Response of W.H.O. to Swine Flu Is Criticized

The NY Times ran an article on an independent study's findings regarding the W.H.O's response to the swine flu pandemic. The study was started in response to allegations the W.H.O used the swine flu pandemic to allow vaccine companies to profit largely. These allegations, that the W.H.O exaggerated the severity of the disease, had no supporting evidence as a result of this study. But more alarmingly, the study suggests that the W.H.O is unprepared to handle future pandemics, foreshadowing the deaths of millions of people if a pandemic is more lethal and severe.

The report cited a few public health techniques that actually inhibit a future response to a global pandemic. The article specifically criticizes the agency's "needlessly complex" definition of pandemic. The importance in defining a disease was highlighted during an in-class exercise. Improperly defining a disease based on its spread, rather than severity, can lead to unwarranted widespread panic in response to the disease. This fear makes the disease seem much worse than it really is. The report also references the agency's inefficiency at distributing vaccines to those who needed it. A reported 78 million doses of vaccine were wasted and did not reach its intended target populations. This is a fairly large waste in resources and shouldn't be allowed to happen.

Ultimately, the W.H.O needs to change its tactics in response to disease-spread. The conflict of interests of agency workers who also pursue vaccine research shouldn't be allowed to happen and this allows vaccine companies to exploit hapless, panic-stricken populations. This tactic is misleading for the general population and doesn't allow healthcare professionals to get an accurate measure for the severity of a disease. Given that a severity of a disease affects the definition and subsequent diagnosis and treatment, this is aspect of the W.H.O's response should be accurate. In addition, vaccine companies, and the W.H.O, need to improve both the development and delivery of drugs/vaccines. The article notes that vaccine companies use a time-consuming and out-of-date method for developing vaccines. As a result, too little vaccine would be produced during the onset of a severe pandemic, and the disease would subsequently spread quickly throughout the world. On top of this, the vaccine needs to actually get to the people in need. This means ensuring that a portion of vaccines are reserved for poorer countries whose populace is more likely to contract the disease. But also, agencies and government's need to communicate much better in order to efficiently distribute vaccines and drugs to the people. In doing this, we can much better manage the spread of future pandemics but also prevent the waste of resources.