PACE Health Committee denounces 'unjustified scare' of swine flu, a waste of public money

The handling of the H1N1 pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), European Union 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,' according to a report by the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) made public last week in Paris, France.

The report is just another criticism of the WHO's handling of the pandemic. As reported yesterday (The Pharma Letter June 7), the British Medical Journal, in a joint enquiry with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, unveiled conflicts of interest among the agency's expert scientists, finding that three scientists involved in putting together the 2004 guidance had previously been paid by drug majors Roche or GlaxoSmithKline for lecturing and consultancy work as well as being involved in research for the firms.

The PACE report, prepared by European Member of Parliament Paul Flynn (UK, SOC) and approved by the committee ahead of a plenary debate at the end of this month, 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 PACE investigation was triggered by claims in January by the health committee's then-chairman, Wolfgang Wodarg, of undue industry influence helping to trigger the 'false pandemic' (TPLs passim).