Big Pharma inside WHO III: EU Probes False Pandemic
Submitted by Anjana.Gupta on Sun, 10/01/2010 - 22:37
EU to probe pharma over “false pandemic”
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is to hold an emergency debate and inquiry this month into the “influence” exerted by drugmakers on the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) global H1N1 flu campaign.
The text of the resolution approved by the Assembly calling for the debate and inquiry states that: “in order to promote their patented drugs and vaccines against flu, pharmaceutical companies influenced scientists and official agencies responsible for public health standards to alarm governments worldwide and make them squander tight health resources for inefficient vaccine strategies, and needlessly expose millions of healthy people to the risk of an unknown amount of side-effects of insufficiently tested vaccines.”
The WHO’s “false pandemic” flu campaign is “one of the greatest medicine scandals of the century,” according to Dr Wolfgang Wodarg, chairman the PACE Health Committee, who introduced the parliamentary motion. “The definition of an alarming pandemic must not be under the influence of drug-sellers,” he adds.
Dr Wodarg, a doctor and former SPD member of the German Bundestag, says that the “false pandemic” campaign began last May in Mexico City, when a hundred or so “normal” reported influenza cases were declared to be the beginning of a threatening new pandemic, although there was little scientific evidence for this. Nevertheless the WHO, “in cooperation with some big pharmaceutical companies and their scientists, re-defined pandemics,” removing the statement that “an enormous amount of people have contracted the illness or died” from its existing definition and replacing it by stating simply that there has to be a virus, spreading beyond borders and to which people have no immunity.
These new standards forced politicians in most states to react immediately and sign marketing commitments for additional and new vaccines against swine flu, through “sealed contracts” under which orders are secured in advance and governments take almost all responsibility. “In this way, the producers of vaccines are sure of enormous gains without having any financial risks. So they just wait until WHO says ‘pandemic’ and activate the contracts,” says Dr Wodarg.
“In January, we will arrange an emergency debate about the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on the WHO, and 47 parliaments all over Europe are going to be informed. Following this, we will initiate an investigation and hearings involving those responsible for the pandemic emergency. The aim is that none of the pharmaceutical companies under any circumstances must be allowed to make their influence felt on pandemic emergencies,” he went on.
“The victims among millions of needlessly vaccinated people must be protected by their states, and independent scientific clarification should provide evidence and transparency for national and, if necessary, European courts,” added Dr Wodarg.
04 January 2010
http://www.pharmatimes.com/WorldNews/article.aspx?id=17147
by Lynne Tayloe
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FYI: Big Pharma Inside WHO (continues)
Public hearing on the handling of the Swine Flu pandemic
Strasbourg, 21.01.2010 – A public parliamentary hearing titled “The handling of the H1N1 pandemic: more transparency needed?” is to be held on the fringe of the plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg from 8.15-10 a.m. on Tuesday 26 January, immediately followed by a press conference.
The hearing, organised by the Assembly’s Committee on Social, Health and Family Affairs, will bring together representatives of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and of European vaccine manufacturers, as well as independent medical experts, to discuss this topic with parliamentarians. Some members of the Assembly – including the outgoing Chair of PACE’s Sub-committee on Health Wolfgang Wodarg (Germany, SOC)1 – requested in a motion in December that the Assembly look into this question.
The hearing is open to the press. Both hearing and press conference will be webcast live.
The Assembly may also hold an urgent debate on this topic on Thursday 28 January at 10 a.m., if it decides to do so when it adopts its agenda (around midday on Monday 25 January). In this case, the Assembly would debate and vote on a draft resolution.
https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=1574973&Site=DC
World Health Organization to review swine flu response
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is to review its handling of the HIN1 swine flu pandemic, once it is over. The WHO has been facing charges from some European politicians that it exaggerated the dangers of swine flu. More than 12,700 people worldwide have died from H1N1 - but the virus has turned out to less deadly than feared. However, the WHO initially urged rapid development of treatments and vaccines, fearing the virus had the potential to kill millions. As a result wealthy countries spent billions on medicines which many believe are now unnecessary. Across Europe, governments are trying to resell their stockpiles of swine flu vaccine.
The Council of Europe is planning an investigation, to begin later this month, into whether pharmaceutical companies influenced public health officials to spend money unnecessarily. In Geneva, a WHO spokeswoman acknowledged there were questions to be answered. She said the the review of its management of the pandemic would be conducted with independent experts, and the results would be made public. However, the review will not begin until the pandemic itself is declared over - and that could still be months away.
By Imogen Foulkes
BBC News correspondent in Geneva
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8455035.stm
From Times of India: Did WHO experts fuel swine flu scare?
Even as questions are being raised about whether the swine flu scare was exaggerated to benefit pharma companies, evidence has surfaced that several members of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) vaccine board which pushed countries to buy the H1N1 vaccine have had significant ties with pharma companies.
This fact, which is bound to raise issues of conflict of interest, was exposed by Danish daily ‘Information’ last month. TOI attempted to get WHO’s response, but several emails sent to the office of the WHO director-general on January 9 met with no response.
Documents acquired through the Danish Freedom of Information Act revealed that Prof Juhani Eskola, a Finnish member of the WHO board on vaccines, ‘Strategic Advisory Group of Experts’ (SAGE), received almost 6.3 million euros in 2009 for his vaccine research programme, THL, from the vaccine manufacturers, GSK, qualifying GSK as THL’s main source of income. SAGE advises WHO chief Margaret Chan and recommends which vaccines and how much of it member countries should purchase, pointed out the Danish newspaper.
Apart from Prof Juhani Eskola, who received almost 6.3 million euros for his vaccine research programme, Danish journalists reported on six other members of ‘Strategic Advisory Group of Experts’ (SAGE) with financial ties to various pharmaceutical companies. These include Dr Peter Figueroa, Dr Neil Ferguson, Prof Malik Peiris, Dr Arnold Monto, Dr Friedrich Hayden and Dr Albert Osterhaus. Barring Dr Figuero, who revealed that he had accepted a research grant from Merck, none of the others made any disclosures.
Many of the pharmaceutical companies with which the vaccine board members had ties, are also the manufacturers of vaccines including the H1N1 vaccine like GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Novartis, Solvay, Baxter, MedImmune and Sanofi Aventis. None of the WHO members on the vaccine board, barring one, declared any conflict of interest despite having extensive financial ties with the pharmaceutical companies in the form of research grants and consultancies.
In a statement issued on December 3, 2009, WHO claims that numerous safeguards are in place to manage possible conflicts of interest or their perception. “Members of SAGE are required to declare all professional and financial interests, including funding received from pharmaceutical companies or consultancies or other forms of professional engagement with pharmaceutical companies.
The names and affiliations of members of SAGE and of SAGE working groups are published on the WHO web site, together with meeting reports and declarations of interest submitted by the experts. Allegations of undeclared conflicts of interest are taken very seriously by WHO, and are immediately investigated,” says the statement. However, there is no such disclosure by these SAGE members on the WHO website.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Did-WHO-experts-fuel-swine-flu-...
European Parliament to Investigate WHO and “Pandemic” Scandal
The Council of Europe member states will launch an inquiry in January 2010 on the influence of the pharmaceutical companies on the global swine flu campaign, focusing especially on extent of the pharma‘s industry’s influence on WHO. The Health Committee of the EU Parliament has unanimously passed a resolution calling for the inquiry. The step is a long-overdue move to public transparency of a “Golden Triangle” of drug corruption between WHO, the pharma industry and academic scientists that has permanently damaged the lives of millions and even caused death.
The parliament motion was introduced by Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg, former SPD Member of the German Bundestag and now chairman of the Health Committee of PACE (Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe). Wodarg is a medical doctor and epidemiologist, a specialist in lung disease and environmental medicine, who considers the current “pandemic” Swine Flu campaign of the WHO to be “one of the greatest medicine scandals of the Century.”[1]
The text of the resolution just passed by a sufficient number in the Council of Europe Parliament says among other things, “In order to promote their patented drugs and vaccines against flu, pharmaceutical companies influenced scientists and official agencies, responsible for public health standards to alarm governments worldwide and make them squander tight health resources for inefficient vaccine strategies and needlessly expose millions of healthy people to the risk of an unknown amount of side-effects of insufficiently tested vaccines. The "bird-flu"-campaign (2005/06) combined with the "swine-flu"-campaign seem to have caused a great deal of damage not only to some vaccinated patients and to public health-budgets, but to the credibility and accountability of important international health-agencies.”[2]
The Parliamentary inquiry will look into the issue of „falsified pandemic“ that was declared by WHO in June 2009 on the advice of its group of academic experts, SAGE, many of whose members have been documented to have intense financial ties to the same pharmaceutical giants such as GlaxoSmithKline, Roche, Novartis, who benefit from the production of drugs and untested H1N1 vaccines. They will investigate the influence of the pharma industry in creation of a worldwide campaign against the so-called H5N1 “Avian Flu” and H1N1 Swine Flu. The inquiry will be given “urgent” priority in the general assembly of the parliament.
In his official statement to the Committee, Wodarg criticized the influence of the pharma industry on scientists and officials of WHO, stating that it has led to the situation where “unnecessarily millions of healthy people are exposed to the risk of poorly tested vaccines,” and that, for a flu strain that is “vastly less harmful” than all previous flu epidemics.
Wodarg says the role of the WHO and its the pandemic emergency declaration in June needs to be the special focus of the European Parliamentary inquiry. For the first time, the WHO criteria for a pandemic was changed in April 2009 as the first Mexico cases were reported, to make not the actual risk of a disease but the number of cases of the disease basis to declare “Pandemic.” By classifying the swine flu as pandemic, nations were compelled to implement pandemic plans and also the purchase swine flu vaccines. Because WHO is not subject to any parliamentary control, Wodarg argues it is necessary for governments to insist on accountability. The inquiry will also to look at the role of the two critical agencies in Germany issuing guidelines on the pandemic, the Paul-Ehrlich and the Robert-Koch Institute.
Bravo!
by F. William Engdahl
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16667
Yes, we need to investigate this scam.
Yes, we need to investigate this scam. However, my suspicion is that alot of distraction and noise will be generated to satisfy those not under the Illuminati’s control and then the issue will disappear. A scape goat may be found but those who are responsible will escape!
http://socioecohistory.wordpress.com/author/mosesman/
Pharma inside WHO -- Swine flu labelled a conspiracy
Can you trust the WHO? I don’t. Draw your own conclusions. Decide for yourself.
The swine flu pandemic has been named as the “most ambitious scam and corruption of our time” after pharma has been found to be in bed with the World Health Organisation.
Journalists from Denmark have reported links between the World Health Organisation and pharmaceutical companies where firms have been covertly paying top WHO scientists. In the meantime, pharma profits from flu drugs have soared.
The journalists from the newspaper Information claim the public and political hysteria to swine flu is a result of an efficient public relations campaign, spearheaded by the WHO experts that have been prejudiced by pharma’s ready cash.
The lead target in the allegations is Dutch doctor Albert Ostenhaus, who has promoted the need for vaccinations through the WHO and the media and headed a panel that advised the WHO to announce that swine flu had reached pandemic level. Reports claim Ostenhaus is paid by several vaccine manufacturers and the Netherlands government is believed to be investigating his activities.
Other WHO advisors are understood to also advise big pharma and have been allegedly concealing their pharma-funded salaries.
Meanwhile, further questions have been raised about the WHO’s independence over the H1N1 flu virus after various documents found medicines and vaccinations were mentioned more than 40 times while traditional hand washing and the use of masks to combat the disease were only mentioned twice.
The pharma industry is expected to make between seven and 10 billion euros in 2009 from the sales of swine flu related drugs, according to JP Morgan.
http://socioecohistory.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/the-who-and-big-pharma-s...