Peddling Flu Vaccines Despite Criticism
Despite a series of vaccine-related scandals and the recent admission from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that its flu-death estimates were wildly inflated, U.S. and global health authorities are teaming up with big business, the mainstream media, and various organizations to urge more Americans to get an influenza shot. But not all experts — or even most of the public — are necessarily on board with the effort. David Wood, a vaccine boss with the World Health Organization, claimed at a press conference Monday that the massive swine-flu immunization campaign helped limit the damage caused by the alleged H1N1 “pandemic.” He also noted that the recent vaccine effort “gives us considerable hope for the future” that the technology used in inoculations is effective.
But despite the self-congratulatory remarks, the WHO and its swine-flu campaign have come under heavy fire. “The handling by the WHO of the H1N1 pandemic led to a waste of large sums of public money and unjustified scares and fears about health risks faced by the European public,” charged the Council of Europe in a report, saying there was “overwhelming evidence that the seriousness of the pandemic was vastly overrated by WHO.” The world health body actually changed the definition of a pandemic during the crisis, allowing it to raise the alert and take emergency measures.
The European-level investigation discovered improper sway by pharmaceutical companies and vaccine manufacturers on the WHO’s decision-making process, eventually calling for new safe-guards against “undue influence by vested interests.” It also chastised the media and warned against future “sensationalism and scare mongering in the public health domain.”...
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