The Fourth IHR Review Committee meeting convened 28-30 March 2011 in Geneva. The meeting considered a preview document prepared by the Review Committee on the Functioning of the International Health Regulations (2005) in Relation to Pandemic (H1N1) 2009.  Meeting materials include:

– Agenda of the meeting  pdf, 19kb

– Preview Report of the Review Committee  pdf, 924kb

– Note from the Chairman of the Review Committee  pdf, 15kb

WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan responded to the preliminary assessment of WHO’s handling of the influenza pandemic in remarks delivered at the fourth meeting of the Review Committee of the International Health Regulations on 28 March 2011.

[Excerpt]

“…For me, personally, as head of this agency, the assessment of the pandemic response needed to address two absolutely critical questions and to give everyone a firm answer.

First, did WHO make the right call? Was this a real pandemic or not?

Second, were WHO decisions, advice, and actions shaped in any way by ties with the pharmaceutical industry?

In other words, did WHO declare a fake pandemic in order to line the pockets of industry?

The document exonerates WHO on both counts.

Had the Committee identified shortcomings in either of these two areas, such findings would have raised grave questions about the Organization’s neutrality, technical credibility, and integrity.

At no point does the report question the decision to declare a pandemic. As noted, evidence from early outbreaks led many experts at WHO and elsewhere to anticipate a potentially more severe pandemic than subsequently occurred.

As also noted, WHO did not rush to declare a pandemic, but did so only when fully satisfied that all criteria for doing so had been met.

As stated, “no critic of WHO has produced any direct evidence of commercial influence on decision-making.” The Committee found “no evidence of attempted or actual influence by commercial interests on advice given to or decisions made by WHO.”

The report suggests that WHO responded with insufficient vigour to criticism that questioned its integrity. It is in this spirit that I am responding, hopefully with sufficient vigour, on these two specific points.

Ladies and gentlemen,

As the document clearly states: “The world is ill-prepared to respond to a severe influenza pandemic or to any similarly global, sustained and threatening public health emergency…”

http://www.who.int/dg/speeches/2011/ihr_review_20110328/en/index.html