Sifting Through The Swine Flu Hysteria

Vaccinating against the pig
So, backtrack to July of 2009: the WHO has declared swine flu a pandemic, the masses continue on in their hysteria, and governments are scrambling. The solution to all this is vaccinations for everybody!

Via nobadtrips.com

Interestingly enough, Dr Wolfgang Wodarg, an epidemiologist who at the time was on the European Council, points the blame to the avian flu outbreak of 2004, since the panic during the time resulted in governments instigating ‘sleeping contracts’.

These sleeping contracts were with pharmaceutical companies that are automatically triggered when the WHO declares a pandemic, to lessen response time in the production of vaccines, antivirals and any other necessary medication. Dr Wodarg claims that “in this way, the producers of vaccines are sure of enormous gains without having any financial risks,” so that when 2009 rolled around and the WHO freaked out about swine flu, or became overly cautious if you prefer, all the sleeping contracts held between governments and the big pharmaceutical companies became active.

The result is that 25 pharmaceutical companies began racing to produce more than a billion doses of swine flu vaccines to the awaiting governments and the people. Of these 25 drug companies, more than 80 per cent of production was to be accounted by five major ‘big pharmas,’ which are: Sanofi Pasteur of France, AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) of Britain, Baxter of the United States, and Novartis of Switzerland.

Canada also was a part of this scramble to prepare the population for the H1N1 vaccination program to be rolled out, ordering some 60 million doses of the adjuvant vaccine (which is comprised of two doses, with additives that increase its effectiveness). The cost for both the vaccines and the process of vaccination, developing strategic and emergency plans, keeping an eye on the outbreak situation, paying for staff and so forth totalled a whopping $1.5 billion, and that was only by November 19, 2009.

The costs for the H1N1 vaccination, due largely to its pandemic status and the WHO’s recommendation that special patented products be used, is staggering compared to the cost of a seasonal flu shot. Take, for example, the province of Alberta: it placed a $100 million figure on the H1N1 vaccination, whereas it usually spends $3.2 million on the seasonal flu shot. That’s an extra $96.8 million that could have been used elsewhere in the province, and the same applies to all the provinces and territories across Canada.

By the end of the typical flu season (starting in October), approximately 45 per cent of Canada’s population was vaccinated against H1N1, which left some 20 million doses unused. The cost doesn’t decrease with lack of use; Canadians will pay the $1.5 billion either way for the vaccine and all the programs that were put in place. Indeed, Medical Officer of Health for Ontario’s Hasting and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit, Dr. Richard Schabas, tells the Globe and Mail that this has been “the most overhyped, overblown exercise I’ve ever been a part of,” due to the exaggeration of the swine flu’s severity and fatality.

Profiting from the swine flu bill
Canada racked up a hefty bill of $1.5 billion, the United States spent more than $6 USD billion and Britain is looking at more than £1.5 billion. The end result? Billions of dollars wasted across all the continents and batches upon batches upon batches of unused swine flu vaccinations. The winners in this case are undoubtedly the WHO (if declaring a pandemic was their goal no matter the data provided) and big pharma.

Of course, there is always a possibility that the swine flu could have exploded into a true pandemic of unprecedented proportions, with the death toll becoming higher than even the 1918 influenza. But with all things, there is always a possibility. The likelihood of it actually happening was extremely low in this case, but nonetheless the world played into the hands of the WHO while the major pharmaceutical companies walked away with billions of dollars for their bottom line.

That’s not to say that the pharmaceutical companies can truly be blamed for increasing the mass hysteria of swine flu (although they did contribute to the hype around avian flu); they merely took the opportunity like any other corporation and did what was being asked of them.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), one of the major producers of the H1N1 vaccine, stands to make more than £1.5 billion (£1 billion alone in the fourth quarter) due to the pandemic threat of 2009, the majority of which stems from the delivery of 195 million doses of vaccines to a variety of countries. GSK is also the manufacturer of Relenza, which, like the anti-influenza Tamiflu, is being used to treat those that are already infected with H1N1.

Statements released from GSK have rejected any claims that have been made in regards to the company taking advantage of the pandemic as it states that the costs of developing the vaccine have been as much as £1.5 billion, a large portion of which went toward ensuring its facilities could increase production of the vaccine once all the clinical trials have been completed.

The major pharmaceutical companies have unquestionably gained where the taxpayers have lost, and in some cases GSK in particular proved unwilling to re-negotiate with the countries from which it had received orders for swine flu vaccines when it became apparent there were going to be too many doses wasted. Indeed, pharmaceutical giant Baxter of the United States was willing to allow Britain to use the break clause in its contract, whereas the Britain-GSK contract held no break clause.

Where, oh where, did that piggy go?
By mid-August 2010, the WHO finally called the swine flu pandemic over with the end result of 18,000 deaths worldwide – a figure that doesn’t even come near the number of deaths from the seasonal flu or the millions that died in previous pandemics such as the 1918 influenza. In spite of this, media releases and statements from the WHO firmly reiterate that the swine flu was a pandemic and that the lack of fatalities was from luck rather than a lack of danger from H1N1.

On a side note, the 2009 flu season actually saw a drop in deaths related to the flu, as H1N1 actually eliminated the seasonal flu since it was more contagious but less severe.

We cannot fault the major pharmaceutical companies for merely fulfilling their end of the bargain that was set up as a protection measure in the event of a pandemic, but we can certainly look to question the WHO, other health agencies and our own governments for going along with a ‘pandemic’ that was clearly not on that level of severity in terms of the fatalities caused by the swine flu. Even the government in a time of panic can use the hysteria to introduce programs or ‘fast-track’ vaccines that normally would take longer to implement.

These processes were supposed to save lives, not unnecessarily waste huge sums of taxpayer dollars. Although across Europe there has been a public outcry after the initial panic and hysteria died down, we have seen nothing of the like in North America. The public is simply going along with whatever the media has portrayed and has not done enough digging on their own to find out the true facts.

In all actuality, there is not much digging needed, just a mere sifting through the dirt to determine what is truly important: the facts and the recognition of massive media hype. It’s all about being smart about what is being said in the news, no matter the source.

In the end, of course the pharmaceutical companies profited monetarily, but what is even more important is what have we lost from this unnecessary hysteria. It may be that in the future, when there is truly a pandemic, the public will be much more sceptical and ignore warnings from the governments or health agencies like the WHO. After all, in the midst of the chaos we need to be able to look towards those that are in positions of power to lead with the surety that they will act responsibly and transparently.

ARB Team
Arbitrage Magazine
Business News with BITE.

Liked this post? Why not buy the ARB team a beer? Just click an ad or donate below (thank you!)

Liked this article? Hated it? Comment below and share your opinions with other ARB readers!