Donald Donahue, DHEd, Director of the Center for Health Policy and Preparedness at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, comments this week on the World Health Organization's investigation of claims the H1N1 pandemic was exaggerated.

SUMMARY: WHO officials this week dismissed charges that the H1N1 pandemic was manufactured or overblown to benefit the pharmaceutical industry as “absurd.’’ Outbreaks of the flu virus continue to erupt in parts of the world and a potential third wave could involve a more virulent strain. “Inestimable lives have been saved because of the vaccines,” one top official said, downplaying the naysayers as being “out of touch with reality … even science.”
STORY LINK: http://www.hstoday.us/content/view/11843/149/

The concept of a global conspiracy mounted by public health officials to benefit the pharmaceutical industry is as convoluted as it is fantastic…  in the original meaning of that word, i.e. relating to fantasy.  There is no denying that H1N1 influenza spread rapidly around the world.  The unknown has been, continues to be, and will always be whether the virus will evolve to a more deadly strain, lessen in virulence, or stay the same.  So far, luck has been with us.  The impact of H1N1 has been far less than it might have been, certainly nowhere near the deadly and oft-cited 1918-9 strain of so-called “Spanish Flu.” 

Yet, to dismiss health warnings as a ruse to generate profits reveals a cynicism that borders on cruel fiction.  Using this line of reasoning:  because there has not been a rash of fires in my neighborhood the recommendation to change the batteries in your smoke alarms when changing clocks to and from Daylight Savings Time is a national conspiracy to benefit battery manufacturers.  While we have been quite fortunate that H1N1 has not evolved into a more serious threat, that is undoubtedly small comfort to the families of the 255 American children and nearly 11,000 others who have died from H1N1 since April 2009. 

The potential for a deadly strain of influenza remains, as does the current H1N1 pandemic.  Immunization against influenza offers widely proven, safe, and highly effective protection against an illness that is at best annoying and at worst deadly.  Avoiding this protection because of some imagined conspiracy simply invites needless risk.