WHO Swine Flu Experts 'Linked' with Drug Companies

I said the swine flu "pandemic" was bunk from the get-go. Now we know why.

http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/10625#comment483709

...after the ressesion, who can blame the poor pill makers from trying to make some extra pills...?

I am happy to see that the profession of medicine also contains a significant body of individuals who are concerned about the influence of profit-driven industry and the necessity of declaring conflicts of interest. As for the WHO, the secret advisory committee membership is beyond a joke. Disgusting display of coverup for a conflict of interest - or is it conceivable that they refuse to name their advisors for no reason at all.

The reaping of vaccine profit by GSK in Canada had an interesting dynamic. First of all, the unidentified "adjuvant" made people nervous. Health Canada bought it, and we were to be the experimental 'volunteers' to test the product. When the pandemic was declared we were told there was vaccine for everybody, but surveys by the media showed a low level of interest in getting it, at least partly on concerns about the adjuvant. The public willingness to take the vaccine was then manipulated in the wierdest way. They opened clinics with a limited amount of vaccine, so that people who went to get it early on were turned away. The media then promoted the top story of a "vaccine shortage" scare. Throw in a little righteous indignation about "your rights" to a share of the vaccine under public health care. Suddenly the number of people wanting it went way up. In the end, they got a fairly high rate of vaccination - far more than the first surveys indicated.

What is wrong with us, that we are so contrary and easily manipulated by the media??? Don't get me wrong, I think vaccination is a good thing, generally speaking. But it is downright scary to see how the public is easily led - not by informing or reasoning, but by creating a false perception.....

The government ended up with a surplus of "adjuvant" - which is kept for the vaccine for the next pandemic, effectively tying the government into another billion dollar boondoggle with the same supplier GSK. It is no joke that GSK's vaccine game has been in the works since 2004, and the swine flu was only the first bang of profit for their buck.

no surprise here.

what you're describing is what Noam Chomsky calls "Manufacturing Consent".

this was not actually his term, but he borrowed it from an earlier author who also wrote about how information is being crafted / engineered to obtain the results it is intended for.

the guy is what some people call "one of the greatest thinkers of our time".

hey Langyaw. Yep, that's about it. Manufacturing consent on a grand scale in this case.

Although I have to concede there are compelling arguments that we are better off because of the vaccination campaign, including those of us who didn't get the vaccine or the flu.

Coincidentally the regional paper ran a feature yesterday, highlighting the cases where young people died or had to fight for their lives (media again). But it is a fact, some of those who got sick were very sick indeed. If the vaccine protected or saved the lives of people by minimizing the number exposed and infected, as is very probably the case (that is the purpose of it and how it works), it is enough reason to be glad that it was used, as long as it caused no harm. I have not seen any reports that it caused harm.

So in spite of the manufacturing of consent, and the profit made by industry, and the spectacle of secret 'advisors' at WHO, the vaccination campaign seems to have been objectively a good decision. (is that irony, a paradox? I am critical of the perceived manufacture of consent, but I can't deny that it probably was a benefit to the general public. The same cannot be said of all the industry's shady deals, for sure!)

I'm a big fan of Noam Chomsky by the way - fantastic writer, very insightful and a brilliant critic of social and political scenes.

As my ole Pappy always said, "Son,[he called me that cause I was quite bright], I believe this is a doctors desease."