Evidence map›Paper›PMID 21734768›Full record

ArticleBulletin of the World Health Organization2011

The elusive definition of pandemic influenza.

Peter Doshi

Open access · diamondAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
38citing papers in PubMed
7.8field-weighted citation impact, top 2% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

38 citing papers in PubMed, 189 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Review
  4. Observational
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. The end of the COVID-19 pandemic.European journal of clinical investigation · 2022
    Article
  11. A Pandemic Risk Perception Scale.Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis · 2022
    Review
  12. Review
  13. Observational
  14. Peritraumatic Distress during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Seoul, South Korea.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021
    Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Review
  18. The rise and evolution of COVID-19.International journal of women's dermatology · 2020
    Review
  19. Vaccine confidence: the keys to restoring trust.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2020
    Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.

Peter DoshiProgram in History, Anthropology, Science, Technology and Society, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue (E51-070), Cambridge, MA 02138, United States of America. pdoshi@post.harvard.edu
Massachusetts Institute of Technology · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

There has been considerable controversy over the past year, particularly in Europe, over whether the World Health Organization (WHO) changed its definition of pandemic influenza in 2009, after novel H1N1 influenza was identified. Some have argued that not only was the definition changed, but that it was done to pave the way for declaring a pandemic. Others claim that the definition was never changed and that this allegation is completely unfounded. Such polarized views have hampered our ability to draw important conclusions. This impasse, combined with concerns over potential conflicts of interest and doubts about the proportionality of the response to the H1N1 influenza outbreak, has undermined the public trust in health officials and our collective capacity to effectively respond to future disease threats. WHO did not change its definition of pandemic influenza for the simple reason that it has never formally defined pandemic influenza. While WHO has put forth many descriptions of pandemic influenza, it has never established a formal definition and the criteria for declaring a pandemic caused by the H1N1 virus derived from "pandemic phase" definitions, not from a definition of "pandemic influenza". The fact that despite ten years of pandemic preparedness activities no formal definition of pandemic influenza has been formulated reveals important underlying assumptions about the nature of this infectious disease. In particular, the limitations of "virus-centric" approaches merit further attention and should inform ongoing efforts to "learn lessons" that will guide the response to future outbreaks of novel infectious diseases.

Indexed as

PandemicsSemanticsHumansInfluenza A Virus, H1N1 SubtypeInfluenza, HumanWorld Health Organization

Identifiers

PMID21734768
PMCPMC3127275
OpenAlexW2150811397

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.