Swine flu "false pandemic" for drugs firms to make billions: EU expert

[happy_liberal]

A leading health expert has claimed the swine flu scare was a "false pandemic" led by drugs companies that stood to make billions from vaccines.

Wolfgang Wodarg, head of health at the Council of Europe, said, major firms organised a "campaign of panic" to put pressure on the World Health Organisation to declare a pandemic.

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

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

Dr 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."

"A group of people"

He added: "A group of people in the WHO is associated very closely with the pharmaceutical industry."
http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=52484

[rainy]

1. If this is true all hell should break out against those responsible!! nt

[hughee99]

2. It seems to me those most responsible were in government positions...

not sure how it was in Europe, but it seemed that way in the US.

[havocmom]

11. Page on CDC site puts in a plug for Lysol

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/workplace/ at about the middle of the page.

One thing to give info on value of disinfecting surfaces, seems like another to plug specific product lines on government sites.

[happy_liberal]

14. that does seem wrong

n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

28. Here is why

If I tell people to use a 25% bleach solution to disinfect surfaces, people look at you weird

Well guess what Lysol (in a convenient packet) essentially is?

That was a lesson learned from the early days of HIV.

[Romulox]

3. I suspected as much from the first. Our government lead the charge, naturally. nt

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. Wodarg's an anti-vaxer kook.

http://genome.fieldofscience.com/2009_09_01_archive.html

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Not your fault, but the Council of Europe is not the same as the EU

The Council of Europe, based in Strasbourg (France), now covers virtually the entire European continent, with its 47 member countries. Founded on 5 May 1949 by 10 countries, the Council of Europe seeks to develop throughout Europe common and democratic principles based on the European Convention on Human Rights and other reference texts on the protection of individuals.

http://www.coe.int/aboutCoe/index.asp?page=quisommesnous&l=en

[malaise]

6. As usual we skeptical DUers were on the mark

No surprise here.

[Nictuku]

7. Yep.

[louis-t]

8. 'Member when bush ordered millions of doses of Tamiflu?

And Donnie Rumsfeld was heavily invested in the company that makes the stuff?

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

32. Good thing we did it stopped H1N1 from killing a lot more people.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

9. You mean that false pandemic that's killed so many kids? Pathetic.

[cbdo2007]

10. Isn't the fatality rate of H1N1 more than that of the seasonl flu?

Also, with 60 million doses given out in the US, could that be the cause of a decrease in swine flu?

I like conspiracy theories as much as anyone but this guy sounds a little wacky even by my standards.

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. Yes and yes

had my jab today, HOORAY... and talkng to the doctor, now that we have had that many doses finally given, or people sick and recovered, or sick and dead... well the seasonal flu is finally making an appearance.

[happy_liberal]

12. Sars, bird flu...is this a pattern?

Governments wouldn't create fear just so Corporations could profit from them...would they?

[seabeyond]

13. . nt

[MadHound]

15. Having had swine flu I can tell you it certainly isn't "just a normal kind of flu".

It was hell on wheels for about a week, with a follow up bonus bacterial infection. I wasn't completely healthy for three plus weeks, and for a stretch of three days there, death was looking like a viable option.

Perhaps the pandemic and mortality aspects of swine flu were played up, but it certainly wasn't a normal kind of flu.

[silverhandorder]

22. Normal flu also has complications from time to time.

[Odin2005]

16. anti-vax BS.

[Kansas Wyatt]

30. I didn't get the vaccine...

And I didn't get the swine flu.

I don't ever get the flu, nor do I ever get flu the vaccine.

[DevonRex]

17. Tell that to all the dead kids. For cryin' out loud, is there anything

the tin foil types won't obsess on?

[Jennicut]

18. The people who had to worry were people with weak immune systems

and the young. I got my kids vaccinated as one of my daughters has asthma and myself as I am a diabetic. No side effects from the vaccine. I was not messing around with that flu.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. Gven that vaccines are poor profit makers

oh wait, let me reach for this :tinfoilhat:

Classy and facts proof.

By the way all those skeptics are boudn to be caught by nature one of these years. Oh wait, vaccines in general are wrong :sarcasm: and we ain't seeing the return of whooping cough and mumps either. Just the imagination of public health officers.

Oy.

[SidDithers]

20. In the US, throught the first 13 weeks of the 2009/10 flu season...

there have been 212 pediatric deaths from influenza, 168 of which are confirmed to have been caused by 2009 influenza A (H1N1)

Through the first 13 weeks of the 2008/09 flu season - 1 pediatric death from influenza.

Through the first 13 weeks of the 2007/08 flu season - 1 pediatric death from influenza.

Sources and weekly updates in this thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=222x77900

Sid

[KamaAina]

24. Ve-ry in-te-res-ting

So 44 pediatric flu deaths are NOT confirmed to be from H1N1, compared to 1 in each of the previous two years. Why would that be? :scared:

[nadinbrzezinski]

25. The last two years it was regular

run of the mill, seasonal flu.

[KamaAina]

26. True, but there also appears to be a spike in deaths from non-H1N1 flu

unless most of the case were in fact H1N1 but haven't been confirmed as such.

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. Well we also have the mystery of why more people died

early on in Mexico than in other places... and medical care cannot explain all.

[SidDithers]

31. That's most likely it...

Many of those pediatric deaths are reported as Influenza Type A subtype unspecified. Since the vast majority of flu cases in the fall were H1N1, the unsubtyped cases probably were as well.

Sid

[SidDithers]

29. Chances are that they are H1N1...

But they weren't evaluated for subtype.

Sid

[happy_liberal]

21. CDC sells swine-flu toy

In addition to hosting forums to spread its H1N1 message, the CDC's headquarters in Atlanta is also selling a stuffed swine-flu toy in its gift shop, according to Atlanta's WXIA 11 News. The pink toy is intended to look like a microbe and also resembles a pig snout.

[lightningandsnow]

33. I have asthma.

H1N1 comes with an increased risk of respiratory complications.

I got the vaccine because if I get H1N1, there is a significant chance I might die.

Not that the anti-vax types really care about that. :puke:

[Horse with no Name]

34. I had H1N1

And I was sicker than a dog.
It IS worse than the regular flu.

[WeDidIt]

35. It's a conspiracy, I tells ya!

[TexasObserver]

36. Big Pharm is about selling product at maximum price. Period.

The naivete of some folks is amazing. They believe everything Big Pharm tells them.

[GreenMetalFlake]

37. while diligently attacking any who dare question their motives

[TexasObserver]

38. We pay more for drugs that are cheaper in Mexico and Canada.

We do so because Big Pharm owns the congress, owns the executive, and owns the judiciary. In the face of an angry electorate that sees this injustice and complains loudly about it, Big Pharm is able to get what it wants, in spite of public opposition.

Anyone who doesn't know that Big Pharm and their errand boys, the NHI, fan the flames of fear to sell their products is dangerously naive. Just as some citizens fawn over things said by men in red robes, others fawn over things said by men in white coats. It's a different type of worship, but almost as ignorant.

The swine flu scare was about money, not disease.

[GreenMetalFlake]

39. you are preaching to the choir, friend - it's amazing how some will adamantly defend big corps