Can You Say Contrivance?

I will state up front that I've had continuing doubts about the projected seriousness of the H1N1 flu (Swine Flu). While government officials and the mainstream media have done their darnedest to whip up public hysteria, the number of deaths attributed to this "pandemic" have seemed minor in scale.

For instance, I know of no one in my area who has come down with the H1N1 flu. I've talked with folks who work at our local school and they know of no confirmed cases. I recently spoke to an area doctor and he told me the same thing. None of my relatives have caught it either and none of us took the vaccine.

This is not to suggest that no one anywhere has not died due to H1N1. But people succumb to the flu every year and a modest amount of fatalities does not equate to a pandemic.

Of course, I'm just an everyday bloke living in southwest Washington. What in the heck do I know? It seems, however, that people who DO know about such things are starting to become a tad bit suspicious about all the hype too. In fact, take a gander at an article I found in the Irish Times:

Was swine flu threat exaggerated?

WHEN IS A pandemic not a pandemic? That critical question will be debated next week by the Council of Europe in an investigation that is likely to have worldwide implications.

To date, the swine flu pandemic has killed more than 13,500 people worldwide. It is a significant number, but nowhere near some of the more ghastly estimates which surfaced when the H1N1 virus began in Mexico last June.

The figure contrasts with the 35,000 people who die in the US alone from common influenza every year.

There is now a growing feeling that the threat from swine flu was grossly exaggerated and billions were spent worldwide by governments stockpiling vaccines. There was talk of hundreds of thousands of deaths this winter, but, as the threat has receded, so has demand for the vaccine. To date in Ireland, almost 700,000 (one in six) of the population has been vaccinated even though the Government bought enough vaccines last summer to immunise 3.85 million people.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (Pace) represents 47 countries throughout Europe.

Unlike the European Parliament, it has no decision-making powers, but, as was demonstrated by its report into extraordinary rendition, it does have the power to make life uncomfortable for the powers that be.

The impetus for a public inquiry has come from the president of the Health Committee of the Council of Europe Dr Wolfgang Wodarg, a German doctor and epidemiologist. Dr Wodarg’s charges against the WHO could hardly be more serious. He has accused it of changing the definition of a pandemic from one that breaks out in several continents at once and has above-average morbidity to one where the spread of the disease is constant.

Dr Wodarg says that the WHO is unduly influenced by pharmaceutical companies and that the declaration of a pandemic hugely enriched the industry at the expense of taxpayers and governments.

He also said it was strange that two vaccines were initially needed, not one, and that the swine flu epidemic could have been tackled using modifications of existing viruses. “There are systematic questions to be put so that we don’t get cheated by those who make us panic,” he said...

I've recently read several articles which have reported that the drug companies who manufactured the vaccines have made a killing (pardon the pun). One company reports sales of the vaccine of over $1 billion in the 4th quarter alone.

This fact alone doesn't spell s-c-a-m, but it certainly makes a fellow wonder.