tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
A LEADING public health expert fears lives could have been put at risk as a result of a Welsh MP “talking down” the dangers of the flu pandemic.
Dr Roland Salmon, director of Public Health Wales’ communicable disease surveillance centre, has called on Newport MP Paul Flynn to apologise for claiming authorities were “crying wolf” over last year’s swine flu outbreak.
But claims such attitudes may have contributed to a reduced vaccine take-up in a season that has already seen 12 flu deaths in Wales have met with a fierce response from the MP, who said he stood by his remarks “100%”.
As well as the 12 deaths directly attributed to flu, Assembly Government figures released this week revealed the virus had also been a contributory factor in a further 45 deaths since October.
Across the UK, 50 people have died from flu over the same period, including 45 who died from swine flu and five with another strain, flu type B. Most deaths are occurring in children and younger people.
In a furious response to Dr Salmon’s comments, Mr Flynn refused to apologise, saying: “I don’t know who he is but if he wants me to apologise I think that is just foolish.”
The left-wing Labour MP, who has tabled two motions in the House of Commons in a bid to expose “the pandemic that never really was”, said in January last year: “We have had four major scares throughout the world of potential mass-killer pandemics but they have been exaggerated.
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Read More http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/h...ry-wolf-remarks-91466-27953618/#ixzz1AY8uwM4A
Dr Roland Salmon, director of Public Health Wales’ communicable disease surveillance centre, has called on Newport MP Paul Flynn to apologise for claiming authorities were “crying wolf” over last year’s swine flu outbreak.
But claims such attitudes may have contributed to a reduced vaccine take-up in a season that has already seen 12 flu deaths in Wales have met with a fierce response from the MP, who said he stood by his remarks “100%”.
As well as the 12 deaths directly attributed to flu, Assembly Government figures released this week revealed the virus had also been a contributory factor in a further 45 deaths since October.
Across the UK, 50 people have died from flu over the same period, including 45 who died from swine flu and five with another strain, flu type B. Most deaths are occurring in children and younger people.
In a furious response to Dr Salmon’s comments, Mr Flynn refused to apologise, saying: “I don’t know who he is but if he wants me to apologise I think that is just foolish.”
The left-wing Labour MP, who has tabled two motions in the House of Commons in a bid to expose “the pandemic that never really was”, said in January last year: “We have had four major scares throughout the world of potential mass-killer pandemics but they have been exaggerated.
...
Read More http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/h...ry-wolf-remarks-91466-27953618/#ixzz1AY8uwM4A