Assignment: Swine Flu: Panic or Pandemic

Published: May 20, 2010, 8:06 a.m.

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In June 2009 the head of the World Health Organisation declared swine flu a global pandemic. Governments around the world sprang into action and ordered millions of doses of vaccine. But in the event thousands, not millions died, and swine flu proved to be less dangerous than ordinary seasonal flu. So why did the WHO announce a pandemic and were they right to do so? Imogen Foulkes visits two countries in Europe, one of which ordered 90 million doses of vaccine and used just ten per cent of them, the other of which ordered none.

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