Pandemic conspiracies

From our medical correspondent :

This is more of a tale of misinformation and misdirection rather than direct conspiracy per se, but nonetheless it is information that may prove useful in understanding the way in which those in control can manipulate the rest of us. This story relates to the recent “Swine flu pandemic” and the government response to it. The 2009 pandemic was interesting for three key reasons. Firstly the strain of H1N1 virus that was widely reported as a global killer was in reality slightly less deadly than a standard flu virus. Secondly, stockpiles of vaccinations and the speed with which vaccination production was ramped up was surprisingly efficient and finally the way in which the virus was reported and tracked was unusual in that the media appeared to be given free rein, with limited government censorship of news reports. Whilst these are interesting features of the outbreak, what makes the interesting is the reasoning behind them.

They all stem from the same route cause. Since 2001 and the World Trade Centre attacks there has been widespread concern amongst intelligence analysts about the potential for terrorist attacks utilising “dirty” technology. This can take the form of chemical attacks, as seen in the Sarin nerve gas attacks on the Tokyo subway carried out by the Aum Shinrikyo group, Nuclear, utilising convention explosive devices laced with radioactive materials, and biological, for example the release of harmful bacterial or viral agents. The facility to use NBC attacks has been with us since the middle ages, and the technology has progressed alongside all technologies of destruction, through the mustard gas attacks of World War I to Saddam Husseins use of nerve agents against Kurdish townships throughout the 1980's and '90's. It is this later development that has been at the heart of fears about terrorist use of this technology.

It is well established that technology for NBC weapons is in the hands of potentially rogue states. Although it is clear that the claims of weapons of mass destruction as a reason for the invasion of Iraq were fundamentally flawed, we also know that Iraq was supplied with components and equipment to create both chemical and biological weapons. It is also clear that Russian stockpiles of nuclear material are subject to security breaches and that the spread of weaponised nuclear material through North Korea and Pakistan poses a high degree of risk of access outside national control. This fear has led to the development in most developed nations of counter-attack strategies and planning, including quarantine measures, preparations for military control of population movements, protection of key assets and so on.

The point is that having plans in place is a perfectly sound idea, but preparation for the after effects of an NBC based attack is difficult, if not impossible to test. A decision was taken in late 2005 jointly by Amercan, UK, French and German intelligence communities to carry out a large scale test of disaster preparedness. In order to achieve this a strain of H1N1 flu was engineered at jointly by Porton Down reaseach facility in the UK and the Centre for Disease Control in American. The strain was designed to be of lower severity than standard H1N1 strains, but still to be potentially lethal. In this it should be noted that this is further evidence that UK and US government agencies have few qualms about endangering their citizens in the interests of National security. It should also be noted that these activities were approved by all governments concerned.

Having developed a suitable strain of influenza virus it was released into the population at three strategic points in South America and South East Asia, and the spread was monitored. Media and news agencies were fed stories by Intelligence Services assets to create an impression of a far more serious disease outbreak than was the reality. Prior to release vaccinations has also been developed in collaboration with six of the largest pharmaceutical companies in preparation. This is the reason for the apparent rapid ability to upscale production. The feeding of stories to news agencies meant that Governments had no need to censor the media as the stories originated with the government in the first place. The panic caused allowed large scale testing of health resources, command and control facilities, resource management policies and public response to threat scenario testing, all of which provided valuable data for governments with regard to dealing with a genuine NBC attack.

It is debatable whether this comes under the remit of conspiracy theory, but it does demonstrate the disconnect between public reality and government reality, and highlights the willingness of governments to manipulate information and physically harm their citizenry.