Swine Flu Now Qualifies for Phase 5

... and yet, amazingly, the WHO has not yet raised the swine flu alert level to the phase for which it clearly qualifies (Phase 5). After all, hasn't this swine flu virus already achieved "human-to-human spread into at least two countries in one region?" (Mexico, the U.S. and Canada, by my counting, would qualify as three countries in one region.)

So why is the WHO not following its own well-defined guidelines for categorizing viral outbreaks?

SHOOT: Good article and good question.

clipped from www.naturalnews.com (NaturalNews) The World Health Organization has revised its pandemic alert scale this week, right in the midst of a swine flu outbreak. Under the new criteria, a Phase 4 rating indicates human-to-human spread of a virus, a Phase 5 rating indicates human-to-human spread of the virus into at least two countries in one region, and a Phase 6 rating indicates a global pandemic with widespread outbreaks. Interestingly, the WHO is quite aware that swine flu has now spread to Mexico, the United States and Canada, as is evidenced by this statement on their website: The Committee considered available data on confirmed outbreaks of A/H1N1 swine influenza in the United States of America, Mexico, and Canada. The Committee also considered reports of possible spread to additional countries... (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news...)

Naturalnews.com: Given the behavior of Swine Flu so far, the response of world health authorities to this outbreak seems suspiciously apathetic. I've studied all the major pandemic outbreaks since 1918, and I've never read about a new, highly-contagious influenza virus appearing almost overnight in eight different countries. That fact alone should be alarming to anyone familiar with infectious disease agents.