WHO's growing clout, more political than health oriented.

[Guest guest]

WHO ponders the who question, not what and why By Andrew Jack Published: October 22 2006 19:06 | Last updated: October 22 2006 19:06 Midnight, 20 October 2008, Geneva: As reports show sharply rising numbers of patients dying from influenza in south-east Asia, the director-general of the World Health Organisation convenes a meeting to raise the pandemic alert to “phase 5”. Governments and companies brace themselves for a heavy economic and human cost as hospitals fill worldwide, travel restrictions are imposed, schools shut and businesses struggle. The scenario may be alarming but it is all too plausible – and the role the WHO would play in it is key. Driven in part by the awareness the organisation helped create that a pandemic could spread faster and with more severe consequences than ever before, the power of the WHO has grown from that of a

technical United Nations agency, little heeded beyond a narrow circle of health experts, to an institution that wields considerable power. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/7d87d88a-61f4-11db-af3e-0000779e2340.html After all, they (the pro-vaccine lobbyists) say to themselves, you can't make an omelette withoutbreaking eggs. But the eggs being broken are small, helpless, and innocent babies, while the omelette is being enjoyed by the pediatricians and vaccine manufacturers. - Harris L. Coulter, PhD

Get on board. You're invited to try the new Mail.