Swine Flu Severity Questioned

World health officials exaggerated the severity of swine flu, leading to huge stockpiles of unused vaccines in a number of countries.

That's according to Time, which interviewed politicians and health executives in European countries who are trying to figure out what to do with millions of excess doses.

The panic leading up to the anticipated pandemic was a multibillion-dollar windfall for big drug companies like GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Novartis AG, and Sanofi-Aventis SA. But some countries are now negotiating with the companies to cancel part of their orders.

The U.S. distributed 160 million of 251 million doses purchased and hasn't made a decision on what to do with leftover vaccine. Germany, on the other hand, is trying to cut its 50-million-shot order in half because it bought too much supply. Officials in some countries blame the World Health Organization, which gives guidance on pandemics, for creating a scare about the seriousness of the threat.

The world health group "advised us falsely. They raised a false alarm," Wolfgang Wodarg, a former member of Germany's parliament, tells Time.

At a hearing today in Strasbourg, France, a top World Health Organization official told a panel representing European countries, that his agency's response to the virus wasn't perfect, Reuters reports. But in response to a question asking whether drug companies played a role in influencing the health agency, the organization's flu expert Keiji Fukuda said no way.

"Let me state clearly for the record. The influenza pandemic policies and responses recommended and taken by (the health agency) were not improperly influenced by the pharmaceutical industry," Fukuda said.