Chair seeks to tackle bias in WHO swine flu review

The head of an expert group brought in to review the World Health Organization's response to the swine flu outbreak said Wednesday that some members of the panel would inevitably be biased because of their close links to the global body or national governments.

Harvey Fineberg, president of the Institute of Medicine in Washington, said the 29-member panel will try to deal with this problem by exposing conflicts of interest and — where appropriate — recusing members from specific discussions.

Faced with persistent criticism over its handling of the pandemic, WHO convened the panel Monday with instructions to conduct a “credible and independent review” of how the global body and national authorities responded to the outbreak. Critics say many panelists are trusted WHO advisers and government employees who could end up whitewashing any failures.

“We are actually still in the process of identifying all the possible sources of bias,” Fineberg told reporters in Geneva. “This is a committee that is composed of a lot of individuals who have done a lot of things in public health.”

via The Associated Press: Chair seeks to tackle bias in WHO swine flu review.