Healthy Skepticism Library item: 17930

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Publication type: Journal Article

WHO and the pandemic flu 'conspiracies'
BMJ 2010 Jun 3; 340:
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/340/jun03_4/c2912

Abstract:

Next week marks the first anniversary of the official declaration of the influenza A/H1N1 pandemic. On 11 June 2009 Dr Margaret Chan, the director general of the World Health Organization, announced to the world’s media: “I have conferred with leading influenza experts, virologists, and public health officials. In line with procedures set out in the International Health Regulations, I have sought guidance and advice from an Emergency Committee established for this purpose. On the basis of available evidence, and these expert assessments of the evidence, the scientific criteria for an influenza pandemic have been met…The world is now at the start of the 2009 influenza pandemic.”
It was the culmination of 10 years of pandemic preparedness planning for WHO-years of committee meetings with experts flown in from around . . .