Handling of the H1N1 pandemic: PACE calls for safeguards against "undue influence by vested interests"

At the end of a debate on the handling of the H1N1 pandemic, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) has endorsed the conclusions of its Health Committee, which were published last June, and deliberated at length ever since (The Pharma Letters passim).

According to the Assembly, the handling of the pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), European Union health agencies and national governments 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 adopted text says there was 'overwhelming evidence that the seriousness of the pandemic was vastly overrated by WHO,' resulting in a distortion of public health priorities.

The parliamentarians indentified, as did the rapporteur Paul Flynn (UK, SOC), 'grave shortcomings' in the transparency of decision-making about the outbreak, generating concerns about the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on decisions taken. Plummeting confidence in such advice could prove 'disastrous' in the case of a severe future pandemic, they said.

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