# 4050
No . . . this isn’t some wild conspiracy theory.
Last spring the British government dragged their feet in testing, and reporting H1H1 cases so as not to establish `community transmission’ in a second WHO region.
From this blog way back on May 29th of this year (New Scientist: The Invisible Pandemic)
The `useful fiction’ that community transmission of the H1N1 virus has yet to occur in Europe (or Asia, or Africa . . . .) has been bolstered by the relatively small number of positive H1N1 tests coming out of those regions.
Of course, by failing to demonstrate community transmission in another WHO region, the politically dicey decision to raise the pandemic alert level again can be postponed.
Much of what we knew at the time came from excellent reporting by the New Scientist magazine (Europe may be blind to swine flu cases and New swine flu cases point to invisible pandemic).
Alan Sipress, the Washington Post’s economics editor and the author of the book "The Fatal Strain: On the Trail of Avian Flu and the Coming Pandemic." has a detailed analysis of this cover-up in the current issue of Foreign Policy Magazine.
You’ll find another recent blog regarding Alan Sipress at Alan Sipress: Playing chicken with a nightmare flu.
A hat tip to DemFromCt, editor of The Flu Wiki, for this link.
The Great Flu Cover-up
How governments concealed the extent of the H1N1 pandemic and risking the outbreak of a virus that's even more deadly.
BY ALAN I. SIPRESS | NOVEMBER 17, 2009
As swine flu was spreading around the globe this spring, a senior disease specialist from the World Health Organization (WHO) held an urgent conference call with top British health officials. In the conversation this May, later described as "aggressive" by sources familiar with the discussion, the WHO official accused the British of concealing the extent of their country's swine-flu outbreak. Among those with swine-flu symptoms, Britain was only counting people who had traveled to places that, like Mexico, had already confirmed an outbreak of the virus, known to scientists as H1N1. Their method left much to be desired in a country where the virus was already spreading fast. Countless Britons fell sick and were intentionally left uncounted.
Governments, of course, have a long history of concealing outbreaks, and this year's flu pandemic, while the first of this particular century, was certainly not the first to be brushed under the rug. The consequences of cloaking swine flu weren't disastrous on this occasion, but the result will not always be so benign. In fact, at this very moment, another virus -- with the potential to be far more devastating -- is continuing to seed infections, frustrating efforts to root it out. That virus, H5N1, or avian flu, is a far more lethal strain. And you guessed it: front-line countries' records in candidly reporting the disease's spread don't bode well.
