David Bell

The rapidly-growing pandemic preparedness industry is dominating global public health and proving increasingly lucrative. To support this agenda, numerous white papers are emerging, sponsored by such institutions as the World Bank, G7, G20 and World Health Organization that insist that pandemics are increasing in frequency and impact. A glance at global burden of disease statistics, or a few moments of common sense, show that this is not true. This presents an awkward problem that is being handled by simply ignoring evidence and context, and repeating the increasing- pandemic-risk mantra as frequently as possible.