Faking an epidemic - a history

 Why The WHO Faked A Pandemic

Michael Fumento

Forbes,

5 February, 2010

The World Health Organization has suddenly gone from crying "The sky is falling!" like a cackling Chicken Little to squealing like a stuck pig. The reason: charges that the agency deliberately fomented swine flu hysteria. "The world is going through a real pandemic. The description of it as a fake is wrong and irresponsible," the agency claims on its Web site. A WHO spokesman declined to specify who or what gave this "description," but the primary accuser is hard to ignore.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), a human rights watchdog, is publicly investigating the WHO's motives in declaring a pandemic. Indeed, the chairman of its influential health committee, epidemiologist Wolfgang Wodarg, has declared that the "false pandemic" is "one of the greatest medicine scandals of the century."

Even within the agency, the director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Epidemiology in Munster, Germany, Dr. Ulrich Kiel, has essentially labeled the pandemic a hoax. "We are witnessing a gigantic misallocation of resources [$18 billion so far] in terms of public health," he said.

They're right. This wasn't merely overcautiousness or simple misjudgment. The pandemic declaration and all the Klaxon-ringing since reflect sheer dishonesty motivated not by medical concerns but political ones.

Unquestionably, swine flu has proved to be vastly milder than ordinary seasonal flu. It kills at a third to a tenth the rate, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates. Data from other countries like France and Japan indicate it's far tamer than that.

Indeed, judging by what we've seen in New Zealand and Australia (where the epidemics have ended), and by what we're seeing elsewhere in the world, we'll have considerably fewer flu deaths this season than normal. That's because swine flu muscles aside seasonal flu, acting as a sort of inoculation against the far deadlier strain.

Did the WHO have any indicators of this mildness when it declared the pandemic in June?

Absolutely, as I wrote at the time. We were then fully 11 weeks into the outbreak and swine flu had only killed 144 people worldwide--the same number who die of seasonal flu worldwide every few hours. (An estimated 250,000 to 500,000 per year by the WHO's own numbers.) The mildest pandemics of the 20th century killed at least a million people.

But how could the organization declare a pandemic when its own official definition required "simultaneous epidemics worldwide with enormous numbers of deaths and illness." Severity--that is, the number of deaths--is crucial, because every year flu causes "a global spread of disease."

Easy. In May, in what it admitted was a direct response to the outbreak of swine flu the month before, WHO promulgated a new definition matched to swine flu that simply eliminated severity as a factor. You could now have a pandemic with zero deaths.

Under fire, the organization is boldly lying about the change, to which anybody with an Internet connection can attest. In a mid-January virtual conference WHO swine flu chief Keiji Fukuda stated: "Did WHO change its definition of a pandemic? The answer is no: WHO did not change its definition." Two weeks later at a PACE conference he insisted: "Having severe deaths has never been part of the WHO definition."

They did it; but why?

In part, it was CYA for the WHO. The agency was losing credibility over the refusal of avian flu H5N1 to go pandemic and kill as many as 150 million people worldwide, as its "flu czar" had predicted in 2005.

Around the world nations heeded the warnings and spent vast sums developing vaccines and making other preparations. So when swine flu conveniently trotted in, the WHO essentially crossed out "avian," inserted "swine," and WHO Director-General Margaret Chan arrogantly boasted, "The world can now reap the benefits of investments over the last five years in pandemic preparedness."

But there's more than bureaucratic self-interest at work here. Bizarrely enough, the WHO has also exploited its phony pandemic to push a hard left political agenda.

In a September speech WHO Director-General Chan said "ministers of health" should take advantage of the "devastating impact" swine flu will have on poorer nations to get out the message that "changes in the functioning of the global economy" are needed to "distribute wealth on the basis of" values "like community, solidarity, equity and social justice." She further declared it should be used as a weapon against "international policies and systems that govern financial markets, economies, commerce, trade and foreign affairs."

Chan's dream now lies in tatters. All the WHO has done, says PACE's Wodart, is to destroy "much of the credibility that they should have, which is invaluable to us if there's a future scare that might turn out to be a killer on a large scale."

Michael Fumento is director of the nonprofit Independent Journalism Project, where he specializes in health and science issues. He may be reached at fumento@pobox.com.

Avian-like H1N1 swine flu: the next scare

New swine flu found in China has pandemic potential, researchers say

• Named G4, virus is genetically descended from H1N1 strain behind 2009 outbreak
• Tests show 10.4 per cent of swine workers and up to 4.4 per cent of general population may have been exposed

SCMP,

29 June, 2020

Researchers in China have discovered a new type of swine flu that is capable of triggering a pandemic, according to a study published Monday in the US science journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Named G4, it is genetically descended from the H1N1 strain that caused a pandemic in 2009.

It possesses “all the essential hallmarks of being highly adapted to infect humans”, say the authors, scientists at Chinese universities and China’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

From 2011 to 2018, researchers took 30,000 nasal swabs from pigs in slaughterhouses in 10 Chinese provinces and in a veterinary hospital, allowing them to isolate 179 swine flu viruses.

The majority were of a new kind which has been dominant among pigs since 2016.

The researchers then carried out various experiments including on ferrets, which are widely used in flu studies because they experience similar symptoms to humans – principally fever, coughing and sneezing.

G4 was observed to be highly infectious, replicating in human cells and causing more serious symptoms in ferrets than other viruses.

Tests also showed that any immunity humans gain from exposure to seasonal flu does not provide protection from G4.

According to blood tests which showed up antibodies created by exposure to the virus, 10.4 per cent of swine workers had already been infected.

The tests showed that as many as 4.4 per cent of the general population also appeared to have been exposed.

The virus has therefore already passed from animals to humans, but there is no evidence yet that it can be passed from human to human – the scientists’ main worry.

“It is of concern that human infection of G4 virus will further human adaptation and increase the risk of a human pandemic,” the researchers wrote.

The authors called for urgent measures to monitor people working with pigs.

“The work comes as a salutary reminder that we are constantly at risk of new emergence of zoonotic pathogens and that farmed animals, with which humans have greater contact than with wildlife, may act as the source for important pandemic viruses,” said James Wood, head of the department of veterinary medicine at Cambridge University.

A zoonotic infection is caused by a pathogen that has jumped from a non-human animal into a human.

Kiwi experts say a newfound strain of influenza detected in China should be closely monitored, but says fears it'll cause a global pandemic akin to COVID-19 are "a little premature".

It comes as Chinese and British scientists claimed the virus - known as G4 EA H1N1 and so far only identified in pigs - has "all the hallmarks" of being highly adapted to humans and capable of triggering a global outbreak.

The research - published on Monday in scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - suggests Chinese pig farmers already show elevated levels of the virus, and close monitoring of them "should be urgently implemented"

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/06/the-new-covid-19-kiwi-experts-weigh-in-on-threat-new-flu-virus-detected-in-china-poses.html?fbclid=IwAR3XNr7R4efB2hXkvvylHFgOGXPlCPIBWCU0lJida7N12O51DVPGEzHJKqs

https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/06/23/1921186117

Influenza

The headlines may come and go, but the threat remain

China investigating new deadly bird flu strain H10N8

The Extinction Protocol,

18 December, 2013

December 19, 2013 – BEIJING — This week China reported the death of a woman it said was the first human to become infected with a new strain of bird flu. While researchers work to learn more about the H10N8 strain of the virus that she acquired, the World Health Organization said the quick notice about the case indicates China has made improvements in tracking deadly outbreaks. Shortly after visiting a poultry market in Jiangxi Province, a 73-year-old woman died from a new strain of bird flu called H10N8.  She passed away on December 6, just six days after she contracted the disease. 

Dr. Bernhard Schwartlander, the WHO representative in China, says the quick diagnosis of the bird flu that killed her reflects the increased strength of the country’s surveillance systems.

 “The fact that Chinese authorities detected this case in a 73-year-old woman that had other medical conditions actually shows that the active surveillance system, the active alert system, is actually working quite well,” explained Schwartlander.  Earlier this year, some 100 people were infected with the H7N9 strain of avian flu and China responded with increased testing and reporting of similar outbreaks. 

The H10N8 virus had previously been detected in Guangdong Province and lived in poultry for many years. The WHO’s Schwartlander said the first fatality from the virus is a worrisome development. “This the first case that we detected the virus in a human being,” he said. In 2002 and 2003, China came under international criticism for its slow public acknowledgement of the deadly epidemic called SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome that eventually killed more than 700 people.

As health authorities tracked the outbreak, officials discouraged the domestic media from reporting on the incident and held back information from WHO researchers. China’s health systems have improved since, but some experts say the country’s surveillance of laboratory-confirmed infections remains underdeveloped. The elderly woman who died this week frequently visited live poultry markets and was admitted to the hospital on November 30.  She suffered from high blood pressure and heart disease, which likely lowered her immunity. 

Authorities have not provided information on whether she was quarantined but say no one who was close to her has become sick. Dr. Schwartlander said authorities need to keep a close watch to see whether the disease spreads. “Of course we are always concerned when we see that the virus has actually jumped from one species to another. And you have to be very careful watching this because every time this happens it has, of course in theory, the potential for a wider spread,” he said. 

Chinese authorities are also closely watching for outbreaks of the H5N1 virus, which has killed 384 people since 2003.  Scientists fear the virus could mutate and spread rapidly from person to person. –VOA

North Texas man dies from progressive type of swine flu

The Extinction Protocol,

18 December, 2013

December 19, 2013 – EULESS, Texas — Looking at photographs shown at her husband’s funeral is so very hard for Ashley Wright. “He was too young,” she said. “I should not be a widow at 30… So it’s pretty devastating.” Dustin Wright, 30, came down with flu-like symptoms just before Thanksgiving. Ashley said he seemed to be getting better, before taking a sudden turn for the worse. “Every breath was a struggle for him,” she recalled. “Every single breath. And I woke him up at 11:30, and his lips were purple and his fingers were purple, and he was like a green color — like he was just changing colors.” 

Ashley said she insisted they go immediately to the emergency room. Dustin was admitted to Baylor Grapevine on Nov. 25, placed on life support in the ICU, and strapped into a rotating bed that helps break up fluid in the lungs from pneumonia. At first, flu tests were inconclusive.

 “The second time they checked him, he came back positive for Influenza A, Influenza B,” Wright said. Dustin suffered kidney failure, which has been associated with severe cases of H1N1 Type A, or swine flu. He had no known underlying medical conditions. 

His case has many similarities to cases in Montgomery County that puzzled doctors this week. Of eight cases in that county, four patients have died. Wednesday afternoon, Montgomery County health officials said one surviving patient tested positive for H1N1. Two other surviving patients tested negative for H1N1 and results are still pending for the fourth.  

“So what we’re doing now is we’re retesting those patients who tested negative from the private lab,” Montgomery County Medical Director Dr. Mark Escott said. 

“And those samples will be sent to the state and the CDC for confirmation testing.” The illnesses started with flu-like symptoms, then progressed to pneumonia and, in some cases, organ failure. They all initially tested negative for the flu. 

The mother of one of the patients who died in Montgomery County, which is north of Houston, spoke to WFAA sister station KHOU Wednesday. She said her son, Dathany Reed, wasn’t feeling well on Thanksgiving and went to see doctors, who sent him home with several prescriptions. 

He was admitted to the hospital’s emergency room the next day and ended up on life support. Dathany’s 41st birthday came and went on November 30 while his kidneys and other organs deteriorated. Family members said goodbye to the father of three on Dec. 5, a week after he went to the emergency room. Dustin Wright died 10 days after being admitted to the hospital. He had not gotten a flu shot. H1N1 is one of the viruses included in this year’s shot. “I’ll never look at this the same ever again for sure,” Ashley said. “Always just get your flu shot, because you never know.”

 Adult influenza deaths do not need to be reported to the county health department, so precise numbers of North Texas deaths from influenza are unknown. Pediatric deaths, by law, must be reported. Children and pregnant women were more susceptible to serious complications from H1N1 swine flu during the outbreak in 2009.  Dustin Wright was 30 years old. He leaves behind a wife who loves him, and a 9-year-old son he called his “best friend.” 

-KHOU

Mystery illness kills 4 in Texas – China reports new H7N9 cases

The Extinction Protocol,

18 December, 2013

December 18, 2013 – MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas – Officials with the Montgomery County Health Department are on a mission to find out more about a mystery flu-like illness. So far, half of the people who have come down with it have died. According to the health department, all of the patients have had flu-like and/or pneumonia-like symptoms. However, all of them have tested negative for the flu. There have been eight confirmed patients ranging in age from 41 to 68. Four of those patients have died. Sources told WFAA sister station KHOU that two of the surviving patients are being treated at Conroe Regional Medical Center and are “very sick.” Those sources said doctors are being advised to use extra precaution to prevent this from spreading. It’s unclear if any of the patients had pre-existing conditions. The Montgomery County Health Department is waiting on more conclusive test results. Officials are hoping they will have more answers in the days to come. –WFAA

Medical mystery in Texas: The mother of the youngest of eight confirmed cases of a mystery illness in Montgomery County is sharing her son’s story. Dathany Reed, 41, wasn’t feeling well on Thanksgiving. He called out sick from his job at the Golden Corral and went to see doctors at Conroe Regional Medical Center. Odessa Reed says doctors sent her son home with several prescriptions. She said her son was admitted to the hospital’s emergency room the next day and ended up on life support. “It doesn’t make sense,” said Odessa Reed. “How can you talk to a person one day, and they say, I’m not feeling good, and the next day, that person is on life support.” Dathany’s 41st birthday came and went on November 30 while his kidneys and other organs deteriorated. Family members said goodbye to the father of three on December 5. “This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to face in my whole life,” cried Odessa Reed. “My son was kind. He was sweet.”

Dathany is one of four patients to have died after contracting the mystery illness. Doctors say all of the patients have had flu-like and/or pneumonia-like symptoms but have tested negative for standard strains of the flu. “[I hope they] get a better handle on this before it affects more lives, more families, more people,” explained Odessa Reed. “I want the truth.” Doctors are awaiting test results that could explain what the illness is, but there is no time-table as to when those results could be in. Montgomery County Health officials said they are now looking at cases from other hospitals that could be connected to the mystery illness. The new case files are being reviewed for similarity to the eight cases at Conroe Regional Medical Center that prompted the County Health Department investigation. The state and regional health departments have already been notified and are also looking for reports of new cases. –KENS5

More H7N9 cases in China: Taipei, Dec. 18 (CNA) People traveling to China should take health precautions as 10 more H7N9 avian flu cases have been reported there since October, Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center said Tuesday. Center spokesman Chou Jih-haw said the 10 cases included three in Guangdong province, five in Zhejiang province and two in Hong Kong. There have been 142 confirmed cases of the H7N9 virus in China since the outbreak began at the end of March, he said. Of those patients, 47 have died. Chou noted, however, that the cases have been sporadic and said there were no indications that the H7N9 strain has been transmitted from one person to another. The center reminded people intending to travel to China to monitor their personal health, refrain from coming in contact with fowl, and make sure to eat only well-cooked poultry and eggs. 

–Focus Taiwan

New pandemic threats

Not only are we looking at bird flu in China: we are now looking at swine flu and a new form of SARS.

Rising threat of a pandemic: flu infections rising among pigs in southern China, says study

Risk of spillover to humans is 'constant or growing', says the author of the study

South China Morning Post,

9 May, 2013

Scientists said on Wednesday that flu infections were rising among pigs raised for slaughter on farms in south and southeastern China, also plagued by bird flu.

And the risk of spillover to humans was “constant or growing”, according to one of the authors of a study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Pigs are an important source of new human strains of influenza A, such as the 2009-10 H1N1 pandemic that emerged in Mexico and infected an estimated fifth of the world’s population.

Pigs can act as a “mixing vessel” in a process known as re-assortment, brewing new flu strains from swine, poultry and human viruses in areas where they live in close proximity.

Such new hybrids can be deadly – tens of millions of people died in flu pandemics in 1918, 1957 and 1968.

Luckily, the 2009 strain was about as lethal as the ordinary seasonal flu, though highly infectious.

China is currently in the grips of a deadly H7N9 bird flu virus that has killed 27 people since March, mainly in the country’s east – overlapping with the study area.

H7N9 has not been traced to pigs and has not been shown to jump from person to person, but is being closely watched for genetic changes that may make this possible.

An article in the science journal Nature last month highlighted that H7N9 seems to be circulating in areas of China that have large populations of pigs and humans “providing opportunities for further adaptation to mammals and for re-assortment with human- or pig-adapted viruses”.

For the new study, an international team of disease experts analysed data collected at an abattoir in Hong Kong over a 12-year period from 1998 to 2010, to learn more about the spread of flu among pigs.

Such information may be useful to prevent future pandemic jumps from animals to humans.

The team analysed the results of tests for virus infection at time of slaughter, as well as tests for antibodies which would indicate the pig had previously been infected and was now immune.

They observed a drop in positive virus tests by the time the pigs reached the abattoir but, worryingly, concluded this did not mean there was less infection.

“Instead, it reflects higher rates of influenza circulation on the farms where pigs are raised, so that they have already been infected [and so they’re immune] by the time they’re going to slaughter,” co-author James Lloyd-Smith of the University of California in Los Angeles said by e-mail.

The conclusion was derived from a corresponding rise in positive antibody tests.

“The prevalence of infection in swine has not decreased and so the risk of spillover to humans or birds is constant or growing,” added Lloyd-Smith.

China is a priority for flu surveillance given the high densities of humans, swine and fowl in the region, the team wrote.

“Currently, China produces and consumes almost 50 per cent of the world’s pork, requiring an enormous swine population.”

The authors stressed their findings did not mean that flu was more prevalent in pigs in China than in other countries for which data mostly did not exist.

The Chinese data was a rare example of long-term, systematic surveillance of influenza in swine, and should be commended, they said.

But important lessons can be extrapolated for application worldwide – mainly to boost surveillance.

A case in point – the team said elements of the H1N1 pandemic strain had been circulating undetected in swine for more than 10 years before the 2009 outbreak started in Mexico.

Keeping an eye on influenza spread among pigs could “help us to avoid such nasty surprises in the future”, said Lloyd-Smith.

Last week, a study in the journal Science showed it was possible for H1N1 to swap genes with H5N1 bird flu, which is deadly for humans but not transmissible from person to person, to create a hybrid that can spread in the air between mammals – in that case guinea pigs.

“Saudi Arabia has had 13 cases in a recent outbreak of a new strain of coronavirus that has emerged from the Gulf and spread as far as Britain and France, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday, and seven of those have died”.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/08/saudi-coronavirus-idUSL6N0DP1V720130508

France confirms first case of new SARS-related coronavirus

A 65-year-old Frenchman is hospitalized after contracting France's first case of a deadly new respiratory virus related to SARS, and French health authorities said Wednesday they are trying to find anyone who might have been in contact with him to prevent it from spreading.

CTV

8 May, 2013

It's unclear how or where the man was infected with the novel coronavirus, which has killed 18 people in four countries and raised new public health concerns since being identified last year in the Middle East. It can cause acute pneumonia and kidney failure.

The Frenchman fell ill after returning from a trip to the United Arab Emirates, the Health Ministry said. He has been under isolation and medical surveillance at a hospital in Douai in northern France since April 23, and is receiving respiratory assistance and blood transfusions, said Jean-Yves Grall, the government health director.

SARS: Memories of global health crisis still fresh in minds of key players

Paris' Pasteur Institute analyzed the man's virus and confirmed that it is a novel coronavirus, the ministry announced Wednesday.

Since September 2012, the World Health Organization has been informed of 30 confirmed cases of the virus, and 18 of the patients have died. Cases have been emerged in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the UAE, Qatar, Britain and Germany, and health officials have said the virus has likely already spread between people in some circumstances.

France's health minister, Marisol Touraine, said "this is an isolated case" in France but said authorities are "fully mobilized" to prevent it from spreading. Authorities are trying to reach anyone who was in contact with the patient before he was hospitalized, and a national hotline was established Wednesday for the public to call about the virus.

WHO has advised countries to test any people with unexplained pneumonia.

"Any virus that has the potential to develop into something that is highly transmissible between people, including the coronavirus, is a major concern," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said.

"We need to follow up on all possible routes of infection, i.e. animal to human, whether it's being spread in hospitals or from human-to-human," he said.

Health authorities are trying to determine how humans are contracting and spreading the virus and how best to treat it. It does not appear to be as contagious as SARS or the flu, but it has probably spread between people who had close contact. It seems to have spread among family members in Britain and in health workers in Jordan who were caring for patients, for example.

The new coronavirus is most closely related to a bat virus and scientists are considering whether bats or other animals like goats or camels are a possible source of infection.

"We still don't know the animal reservoir of this virus or the source of exposure," Hartl said. "We need a solid epidemiological investigation to nail down a common behaviour between patients...All we can tell people at the moment is they should be very vigilant about their basic hygiene practices."

He said it's unclear whether there is something specific in the environment in the Middle Eastern countries where cases have been confirmed.

Several cases have been reported in Saudi Arabia. In the most recent Saudi outbreak, the Health Ministry has said five people have died and at least five others are hospitalized with confirmed cases of the virus.

SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, killed some 800 people in a 2003 epidemic.

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