Don't panic! Flu terror is a con

THE panic over swine flu has left a bad taste in my mouth. There’s too much hype, too much scare-mongering and, for me, it has all been overblown. Why would anyone overstate the prevalence of such an illness? The answer is clear. Some individuals and some organisations benefit from scaring the living daylights out of us. So who could those individuals and organisations be?

CAREFUL A woman wears a mask in London as the swine flu epidemic escalates CAREFUL: A woman wears a mask in London as the swine flu epidemic escalates

Well, let me see, the Government and drugs giants Roche Holdings and British-based GlaxoSmithKline sure do, while the public are just left to panic. I cannot help thinking the politicians and drug makers are taking us all for a ride. I simply do not believe swine flu is going to kill 65,000 of us as Government advisers predict. I do believe getting us all in a tizz about travelling on public transport and having us all obsess about how we can get hold of Tamiflu and being first on the list for the forthcoming vaccination is simply a magnificent distraction from the real issues of the day.

I am not usually one for conspiracy theories but what it is, if you really want to know, is one big con. It is only my opinion and I have no advice for pregnant women, who were last week sent into apoplectic fear following cruel and contradictory Government advice, but I suspect many of you out there are thinking along the same lines as me and someone needs to come out and say it.

‘America is not worried but then there are more than three years to go to the next election’

Think about it. There are two fabulous reasons why swine flu is being touted as a forthcoming Armageddon.

First, it is a great diversion from the debacle of MPs’ expenses, the recession and the abject failures of Gordon Brown’s tawdry excuse for a government. In times of panic we traditionally allow nanny, or nanny state, to take care of us, just as we do in times of joy. So creating panic and confusion is a clever political move from Brown’s point of view as it allows him a sliver of a chance of retaining his job come next summer’s general election; all hail the mighty, the munificent Brown who has saved us all from the dreaded clutches of swine flu.

Second, there’s Swiss group Roche (Tamiflu) and Glaxo (Relenza) the makers of swine flu vaccines. There’s no better way for pharmaceutical companies to get through the recession than to create a pandemic. The bigger the pandemic, the bigger the demand for their drugs and the bigger their profits.

I just wish I had bought Roche shares before the World Health Organisation panicked itself into declaring a global pandemic; they are up 25 per cent since swine flu fever first hit, while financial experts predict Glaxo will profit to the tune of ­£1billion from its swine flu drug sales.

The fact that the Government has announced it will indemnify Roche and Glaxo against prosecution in case the hastily produced vaccine causes nastier side- effects than expected does not exactly fill me with confidence. You will not catch me or my family rolling up our sleeves for a fast-tracked vaccination, not with girls falling ill left right and centre after the introduction of Cervarix, the HPV vaccine that many experts feel has not been given adequate testing.

And that’s not to mention the fact that we have already been here before. If you do not remember back to 1976 then let me remind you; panic broke out in America when the government predicted a swine flu epidemic after the death of one soldier.

Well, the epidemic never materialised but the fast- tracked vaccine that was injected into 46 million people resulted in litigation from those who suff­ered serious side-effects to the tune of £3.5billion. The vaccine was also blamed for 25 deaths. Two-thirds of the claimants suffered severe neurological damage and many were left paralysed for months, never fully recovering.

There is even a suggestion that the Government will shut all schools this autumn as that could reduce deaths by 45 per cent. What utter rot. I would not be surprised if the teachers are lobbying for that one themselves to get some extra time off. My son starts school in the autumn and if I’m forced to pay for expensive childcare to avoid taking months off work I am billing Brown and I urge you to do the same.

Even if you do get swine flu, all the real evidence suggests it will blow over in a few days unless you have underlying chronic health problems and in those circum­stances even a mild bout of traditional flu can kill you.

Any death is a tragedy and the families of those people who have died from swine flu will rightly want to know what the Government is doing to protect the vulnerable. Yet that is just the point isn’t it? The vast majority of the population is healthy and quite capable of recovering.

Look at it this way, since January swine flu has claimed 429 lives worldwide, regular flu has killed 13,000 in America alone. Are you still worried now?

There is also plenty of evidence to suggest swine flu is not the end of the world. The words “swine flu” are almost never heard on American television now that the initial predictions of worldwide calamity have proved false. Perhaps they have learned from past mistakes but it is telling that a country with a population five times as large as Britain, dozens more densely populated cities and bordering Mexico where it all began, is not worried, is not panicking. Then again there are more than three years to go to the next general election so no need for President Obama to create a panic.

Conspiracy theory? Maybe I’m wrong but I am more than confident that next spring the Government will be claiming its action beat swine flu and prevented a devastating loss of life; that that huge loss of life was never going to happen in the first place will be lost in the political spin.

Comments Unavailable

Sorry, we are unable to accept comments about this article at the moment. However, you will find some great articles which you can comment on right now in our Comment section.

Would you like to receive news notifications from Daily Express?