Dr. Richard Schabas, Medical Officer of Health for Hastings and Prince Edward Counties in Ontario, says flu experts knew in July that H1N1 would hold little threat for Canadians this fall.
His suggestion to the media is that their proper role “is to remind health officials of their past pronouncements and to throw a blanket of scepticism over future pandemic fires.” And any hyperventilating coverage of an H1N1 “third wave” – predicted for the spring – would be a sham, Schabas says.
“They (health officials) sound like burnt-out surfers sitting on a beach, watching the waves go in and out and arguing the next one will be better.”
Read the original November 20, 2009 article by Joseph Hall, health reporter for the Toronto Star.