WHO calamity

Yesterday was a whirlwind of good science and courageous politics. The Polish Minister of Health explained  how she was threatened by the vaccine manufacturers. They wanted the Polish Government to take responsibility for the adverse reactions to the flu vaccines that they were trying to sell her. As a health professional she was aware that the vaccines were untried and the threat from swine flu was slight. She resented the blackmail that said she would be blame when 10s of thousands of deaths occurred. She ordered no vaccine and saved her country a fortune. In the UK we ordered enough vaccines for 80% of the population. Less than 10% was used. 

The outcome in the two countries in the numbers of death and the incidence of the disease was roughly the same ! This is the press release that the Council of Europe published this morning.

Paris, 29.03.2010 - “The next time someone cries wolf over a pandemic, the overwhelming majority will not take it seriously,” participants were told today at a parliamentary hearing on the handling of the H1N1 pandemic, organised in Paris by PACE’s Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee.     “A pandemic can be whatever the WHO declares it is. If it turns out that former PACE member Wolfgang Wodarg was right when he said the pandemic was decided to help the pharmaceutical industry make bigger profits, this might well turn out to be one of the biggest health scandals ever,” said Paul Flynn (United Kingdom, SOC), PACE rapporteur on this issue.   Participants also expressed regret at the WHO’s failure to revise its position on the pandemic, and warned against a possible repetition of events if no lessons were learnt. “The world no longer trusts the WHO, but we need a body of this kind and it must therefore restore its own credibility,” Mr Flynn added.   He paid tribute to the rare courage of the Polish Health Min ist er Ewa Kopacz, who had refused to be held hostage by the pharmaceutical industry and did not order vaccines. She said that drug company profit should not be more important than people.   She urged the WHO to urgently re-examine their position and decrease the pandemic alert level. She also denounced the lack of solidarity among European states when the pandemic was declared and the lack of co-ordination at EU level. Marc Gentilini, an expert in infectious diseases who is a former President of the French Red Cross, regretted that there was no such thing as a European health policy and called for the building of what he called a Europe of Health: “The precautionary principle is not a political umbrella to be abused,” he said.   Health researcher Tom Jefferson, of the independently-funded Cochrane Collaboration, stressed that parliamentary democracy was the best means of ensuring that private interests do not prevail over the sovereignty of states: “We trust democracy to have a surveillance system that works. The public health sector may not rely on privatised expertise,” he warned, underlining that so-called experts did not emerge like daisies but were “created and made into key opinion-leaders”.   Michèle Rivasi, a member of the Green Group in the European Parliament, who is calling for an inquiry by MEPs into the handling of the ‘flu pandemic, illustrated what she called “the chronicle of a pandemic foretold” and denounced  the rush with which the WHO had announced the pandemic. She asked whether we were getting the whole truth from the WHO. She said it was important for PACE and the European Parliament to work together on this issue.   The participants also regretted that the WHO had not accepted the invitation to participate in this second hearing.

Video of the second hearing (English)

Video of the press conference (English)

Video of the press conference (original languages)

Memorandum by Paul Flynn

Announcement of the second hearing into the handling of the Swine Flu pandemic

First hearing on the Swine Flu pandemic O.T.P.'s finale It was happy, laughing sad occasion.   The final meal of the Old Testament Prophets today celebrated the work of left-wing MPs in this parliament. There have been successes even though few votes were won. Large rebellions curbed the right wing drift of New Labour. The first was in November 1997 against a reduction in lone parents' income. It shook New Labour to its foundations.   It was pleasure to welcome former MP Ian Gibson. His brilliant career had been brought to an unjust full stop by the unfair reporting of the Daily Telgraph and the desperation of a Labour Committee out to find a sacrificial lamb. Only four MPs in attendance today are standing in the General Election. if the Prophets meet again it will be a depleted gathering.