Donald Donahue, DHEd, Director of the Center for Health Policy and Preparedness comments this week on more allegations that the H1N1 pandemic was exaggerated.

SUMMARY: The Council of Europe's Committee on Social, Health and Family Affairs questioned World Health Organization officials this week about allegations from some European politicians that they exaggerated the H1N1 pandemic threat to benefit drug companies. Dr Keiji Fukuda, WHO special advisor on pandemic influenza, defended vaccine stockpiling as a prudent public health response, saying the novel influenza virus quickly sweeping the globe required unprecedented cooperation from a broad range of groups, including pharmaceutical companies. He also pointed out that the 1918 pandemic started with mild waves of illnesses before turning deadly, and to the CDC report that the number of children who die from the new virus is three times higher than for seasonal flu.

STORY LINK: http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/swineflu/news/jan2610council.html

Read more: European hearing airs WHO pandemic response, critics' charges

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/

Read more: Pandemic H1N1 Spreads Despite Claims Threat Fabricated

Donald Donahue, DHEd, Director of the Center for Health Policy and Preparedness at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, comments this week on the number of Americans who have received the H1N1 vaccine.

SUMMARY: Approximately 20 percent of Americans have been vaccinated against swine flu, according to the CDC’s first detailed estimate. Officials said that rate was good, considering they conducted a hurried campaign against a novel flu virus, using a vaccine that did not become available – then in limited supply -- to the general public until early October. The report followed the recent update from the CDC that more than 11,000 Americans have died from swine flu since it was first identified in April.

STORY LINK: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/15/AR2010011501812.html

Read more: CDC: 1 in 5 Americans vaccinated against swine flu

James Barnett is a retired Navy rear admiral and a Senior Research Fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.  He is currently serving as Chief of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission.  In a recent op-ed for The Hill, he writes that the tragic earthquake in Haiti reminds us that disaster can strike anytime, anywhere.  Yet despite our experience with disasters here in the US, including the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and Hurricane Katrina, we still lack an effective, interoperable communications network for first responders. Barnett writes, "In today’s high-tech world, it is almost unthinkable that firefighters cannot effectively communicate with police officers or paramedics seamlessly during emergencies." He says investment in a public safety broadband wireless network must become a priority. Click here to read the full article.