[Ip-health] WHO Grilled at Council of Europe: start of investigation

[Sangeeta]

WHO'S FUKUDA GRILLED AT COUNCIL OF EUROPE HEARING: START OF SUBSTANTIAL
INVESTIGATION INTO THE SWINE FLU SCAM

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Tuesday, 26 January 2010 09:53
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WHO=B9s pandemic chief Dr Keiji Fukuda and pharmaceutical industry chief Dr
Luc Hessel faced tough questions on WHO=B9s controversial decision to decla=
re
a pandemic emergency over the mild swine flu during a 2-hour public hearing
at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg this morning in a heated session tha=
t
ran over time.

The hearing chair, Swiss politician Liliane Maury Pasquier, said the hearin=
g
would be the start of a more substantial investigation into the false
pandemic, starting with the preparation of a report by Labour MP Paul Flynn=
,
and with more hearings on the pandemic scare to be scheduled  in the next
parliamentary sessions of the Council of Europe.

During the hearing, Fukuda and Hessel faced a grilling from politicians on
the influence of pharmaceutical companies on WHO=B9s decision to declare a
pandemic over the mild swine flu as well as on the dangers of the
inadequately tested swine flu vaccine.

=B3Having cried wolf on a number of occasions now, the WHO has destroyed it=
s
credibility. Rational, independent scientific advice. There was an
imperative behind this which was a financial one. The industry having
invested 4 billion dollars had a vested interest in fear, in getting people
to buy the vaccine,=B2 said Paul Flynn.

Professor Dr Ulrich Keil, Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for
Epidemiology at the University of Munster, said that WHO=B9s predictions we=
re
wrong =B3all the time=B2.

He  criticized WHO for not learning from its past mistakes over the SARS an=
d
Avian =8CFlu scares.

He said WHO had =B3completely exaggerated=B2 the threat of the swine flu.

=B3In Germany, about 10,000 deaths are attributed to seasonal =8Cflu, espec=
ially
among older and frail people. Only a very small number of deaths, namely
187, can be attributed to the H1N1 virus in Germany =AD and many of those a=
re
dubious,=B2 he said.

=B3We are witnesssing a gigantic misallocation of resources in terms of pub=
lic
health. Governments and public health services are wasting huge amounts of
money in investing in pandemic diseases whose evidence base is weak. =B3

Fukuda came under especially fierce criticism for attempting to lamely
defend the WHO=B9s decision to change the definition of a pandemic.

=B3The worst thing is that WHO is not evaluating what it has done. The wors=
t
thing is that the alarm will go on for two more years, that the pandemic
will continue . That frightens me,=B2 said Ulrich Keil.

=B3A number of scientists and others are questioning the decision of the WH=
O
to declare an international pandemic. The H1N1 virus is not a new virus, bu=
t
has been known to us for decades,=B2 he said.

Dr Wolfgang Wodarg, who initiated the hearing, said that WHO was scare
mongering and produced numbers about the number of victims of the pandemic
based on estimates that had no basis in scientific fact.

He said that the only explanation for WHO=B9s decision to declare a swine f=
lu
pandemic was the influence of the pharmaceutical industry if =B3they are no=
t
crazy", thereby  brushing aside Fukuda=B9s repeated claim that WHO had
adequate safeguards against conflicts of interests and had only declared a
pandemic because the swine flu was a dangerous disease.

Wodarg said that the influence of pharmaceutical companies on WHO stemmed
from public private partnerships that were initiated in 1998.

He said that an investigation needed to be extended to look at the role of
national regulators in the pandemic scare, and emphasized the need for
parliamentary investigations in the various countries.

Wodarg also touched on the dangers of the new vaccines, specifically the us=
e
of adjuvants such as squalene, noting that there is only limited data on th=
e
impact of adjuvants on elderly people and none on their impact in young
children even though children have completely different immune systems and
adjuvants can cause autoimmune diseases.

He said WHO was =B3irresponsible=B2 for young people and pregnant women whe=
n no
data for the vaccine=B9s safety.

WHO was also heavily criticized by a Swiss journalist for =B3aloofness and
silence=B2

A journalist said WHO was =B3the worst in terms of relations with the media=
. =B3

=B3They are constantly derelict. We run after them constantly to get
information. We do not have access to the information. Last Friday, Gregory
Hartl  (WHO spokesperson) lied to us about this whole thing. He declared WH=
O
had never changed the pandemic definition,=B2 the journalist said.

Fukuda said that =B3communications was the single greatest challenge=B2, bu=
t
said WHO was taking the criticism from the media.

Dr Margaret Chan had dismissed rumour, misinformation and disinformation of
the scandal mongering media during the executive board session on January
18th.

Fukuda looked beaten at times as the questions flew in his direction at but
always managed to recover and repeat ad nauseum the official line in a
confident manner.

However, judging from the strength of criticism made against WHO in this
hearing, the momentum for a thorough investigation into the swine flu scam
looks unstoppable in spite of the fact that an urgent debate was not held
this week by the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly.

Especially tough criticism of WHO came from Wodarg and Keil who hammered
home the points that punctured Fukuda's and Hessel's air of confidence.

But politicians and journalists also fiercely criticised the WHO pandemic
chief and the head of the european vaccine maufacturers for apparently
making a good business profit over the pandemic scare at the expense of
public health.