could not predict the future course of the pandemic but consistently provided sober, balanced and scientifically supported information and guidance."

Fukuda says also that claims that H1N1 is a mild pandemic are wrongheaded. "There have been over 14,000 deaths that have been laboratory-confirmed, many in young, previously healthy people. Who is going to tell their families that the virus is mild?" Fukuda wrote to TIME in an e-mail.

[SidDithers]

19. +1...nt

Sid

[Jim__]

20. Keiji Fukuda to Reuters - May 24, 2009 vs Keiji Fukuda to Time - Jan 26, 2010.

Here's Fukuda on May 24 (article):

The World Health Organization has changed its view on the criteria for raising its global flu alert, saying on Friday that it needed to see signs of severe effects before declaring a Phase 6 pandemic is underway.

“What we are looking for and what we will be looking for is something, events which signify a really substantial increase in risk of harm to people,” Keiji Fukuda, the WHO’s acting assistant director-general, told a news briefing.

The WHO previously said its six-point scale reflected only the way a virus is spreading, not is severity. Fukuda said the U.N. agency was now seeking signals that “the risks for people have significantly gone up” before moving the alert from the current Phase 5.

Here's Fukuda on Jan 26 - see Time article above:

Keiji Fukuda, the WHO's special adviser on pandemic influenza, who will head a delegation to the Strasbourg hearing, counters that the WHO's definition of influenza pandemics has always been based on transmissibility and has never had anything to do with the lethality of a virus; it was no different with H1N1.

The pandemic was declared on June 11, 2009. It appears that Fukuda now admits the new criteria were not followed.

[trotsky]

21. Uh, Infowars is a nutty conspiracy site.

It's not allowed as a source on DU.

[Jim__]

22. The quote is from Reuters.

[Jim__]

23. May 22nd Fukuda talking about changing criteria to include severity.

Here:

But "there is nothing like reality to tell you if something is working or not," Fukuda says. "Rigidly adhering to something which is not proving to be useful would not be helpful to anybody."

The WHO hasn't settled on its new criteria for moving from phase 5 to phase 6.

Fukuda said the basic idea will be to look for "signals" that the virus is becoming more dangerous to people. Those cues might include greater severity of illness or changes in how the virus is behaving.

[trotsky]

24. "talking about" - Yup.

But did they change anything?

Seems like with all your wild conspiracy flailings, you still haven't made anything resembling a point. Of course regardless, H1N1 *has* proved far more fatal to young populations than normal seasonal flu. Perhaps you can tell the parents of all the children who died from H1N1 that it really isn't a deadly disease.

[Jim__]

25. Talking about it on May 22nd, confirming the change on May 24.

Conspiracy "flailings"? Citing quotes from the same person that you cited?

No one I know is claiming that H1N1 is not serious. The question is about whether or not the WHO followed its own criteria before proclaiming a pandemic.

[trotsky]

26. Yeah, flailings.

Because you still have yet to show anything close to a point.

The question is about whether or not the WHO followed its own criteria before proclaiming a pandemic.

That would be what we're waiting for you to prove. You are apparently asserting it did not. So prove it. You can bring down the ENTIRE GLOBAL CONSPIRACY BETWEEN AMERICAN BIG PHARMA AND THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION! Go for it, dude! I *so* want to get rid of those black helicopters following me around!

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

27. Two posters above have called it a scam. Did you miss those?

[HuckleB]

28. +1

[Why Syzygy]

29. Story goes mainstream

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/SwineFluNews/h1n1-experts-assail-fake-pandemic-claim/story?id=9669241

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1956608,00.html?xid=rss-topstories

http://news.google.com/news/story?ncl=http://abcnews.go.com/Health/SwineFluNews/h1n1-experts-assail-fake-pandemic-claim/story%3Fid%3D9669241&hl=en

[trotsky]

30. Wow, you really don't read stuff before you post it, do you?

All three links contradict your OP.
:rofl:

[HuckleB]

31. +1

:rofl: Indeed!

[Robb]

34. LOL nt

[mzmolly]

32. We had H1N1, I don't think it was a false pandemic as much as

not knowing the course the disease would take? Though this part is frightening if true:

""But there is worse to come. The vaccine developed by Novartis was produced in a bioreactor from cancerous cells, a technique that had never been used until now."

WTF?!

[busymom]

33. uhh. Holy crap. I'm glad we didn't get the vaccine.

[Robb]

35. We're not finished.

I recommend you get the vaccine, it is widely available and H1N1 is not finished with us just yet. :hi:

[HuckleB]

36. All I can find is that same line repeated over and over, with no sources to support or explain it.

The Net appears to be very good at allowing unsupported claims to go viral, and until there is no information, it's probably good for everyone's mental health not to buy into every dramatic statement.

There is some discussion of the Novartis vaccine here.

http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2009/09/this_week_in_swine_flu_vaccine.php