Why did the WHO change its definition of a pandemic in 2009?
Because it would be lucrative multi-billion dollar business opportunity for pharmaceutical companies, of course.
The Swine flu pandemic is an important part of the background to the COVID-19 pandemic. Important policy changes were made, including the “definition” of a “pandemic”.
This Express article from May 2020 discusses the change in the definition of a pandemic:
In the article, the previous definition of a pandemic is discussed as a “much higher than usual death rate” from a virus:
What happened to the old definition? The WHO removed “severity of illness” from the requirements of a pandemic and the “the old guidelines vanished from the WHO website”:
In a 2010 opinion article in ABC news, we learn more insights into why the WHO changed the definition of a pandemic in May 2009. As the article reads, “The change seems to have removed the requirement that a virus’s impact be severe, before a pandemic was declared.”
What were the reasons for the change? The article points out that “pharmaceutical companies had a strong vested interest in the declaration of a pandemic… specialists with financial links to the drug industry were intimately involved in WHO pre-pandemic planning.”
The article also states that, “a private view among elites that even if swine flu wasn’t so serious, it was a good test run… [it] has certainly proved lucrative to industry, but at what cost to the credibility of agencies supposed to be protecting public health, not promoting private wealth.”
The article cites the H1N1 Pandemic Parliamentary Assembly, which also points to the concern of the pharmaceutical industry influencing policy on pandemics:
A BMJ article also points to concerns about the conflicts of interest between the pharmaceutical industry and the WHO: