Once cases of the disease were detected in the USA, American officials declared a public health emergency of international concern. Experts predicted that two billion people could contract the contagious germ once it spread worldwide. 2/n
Americans panicked over possible symptoms and flooded hospital emergency departments. In an editorial, the New York Times wondered whether "the new swine flu virus that has killed many people in Mexico and has spread to the United States and other countries ... 3/n
...[represents] the start of a much feared pandemic?" Or was it, on the contrary, a false alarm—"the latest in a long history of worrying that some day a hugely lethal flu strain might sweep through the world and kill tens of millions of people?" 4/n
The virus, at any rate, continued to infect people, but the illness that it caused was mild. Government officials urged Americans to keep calm, to wash their hands, cover coughs, and stay at home if sick. In June, the WHO declared that the criteria for a pandemic had been met.5/n
This statement was important not least because it triggered advance-purchase agreements between governments and the pharmaceutical industry, which secured priority access to vaccines. Over the following months, WHO's pandemic declaration was scrutinized intensively. 6/n
"We see that the population is exposed to a mild flu. People fall ill as they usually do in winter season. Some have even respiratory symptoms. But the extent of all this is considerably less than in most of the previous years," observed Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg ... 6/n
..at a public hearing organized by the Council of Europe in January 2010 to discuss WHO's pandemic declaration. According to Wodarg, a German doctor & chairman of the Council of Europe's Committee on Health, WHO's declaration had transformed a mild flu into a global pandemic.7/n
The declaration had far-reaching consequences, but it was not, Wodarg underscored, "justified by any scientific evidence." It diverted resources from an already strained system, forcing health care providers to limit other services. 8/n
How had the declaration come about? Did pharma industry play a role in its creation? In his statement, Wodarg urged the Council of Europe to investigate allegations that pharma may have pressured health officials to waste scarce resources on a pointless vaccination campaign. 9/n
During a press conference at WHO's headquarters in Geneva, Dr. Keiji Fukuda, WHO's Special Advisor to the Director-General on Pandemic Influenza, responded to these charges: "At this point let's not play word games and let's not be indirect about this matter.... 10/n
..The world is going through a real pandemic. ... The allegation that this is not a pandemic is scientifically wrong and historically inaccurate." In his comments, Fukuda was responding to growing concerns that the international health organization may have exaggerated.. 11/n
..the threat of swine flu, promoting the use of "a sledgehammer to crack a nut,"as a pundit in The Lancet provocatively phrased it. It is always easy to be smart after the fact, the commentator admitted, but he nevertheless wondered whether the dramatic label was justified.. 12/n
... given the low level of morbidity and mortality that the virus caused. "If this turns out to be the weakest pandemic in history," he continued, "it will pose some tough questions for the scientific community."' 13/14
The parallels are unmistakeable. Hence, the WHO response is somewhat predictable.
"The Pandemic Perhaps: Dramatic Events in a Public Culture of Danger"
By Carlo Caduff
Buy the book here: books.google.co.in/books?id=6I4kD…
14/14
"The Pandemic Perhaps: Dramatic Events in a Public Culture of Danger"
By Carlo Caduff
Buy the book here: books.google.co.in/books?id=6I4kD…
14/14
@threadreaderapp #unroll please
Broken thrread. Continued here:
