Op-Ed: Could Swine Flu be a money-making conspiracy?

Is the Swine Flu pandemic a sick conspiracy, allowing money to be made by a few pharmaceutical corporations while giving the World Health Organization an opportunity to save face?

Since the Swine Flu first broke out, conspiracy theories have swirled around the world almost as quickly as the virus itself has spread. While the world gears up to deal with the anticipated next round of the bug, rumours and theories are keeping pace with health experts. First there was the to-do about a virulent virus on the loose with health watchdogs, such as the Center for Disease Control in the United States, accused of suppressing the information or refusing to follow up on reports of outbreaks. Of course, the idea that the Swine Flu was deadly did not help matters. People were panicking after reports of heavy death tolls came out of Mexico earlier this year. There was a bit of an uproar when someone circulated the "story" claiming that the Swine Flu had arisen from a pig farm in the United States (or alternatively from a huge pig 'factory' farm in Mexico). Then there was the hubbub about the Swine Flu actually having been 'accidentally' released by scientists, which was bolstered by a true news story of a harmless variant of Swine Flu being accidentally released on a train in Europe. Interspersed with these real and imaginary events were the regular updates from the WHO, which left people, one the one hand, panicking over the alarm, and on the other hand, wondering what all the fuss was about. Ultimately, we wonder why a pandemic has been declared for a disease that is, so far, killing less people than "normal" flu viruses kill each flu season. (Note: The author does not mean to in any way detract from the fact that the Swine Flu has had serious consequences for vulnerable populations, as witnessed in Mexico and Manitoba, Canada.) The WHO's declaration of a pandemic has led to a new conspiracy theory that says an Austrian "investigative journalist" has filed criminal charges with the FBI against the WHO, the United Nations, the pharmaceutical companies Baxter and Novartis, as well as an unspecified number of "high ranking officials." There is also a new theory making the rounds that claims the pharmaceutical company, Baxter, filed patents for H1N1 vaccines in 2008, long before the outbreak of H1N1. There is also a concurrent theory that Baxter had "accidentally on-purpose" mixed avian flu virus H5N1 into vaccines intended for seasonal flu protection in Australia, but an honest employee discovered the dirty business, reporting the company and thus "saving" a lot of people. CORRECTION: Apparently there was a lab accident involving Baxter in Austria, which I have been able to confirm from one reliable news source (but have not been able to confirm with WHO as yet) Of course, reality sometimes helps to foster these wild theories. Case in point: pharmaceutical companies are already profiting from the H1N1 outbreak. When a corporation profits from someone's illness (and sometimes tragedy), the rest of us wonder what sort of ethics drive that business. I'm just as good at conspiracy theories as my neighbours, so I'd like to close with my own tongue-in-cheek conspiracy theory: the WHO wanted to regain its former world authority, which it has slowly lost because its continual predictions of a globally devastating flu outbreak just have not materialized!