WHO의 최고 독감 전문가가 다음 주 목요일 스트라스부르크에서 열릴 예정인 가짜 신종플루 대유행(false pandemic) 스캔들을 조사할 유럽의회 청문회에 참석할 예정이라고 합니다.

청문회에 참석할 WHO 독감전문가팀은 신종플루 대유행에 대한 WHO 사무총장 특별 자문관(WHO Special Adviser on Pandemic Influenza)인 케이지 후쿠다(Keiji Fukuda)를 단장으로 구성되었다고 합니다.

케이지 후쿠다는 기자들에게 “세계가 실제 대유행으로 진행되고 있으며 이를 허위라고 하는 얘기는 잘못이고 무책임한 것”이라고 말하는 등의 언론 플레이를 하고 있습니다.

그는 WHO와 거대 제약회사의 공모설을 부인하며, WHO가 산업계의 영향을 전혀 받지 않았다고 강변했습니다.

그러나 가짜 대유행 스캔들을 별개로 하더라도… WHO는 거대 제약 산업계의 눈치를 보며 항바이러스제(타미플루, 리렌자)에 대한 강제실시를 전혀 권고하지 않았으며, 신종플루 백신을 준비하는데 있어서도 세계 각국 시민들의 건강과 안전보다 거대제약회사들의 이윤을 우선시했다는 비판으로부터 자유롭지 못합니다.

유럽의회의 청문회에서 얼마나 많은 진실이 밝혀질지 기다려봐야 할 것 같습니다.
 
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WHO attend key European hearing on flu pandemic’

출처 : AFP 통신 Fri Jan 22, 1:29 pm ET

GENEVA (AFP) – The World Health Organisation’s leading flu expert will join a Council of Europe hearing next week to scrutinise if they had overreacted to the swine flu pandemic, an official said Friday.

“There will be a WHO delegation going to Strasbourg to this open hearing on Tuesday,” said spokesman Gregory Haertl, adding that it would be led by Keiji Fukuda, WHO Special Adviser on Pandemic Influenza.

The France-based Council of Europe announced on its website Thursday that the hearing entitled “The handling of the H1N1 pandemic: more transparency needed?” would be held in public.

The Health Family and Social affairs commission of the Council’s assembly invited the WHO and pharmaceutical firms after a political storm erupted over the alarm caused by the declaration of a pandemic with A(H1N1) influenza.

Council of Europe parliamentarian Wolfgang Wodarg has accused national and international authorities of declaring a “false pandemic”, claiming pressure from pharmaceutical firms anxious to profit from vaccine and drug sales.

The WHO responded a week ago by announcing a likely independent review of its response to swine flu, but only once the pandemic is over.

Haertl defended the UN health agency’s response after the emergence of the new flu virus with fast spreading illness, and deaths, in the United States and Mexico in April 2008.

“The question is not really whether we had contact with the industry but whether we had any undue influence exerted upon us by commercial interests — and the answer is no,” he told journalists on Friday.

He insisted that the WHO had maintained that the symptoms of the disease were largely mild in a “sober and balanced” assessment of the worldwide spread of swine flu into more than 200 countries.

French Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot on Friday described talks with drug companies to cancel orders for millions of swine flu vaccines as “tough”.

France spent 869 million euros (1.25 billion dollars) on 94 million vaccines for the A(H1N1) virus, but like some other European countries it has witnessed less demand than expected.