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Last night CIDRAP News Editor Robert Roos and staff writer Lisa Schnirring put together a comprehensive look at the allegations currently being cast in the direction of the World Health Organization over its declaration of a pandemic, and supposed conflicts of interest of some of their advisors.
Yesterday a new report from the BMJ and Bureau of Investigative Journalism names three advisors to the WHO that had received fees, honorariums, or other funding the pharmaceutical industry.
This is a good overview of the situation, and includes statements about these allegations by CIDRAP’s director Michael Osterholm.
Highly recommended.
BMJ, European group criticize WHO pandemic actions
Robert Roos and Lisa Schnirring
Staff Writers
Jun 4, 2010 (CIDRAP News) – An article published by the British Medical Journal says three scientists who helped frame World Health Organization (WHO) guidance on pandemic influenza preparedness had consulted for pharmaceutical companies that stood to profit from the WHO guidance and that the WHO did not disclose the scientists' industry ties.
The lengthy report, published online yesterday, says the scientists had declared their industry connections in other publications, but the WHO did not reveal them in its guidance document, WHO Guidelines on the Use of Antivirals and Vaccines During an Influenza Pandemic, issued in 2004.
The report also raises other questions about the WHO's transparency and its management of potential conflicts of interest. In particular, it is critical of the WHO's refusal to reveal the names of the members of its Emergency Committee, which was set up to help guide the WHO response to the H1N1 pandemic, including when to change pandemic alert phases. The secrecy fuels conspiracy theories about issues such as the triggering of vaccine contracts, the article says.
