Pharma companies have been accused by a member of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly of creating a false pandemic with regards to the H1N1 virus or “swine flu”.

Wolfgang Wodarg, Chair of the Health Committee of the European Parliament, and other members of the Parliamentary Assembly have made a motion for a recommendation to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly that says member states should ask for “immediate” investigations into the consequences at national and European levels regarding “faked pandemics”.

The recommendation states: “In order to promote their patented drugs and vaccines against flu, pharmaceutical companies have influenced scientists and official agencies, responsible for public health standards, to alarm governments worldwide. They have made them squander tight healthcare resources for inefficient vaccine strategies and needlessly exposed millions of healthy people to the risk of unknown side-effects of insufficiently tested vaccines.”

Ouch. It’s a strong attack on pharma companies, particularly those involved in vaccine manufacture. According to the recommendation, the H1N5 campaign in 2005/2006 combined with the H1N1 campaign in 2009/2010 “seem to have caused a great deal of damage not only to some vaccinated patients and to public health budgets, but also to the credibility and accountability of important national health agencies.”

The issue is hammered even harder on Wodarg’s website, which includes an interview between Wodarg and Denmark’s Information newspaper. In the interview, Wodarg said: “In January, we will arrange an emergency debate about the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on the WHO, and 47 parliaments all over Europe are going to be informed. Following this, we will initiate an investigation and hearings involving those responsible for the pandemic emergency.”

The ultimate aim, according to the interview, is that: “none of the pharmaceutical companies under any circumstances must be allowed to make their influence felt on pandemic emergencies.”

The motion has not yet been discussed in the Assembly and commits only the members who have signed it. It will now be referred to committees for report and possibly to other committees for opinion.

As of 27 December 2009, the World Health Organization reported that H1N1 cases had occurred in more than 208 countries with at least 12220 deaths.