With the World Health Organisation (WHO) raising the pandemic alert to a level six and swine flu on the lips of many conspiracy theorists, the question has arisen: is swine flu a genetic mutation cooked up by a government defence department, or a natural evolution of existing flu strains?

Swine flu, like its cousin avian flu, has become a media darling, striking fear into the hearts of many. News bytes talk of a worldwide disaster taking millions of lives; something akin to the flu outbreak of 1918. Many conspiracy theorists fit this occurrence into their contention that corrupt governments, big business and the banking elite are hell bent on world domination and will use the onset of a possible worldwide pandemic (there are those who accuse the government of artificially creating the virus as a hybrid of several flu strains) to increase population control.

Are we in a situation where, aided and abetted by media scare tactics, we shall see, like post- 9/11, the public turn a blind eye as yet more civil and human rights are eroded? Some say the threat of this pandemic is intrinsic to the end game plans of the New World Order (NWO). They talk of manufactured viruses unleashed on an unsuspecting populace as the world elite reap the benefits. Seems like they are a nasty bunch, those NWO types.

The ultimate aim of this supposed scare tactic is, according to more widely known conspiracy theorists like Dr William Deagle, Alex Jones and David Icke, to cull population numbers and initiate martial law and perhaps divert the world’s attention elsewhere, as the door finally shuts on our free(ish) society.

There is lots of information on the internet about this horrific concept and should your interest be tweaked, have a look.

Money, money, money

This article, however, will look at perhaps the most likely reason that big business, governments and the media may have colluded to raise perceptions of the seriousness of avian flu and now swine flu, and that is profit.

NWO conspiracy theories, whilst certainly bearing further investigation, do sometimes distract us from the more down to earth abuses that are being committed every day by persons in positions of power and from the abuse of that power.

The flu epidemic scare may be as simple as the desire of Big Pharma to up profits on the sale of stockpiled drugs that appear, on the face of it, to hold little, if any, of the curative properties that are promised in the company literature. In fact, according to the manufacturers, if Tami flu is to be at all effective, it must be taken within 48 hours of infection, and even then the actual effect is dubious.

These days it seems that the line between politics and high ranking corporate officials is not blurred, it is nonexistent, and it can be disconcerting to see the same names in positions of power throughout the media, political, corporate circle. It should also be acknowledged that organisations like the WHO and the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are bedfellows with these big pharmaceutical companies. Maybe this is why, when looking at the reasons behind the current health scares, there is a big pile of cash smiling back.

Oseltamivir, the active ingredient in Tamiflu,® is recommended by the WHO and the CDC as the best form of defence against swine flu, but if the results mirror those experienced when treating avian flu during the scare of a few years ago, a scare incidentally that amounted to nothing more than a few random deaths; 257 worldwide in the last few years (normal flu kills 40.000 in the US alone yearly), we see governments worldwide who have put billions into the coffers of Big Pharma even when the evidence suggests Tamiflu® just does not work. WHO does point out that most people who have contracted the H1N1 virus have recovered without anti-viral treatment.

Stock prices for the company Roche which owns distribution rights for Tamiflu® and for Gilead which invented it, soared when avian flu and swine flu hit the headlines, Donald Rumsfeld is said to have personally made over five million dollars during the Avian Flu crisis and he was the chairman of the board at Gilead from 1997/2001. It is interesting that the US government, for whom Rumsfeld was the Defence secretary, brought 1,4 billion dollars worth of Tamiflu ®, which, it has been suggested by studies in Europe conducted during the avian scare, has no effect on this flu type and various others. WHO (also accused by the conspiracy theorist as being a vehicle for the NWO) begrudgingly agreed that Tamiflu® may be less effective than originally thought.

From whence it came

Are these scares man made and/ or are the viruses man made? These questions bear further investigation as it is nigh on impossible to trust the military industrial complex when profit is at stake. The first case of the 2009 swine flu was found to originate from a pig farm in Mexico, although in 1976 a swine flu pandemic scare also surfaced, but this time it originated from the US military Fort Dix installations. This scare prompted a mass vaccination program across the US , even though only one person died of the flu. Twenty five people died after having the vaccination and hundreds more developed the Guillain-Barre syndrome, for which the US government paid out millions in compensation. Guess who made lots of money though?

Towards the beginning of the recent swine flu outbreak, a report on the television news showed pictures of a healthy little boy who was supposed to be the first to contract the disease. “He lay in bed for three days with fever and then was fine,” said his father and, it is true to say, most people infected make a full recovery, so why all the hype?

Is the media hype of this issue and the subsequent push for mandatory vaccinations purely a means of creating profit for Big Pharma? Well I suppose it’s a better scenario than an artificially introduced virus for mass population culling, but only just.

Whether we go down the line of the conspiracymongers or merely have questions about the conduct of Big Pharma, we perhaps should ask ourselves why we as a public are so keen to lap up the news bytes of mass media as truth.

Dr Deagle is a little out there and seems a little too wrapped up in the religious/alien aspect of the conspiracy network, a bit like our friend Mr Icke, yet are we still naïve enough to believe what we are told by the media, government and big business?

Whilst history shows us that it is at times the occasion to take pandemics seriously, we must perhaps be circumspect and take the media’s offering of chicken and pork with a pinch of salt. Like all the issues we face today, from the loss of civil rights and the increase in society surveillance, to crimes against humanity perpetrated in the name of profit, perhaps we should start to question what we are told to believe, lest we walk headlong into the trap some say is already set, or let the current level of corruption so evident in our society continue.

It is healthy to have a good dose of scepticism these days so… Stay healthy.