It’s like a scene from a summer blockbuster movie. In a grim moment, one official reports to another official that the (fill in the blank: monster, robot, alien, force of nature) is “unstoppable.”

That’s the word that World Health Organization officials recently used to describe the H1N1 virus. Unstoppable. And with that, the WHO and the CDC have officially started their joint campaign to ratchet up the H1N1 fear factor in earnest – preparing everyone for the moment when we’ll be called on to line up and get our H1N1 shots.

Reuters lent a hand with the fear mongering by tossing up a scary number: “The CDC estimates at least a million people are infected in the United States.”

And that’s true. That’s their estimate. But Reuters doesn’t mention that confirmed cases of H1N1 in the U.S. number less than 28,000. So where did those other 972,000 cases come from? Math! As I noted in a previous e-Alert, a CDC official used “mathematical modeling” to produce an estimate of over one million.

We used to call that “creative accounting.”

The Reuters article primarily focuses on the burning need to produce millions of H1N1 vaccine doses:

    * WHO officials give “full go ahead” to manufacture H1N1 vaccines.

    * Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny – WHO director of the Initiative for Vaccine Research: “All countries need access to vaccine.”

    * Dr. Kieny: “Healthcare workers should be immunized in all countries.”

    * Most at risk: younger people, healthy adults, and the severely obese.

But in 18 paragraphs, the Reuters article doesn’t once mention that that the H1N1 vaccine is, so far, completely untested for efficacy or safety. And that’s exactly the scenario the WHO and the CDC would like everyone to follow: Fear H1N1 (Unstoppable! Kills the healthy!), but don’t worry your pretty little head about the vaccine.

In 1976, about 46 million Americans received a vaccine for a virus that was also called “swine flu.” Within three years, thousands of people were suing the government, claiming the vaccine prompted neurological damage. About 300 of those cases ended in death.

I predict Reuters and other major news outlets aren’t going to pay much attention to the lessons of the ‘76 fiasco as we all sit back and watch the WHO/CDC summer blockbuster: “Pandemic Pandemonium”

It’s unstoppable!

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