WARNINGS OF PANDEMICS

That this House believes that exaggerated claims of the dangers of pandemics may undermine the public's faith in warnings of future serious health emergencies; recalls the claims that severe acute respiratory syndrome would infect up to one in four of the population, avian influenza up to 750,000, bovine spongiform encephalopathy/Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease up to 136,000, and that swine influenza could result in 65,000 British deaths; notes that a maximum of 350 deaths have occurred, many of which involved patients with other health problems; concludes that the World Health Organisation (WHO) forecast and fear-mongering by the media greatly overstated the risk; and welcomes the investigation by the Council of Europe to ascertain whether the WHO's declaration was determined on objective epidemiological evidence or on pressure from the pharmaceutical lobby.