Panicking over the WHO influenza pandemicWill the scandal about undeclared industry ties of experts who advised the World Health Organisation on pandemic influenza claim the scalp of the Director-General, Dr Margaret Chan? asks Melissa Sweet.
Influenza outbreak
No more deadly than your average non-swine flu
Fear can drive us to make hasty decisions that are not necessarily based on good and robust data. This is exactly what has happened with the swine flue outbreak, writes Professor Peter Collignon.
2009 influenza pandemic: assessing the fallout
Surveillance, control, treatment and prevention of influenza is a multi-billion dollar global industry. But it is built on surprisingly shaky foundations, writes Associate Professor Heath Kelly.
Over-the-top fear could spread Swine Flu faster
The inappropriate level of fear around Swine Flu may paradoxically help spread the virus more quickly, writes Peter Collignon.
GP: We’re unprepared for a pandemic
At an absolute minimum a truck should have arrived at every GP surgery in Australia today with a crate of emergency supplies. Nothing of the sort happened, writes a suburban GP.
What we should fear most is the fear of swine flu itself
Even pandemic flu is not plague, writes Dr Michael J Selgelid.
Howard’s flu inquiry will stay on the bit
John Howard knows better than any politician that governments should not set up inquiries when they do not know what they will find. His handling of the two Cole Commissions of inquiry proved that.
Valuable resources shouldn’t be devoted to sick horses
It is the tragedy of Australia when all we see in the media is talk about horses catching a cold, while our Indigenous people are living in circumstances that are third world conditions in a developed country, writes Ian Brown, President of Australian Lawyers Alliance.
