Michael Fumento

Here's what we were warned of...

...and here's what we got.

Flu season has just ended, and if you’re reading this you’re most likely still alive. But don’t buy that t-shirt just yet, the one proudly proclaiming “Survivor: Great Swine Flu Pandemic.” Here are some phony flu fast facts you should know.

• “Plausible scenario” of swine flu deaths in report from President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) report: 30,000 -90,000.
• Flu book author John Barry prediction of U.S. swine flu deaths: 89,000 - 207,000.
• Number of swine flu “national emergencies” called by Obama Administration: 2.
• Number of flu deaths in average season: 36,000.
• Official estimate of flu deaths that actually occurred this season: 12,500.
• Countries with estimated flu deaths per capita that make even that 12,500 appear to be too high: France, Japan, Great Britain, others.)

Yet all along the evidence was that swine flu was remarkably mild.

• New York City data from spring: Seasonal flu is 10 to 40 times deadlier than swine flu.
• How long the H1N1 virus, of which swine flu is a variety, has been circulating and providing partial immunity: Since 1977.
• Date of this writer’s first article labeling swine flu an hysteria: May 1, 2009.

Health authorities say the swine flu vaccine made a difference, but:

• Date swine flu peaked in U.S.: Mid-October.
• Date swine flu vaccine became broadly available in U.S.: Late October.
• Countries with incredibly mild flu seasons that had no vaccine: Australia, New Zealand, others.
• Amount of U.S. swine flu vaccine headed for landfills: 71 million doses.

Health authorities terrified parents, telling them swine flu was cutting a swathe through our youth, in an effort to get them to vaccinate their kids with vaccine that wasn’t even available. But:

• Percentage of U.S. childhood deaths caused by swine flu: 0.63 percent.

Worldwide, it was the same nonsense.

• Potential worldwide swine flu death estimate published in Washington Post Opinions section: 9 million.
• World death tolls in previous (that is, real) flu pandemics: 1 million (1968-69), 2 million (1957-58), 50 million (“Spanish flu” of 1918-19).
• World Health Organization (WHO) estimate of annual seasonal flu deaths: 250,000 - 500,000.
• Actual WHO confirmed swine flu deaths: 18,036. (Though clearly a major undercount.)

So how could swine flu possibly qualify as a “pandemic?” It didn’t! The WHO rewrote the definition after the initial outbreak. It desperately wanted a pandemic so it made one. The evidence is all over the WHO’s own Web site. But with people catching on to the hoax, the WHO is boldly claiming it was never changed!

• WHO definition of “pandemic” during initial swine flu outbreak: “enormous numbers of deaths and illness.”
• New WHO definition written to qualify swine flu as a pandemic: Severity eliminated as factor; now possible to have a pandemic with zero deaths.
• Among reasons WHO Secretary-General Margaret Chan publicly declared swine flu should be exploited: To fight for “changes in the functioning of the global economy,” and “distribute wealth on the basis of” values “like community, solidarity, equity and social justice.”
• Minimum number of occasions the WHO has denied it changed the definition: 3.

Top health officials warned us swine flu could become another Spanish flu, which extrapolated to current populations would men 175 million deaths globally and 2 million Americans. Yet:

• Number of worldwide swine flu deaths when both WHO and UN first made Spanish flu comparison: 8.
• Sole reason given by both agencies for comparison: Both began as mild. (Seriously!)
• Number of years of medical advances since Spanish flu: 91.
• Specific medical advances since Spanish flu: Flu vaccines, antivirals, pneumonia vaccines, antibiotics, others.

Not incidentally, the WHO also compared avian flu and SARs to Spanish flu and exaggerated worldwide HIV infections by 12-fold. But now that that the allegedly raging razorback has proved to be a pork cutlet:

• Date WHO declared end to pandemic: It hasn’t.
• Increase in WHO budget resulting from panic mongering: As yet undetermined, but no doubt huge.
• Number of health officials who have apologized for hyping swine flu: What are you smoking?
• Number of major U.S. news outlets that have apologized for hyping swine flu: Whatever it is, stop smoking it.

And finally:

• Number of people who, because of repeated cries of “Wolf!” will ignore warnings if there’s real health emergency: Anybody’s guess.