Conflict-of-Interest.net

There’s been a lot of rumbling over the last few months about possible COI on the part of the WHO in their handling of the recent H1N1 “pandemic”. Specifically, concern has been raised that the some of the senior scientists involved in the development of the WHO pandemic guidelines were influenced by the pharmaceutical industry. This issue came to a head with a recent June BMJ editorial “WHO and the pandemic flu ‘conspiracies‘”. Of particular concern is that the WHO did not disclose the COI of the key authors involved in preparing the pandemic guidelines, even though these interests where disclosed to the WHO by the authors.

See also the  following news stories:

• Journal says WHO flu advisers had conflict of interest
• Medical journal raps WHO’s handling of swine flu
• WHO Scientists Received Funds From H1N1 Drug Companies

And the WHO’s response to the BMJ editorial:

• Top UN health official refutes conflict of interest claims in handling of H1N1 pandemic
• WHO hits back over H1N1 conflict of interest claims