World Health Organization Scientists Linked to Swine Flu Vaccine Makers

[itsrobert]

World Health Organization Scientists Linked to Swine Flu Vaccine Makers
Investigation Raises Questions About WHO's Handling of H1N1 Pandemic

By TODD NEALE, MedPage Today
—June 5, 2010

Scientists who advised the World Health Organization on its influenza policies and recommendationsincluding the decision to proclaim the so-called swine flu a "pandemic" had close ties to companies that manufacture vaccines and antiviral medicines like Tamiflu, a fact that WHO did not publicly disclose.

The links between the advisors and the companies that make money from vaccines and flu treatments were detailed in a report published online by the British medical journal BMJ, which investigated the advisors' role in WHO's policy.

The report by Deborah Cohen, features editor of BMJ, and Philip Carter, a journalist with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London, acknowledged that flu experts do "need to work with industry to develop the best possible drugs for illnesses," but said that allowing industry experts to have a role in the formulation of public health policy was a slippery slope.

And worse, Cohen and Carter said, was the failure of WHO officials to disclose the conflicts of interest or even identify the members of its advisory committee.

more...
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/SwineFlu/swine-flu-pandemic-world-health-organization-scientists-linked/story?id=10829940

[Prometheus Bound]

1. 2 European reports criticize WHO's H1N1 pandemic guidelines as tainted

By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 5, 2010

European criticism of the World Health Organization's handling of the H1N1 pandemic intensified Friday with the release of two reports that accused the agency of exaggerating the threat posed by the virus and failing to disclose possible influence by the pharmaceutical industry on its recommendations for how countries should respond.

The WHO's response caused widespread, unnecessary fear and prompted countries to waste millions of dollars, according to one report. At the same time, the Geneva-based arm of the United Nations relied on advice from experts with ties to drug makers in developing the guidelines it used to encourage countries to stockpile millions of doses of antiviral medication, according to the second report.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/04/AR2010060404608.html

[Submariner]

2. Even though I have never had the flue

Every time these guys yell FIRE!!!, I have conditioned myself to feel I have to get the flue shot.

If one of my grandfathers had not died at the age of 32 during the 1918 flu epidemic, I would like to be able to tell these consortium's of crooks to F off.

[depakid]

5. That's actually wise behavior

As anyone who's had a nasty A strain of influenza will tell you for themselves. It ain't what some people with a cough and mild fever call "the flu."

[midnight]

16. Wise behavior, to inoculate oneself with an untested recycled dangerous vaccine, not so much.

I have to say that those who have read about the doctor who was suppose to test the vaccine, but instead took off with the funds, might agree. We most likely will not agree on levels of wisdom....

[midnight]

15. Maybe if you saw what the H1N1 vaccine did to our soldiers in the 70's you would have no trouble

telling these crooks to F off....

[Submariner]

18. I remember that

I finished my Navy hitch just before that scandal. My animosity and distrust go back to those events. I have to let genetics govern my flu shot regime.

[Prometheus Bound]

3. Swine ’flu and Big Pharma: why is there no scandal?

June 5th, 2010
During the swine ‘flu hysteria, this blog kept insisting that the threat was overblown: that a coalition of drugs manufacturers, panicky journalists and cowardly politicians were conniving to talk up the danger.

When it emerged that a billion pounds had been wasted in this outrageous boondoggle, no one apologised. Now we learn that some of the scientists who drew up the guidelines had been in the pay of the pharmaceutical corporations that stood to gain from the stockpiling.

This revelation has received less than a thousandth of the media coverage that attended the original “epidemic”. Why is there not more sense of scandal? Are health correspondents embarrassed about the role they played in stoking the panic? Or is it simply that health scares sell more newspapers than government bungling?
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100042331/swine-flu-and-big-pharma-why-is-there-no-scandal/

Daniel Hannan is a writer and journalist, and has been Conservative MEP for South East England since 1999. He speaks French and Spanish and loves Europe, but believes that the EU is making its constituent nations poorer, less democratic and less free. He is the winner of the Bastiat Award for online journalism.

[depakid]

4. There's no scandal because there actually WAS a pandemic

that had an unusual mortality curve- that there was a need for a vaccine- quickly was undeniable to anyone who understood what was going on.

As to Americans ABC- they've pushed the anti-science, anti-vaccination agenda to the paranoid several times before- and I expect them to behave irresponsibly again.

After all, these are the same folks that brought us John Stossel.

[Prometheus Bound]

7. That there was a pandemic is not the issue here. It is advice about risk that is at issue.

[depakid]

8. There is no issue outside of ABC's looking to stir something up

The advice given by public health authorities in nations throughout the world was prudent and correct.

[Prometheus Bound]

11. No it wasn't.

[Prometheus Bound]

12. I'm sorry. Apparantly I was wrong. The report does say declaring it a pandemic was an error.

Drug firms 'encouraged world health body to exaggerate swine flu threat'

By Fiona Macrae
Last updated at 11:49 PM on 4th June 2010
Declaring a swine flu pandemic was a 'monumental error', driven by profit-hungry drug companies spreading fear, an influential report has concluded.

It led to huge amounts of taxpayers' money being wasted in stockpiling vaccines, it added.

Paul Flynn, the Labour MP charged with investigating the handling of the swine flu outbreak for the Council of Europe, described it as 'a pandemic that never really was'.

The report accuses the World Health Organisation of grave shortcomings in the transparency of the process that led to its warning last year.

The MP said that the world relied on the WHO, but after 'crying wolf', its reputation was in jeopardy.

The report questions whether the pandemic was driven by drug companies seeking a profit. Mr Flynn said predictions of a 'plague' that would wipe out up to 7.5million people proved to be 'an exaggeration', with fewer than 20,000 deaths worldwide.

Britain braced itself for up to 65,000 deaths and signed vaccine contracts worth £540million.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1284133/The-pandemic-Drug-firms-encouraged-world-health-body-exaggerate-swine-flu-threat.html?ITO=1490#ixzz0q24OmeQc

[LeftishBrit]

13. Do you know who Daniel Hannan is?

He is a British teabagger. I mean that literally. He recently ran a 'Brighton Tea Party' directly modelled on the American tea party events.

He is a virulently right-wing Tory politician, who frequently rebels against his party from the right.

Most notably from your American perspective, he was the British politician who came onto Fox News when health reform was being discussed, and called the NHS a '60-year mistake' and urged America not to make such a 'mistake'.

Is he really the person to be quoting on health issues on DU?

[SidDithers]

17. As Jon Stewart would say...

Sid

[Prometheus Bound]

6. SCANDAL OVER NHS SWINE FLU ADVISERS’ LINK TO DRUG GIANTS

Saturday June 5,2010
By Victoria Fletcher

VITAL advice on swine flu handed to the Government was written by scientists who had worked for companies that make flu medicines, an investigation has claimed.

And a report has concluded that the way both the World Health Organis­ation and governments behaved during the crisis was a disgrace.

The long-awaited report from the Council of Europe has concluded that it led to a “waste of large sums of public money, and unjustified scares and fears about the health risks faced by the European public”.

The World Health Organisation played a key role in telling governments how serious the pandemic might be and how much medicine they should buy.

But yesterday a separate investigation by the British Medical Journal showed that the scientists who had advised the WHO had done paid work for drugs firms that stood to benefit from the advice. These links were never made clear.

The advice led nations to spend billions of pounds stockpiling anti-viral medications as well as vaccines in order to protect the public.
http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/179243/Scandal-over-NHS-swine-flu-advisers-link-to-drug-giants-/

[depakid]

9. Yelling about it only makes you look like more of a kook.

[Prometheus Bound]

10. I cut and pasted from the Daily Express, which you would see if you went to the link.

Commenting without looking at the link makes you sound a bit wacko.

[LeftishBrit]

14. The Daily Express? One of our tabloid equivalents to your RW talkshows.

How many far-right British sources can you quote on a single thread?!

[Prometheus Bound]

19. Guardian: "Report condemns swine flu experts' ties to big pharma"

Report condemns swine flu experts' ties to big pharma
* Randeep Ramesh, social affairs editor
* The Guardian, Friday 4 June 2010
Trio of scientists who urged stockpiling had previously been paid, says report

Scientists who drew up the key World Health Organisation guidelines advising governments to stockpile drugs in the event of a flu pandemic had previously been paid by drug companies which stood to profit, according to a report out today.

An investigation by the British Medical Journal and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the not-for-profit reporting unit, shows that WHO guidance issued in 2004 was authored by three scientists who had previously received payment for other work from Roche, which makes Tamiflu, and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), manufacturer of Relenza.

City analysts say that pharmaceutical companies banked more than $7bn (£4.8bn) as governments stockpiled drugs. The issue of transparency has risen to the forefront of public health debate after dramatic predictions last year about a swine flu pandemic did not come true.

Some countries, notably Poland, declined to join the panic-buying of vaccines and antivirals triggered when the WHO declared the swine flu outbreak a pandemic a year ago this week. The UK, which warned that 65,000 could die as a result of the virus, spent an estimated £1bn stockpiling drugs and vaccines; officials are now attempting to unpick expensive drug contracts.

The cabinet office has launched an inquiry into the cost to the taxpayer of the panic-buying of drugs.

Today, the Council of Europe, produces a damning report into how a lack of openness around "decision making" has bedevilled planning for pandemics.

"The tentacles of drug company influence are in all levels in the decision-making process," said Paul Flynn, the Labour MP who sits on the council's health committee. "It must be right that the WHO is transparent because there has been distortion of priorities of public health services all over Europe, waste of huge sums of public money and provocation of unjustified fear."
More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jun/04/swine-flu-experts-big-pharmaceutical

What exactly is your point. Are you saying that these right-wing sources lied about the report? If so, please provide specifics.

[Prometheus Bound]

20. BBC: WHO swine flu experts 'linked' with drug companies

WHO swine flu experts 'linked' with drug companies
June 4 2010

Key scientists behind World Health Organization advice on stockpiling of pandemic flu drugs had financial ties with companies which stood to profit, an investigation has found.

...Conflict of interest

The BMJ, in a joint investigation with The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, found that three scientists involved in putting together the 2004 guidance had previously been paid by Roche or GSK for lecturing and consultancy work as well as being involved in research for the companies.

Although the scientists involved had freely declared the links in other places and said WHO asked for conflicts of interest forms prior to expert meetings, the ties were not publically declared by WHO.

It is not clear whether these conflicts were notified privately by WHO to governments around the world, the BMJ said, and a request to see conflict of interest declarations was turned down.

In addition, membership of the "emergency committee" which advised WHO's director general Margaret Chan on declaring an influenza pandemic has been kept secret.

It means the names of the 16 committee members are known only to people within WHO, and as such their possible conflicts of interest with drug companies are unknown.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/10235558.stm