Danish Members of Parliament Outraged by Secret WHO Committee
Dimanche, 20 Décembre 2009 13:39
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Danish Members of Parliament Outraged by Secret WHO Committee
December 13 2009
For WHO to have a secret committee that is the de facto decision-maker concerning the swine flu is totally unacceptable. That is the view of the Danish People’s Party as well as the rest of the opposition parties. The Danish Minister of Health has said he will look into the case.
Written by Kristian Villesen, Louise Voller for the Danish daily newspaper Information.
“Completely unacceptable,” “crazy,” “very doubtful,” “completely grotesque,” and “very strange”. These are the responses from The Unity List, the Social Democrats, the Danish People’s Party, the Green Left and the conservative Minister of Health, Jakob Axel Nielsen, following the revelation that there is a secret committee inside the WHO, which advises the Director General on issues concerning the swine flu as published last Saturday by the Danish daily newspaper Information.
RIGHT IN THE CENTER
The secret committee plays a central role and the origin of the decision to declare the swine flu a pandemic – a decision which has generated tremendous financial gains for the pharmaceutical industry because many countries, among them Denmark, have signed contracts obliging them to buy vaccines from the industry in the event of a pandemic.
For that reason, transparency concerning the members of the committee is required, says Liselott Blixt, her party’s spokesperson on health issues.
“We support transparency. You have to be able to see what happens between the pharmaceutical industry and the decision makers. The industry is earning an incredible amount of money on this flu. That is why it is very alarming that, in principle, the members may be people, who are more concerned with earning money than benefiting the public,” says Liselott Blixt.
The minister of health, Jakob Axel Nielsen, agrees that the situation is problematic.
“It is a problem that there is no information about who the members of that committee are. I do not oppose the profession and industry talking together. We just have to know about it, and we don’t right now.”
POWER AND SAFETY
Per Clausen from The Unity List underlines the power of the committee.
“This is a committee which has played an active role in the declaration of a pandemic and which has generated an enormous sale for vaccines and Tamiflu. Every connection to the pharmaceutical industry must be unveiled,” says Per Clausen.
Jonas Dahl from Green Left finds the lack of transparency raises concerns for the Danish people.
”We must be able to have full confidence in the information coming from WHO. As a result, it is unacceptable for there to be a secret committee; that the Director General can apparentloy establish her own little private group to generate recommendations”, says Jonas Dahl.
The Social Democrat Sophie Hæstorp Andersen thinks that the committee is violating established democratic rules.
“I don’t know the traditions for public administration in countries around the world. But seen in a Danish context this is far out,” she says.
The political party Left is the only political party contacted by Information that does not critizise the secret committee.
”This is a matter I cannot relate to immediately – and particularly not on behalf of an article in a newspaper. First of all we have to dig a step further in order to make clear what is up and down in this matter,” says Birgitte Josefsen.
Both the Social Democrats, Green Left and The Unity List are to ask the minister of health questions about the secret committee.
The minister himself, Jakob Axel Nielsen, told Information he would raise the issue with WHO.
“This will have to be taken into consideration, when we come to evaluate everything that has happened concerning the swine flu,says Jakob Axel Nielsen.
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