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| PHÎÒÎ: AP |
This follows from the report “Handling the H1N1 Pandemic: More Transparency Needed” published by the Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Health and Family Affairs. Its conclusion is pretty alarming: public confidence in international medical institutions, especially the World Health Organization, could be undermined and may result in a catastrophic situation “of pandemic proportions, which may be far more serious than H1N1”
The PACE report also questioned the competence of the EU and national health authorities, stating “waste of large sums of public money and unjustified scares and fears about the health risks faced by the European public.”
Although the WHO is an international organization that advises healthcare services to 193 member countries, the announcement of pandemic flu on June 11, 2009 deserves special attention, the report said. Moreover, experts previously recognized that the swine flu is less harmful than other strains of the virus encountered in previous years. Experts point out that the fear of the avian flu was exaggerated and the reaction to its outburst was inadequate.
The authors of the report also say there is a conflict of interests inside the WHO due to the cooperation of a number of its key structures with pharmaceutical companies. In particular, the systemic recruitment by the health sector of leading representatives of the pharmaceutical industry. This opens the way for the direct influence on decisions and recommendations. The possibility of such manipulation is proved by the supply of vaccine contacts signed before the epidemic broke out and the huge profits of pharmacists ensuing from the declaration of a pandemic. However, the main evidence of collusion could become the close connections of WTO officials with pharmaceutical companies and result in bias in the decision-making process.
And although the WHO refuses to disclose the names of the people involved, the report provides existence of such links noting: “All vaccines used during a pandemic have been licensed in accordance with the formal procedure of the European Medicines Agency, although not all of them have been clinically tested to vulnerable people, particularly children.” In addition, the development of a vaccine aimed at fighting only one strain of the virus is not only illogical, given that his new varieties appearing each year, but also economically justified. So, the question of the effectiveness of existing products remains open.
In general, the false pandemic has cost the world US $18 bn and a million people were unnecessarily vaccinated against this ghost influenza. In contrast, last year was quite lucrative for pharmaceutical companies. According to JP Morgan, the sale of vaccines against H1N1 over the past year brought the industry US $7-10 bn in profits.
Now, PACE plans to conduct an anti-corruption investigation to find out which pharmaceutical companies are involved in this case. Unfortunately, experience shows that it is very difficult to expose companies and the people behind such a major scam. In the meantime, WHO Director General Margaret Chan categorically rejects any accusations. Moreover, the decision to declare a pandemic will be reviewed only in mid-July. And as noted by WHO Representative Gregory Hartl, it is not yet clear whether the WHO Emergency Committee will uphold the sixth highest level of pandemic alert or declare the beginning of a post-pandemic syndrome.
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