Is our demand for cheap food putting our health at risk? At least 12 major diseases, which between them cause millions of people to suffer and tens of thousands to die around the world, can be blamed on factory farming, they claim. These include swine flu, bird flu, salmonella, e-coli and mad cow disease. [News Source]

Virus hunter searches for next pandemic. While most virologists do their work in a lab, Nathan Wolfe travels to far-flung places — the jungles of Malaysia, the deserts of Saharan Africa — stalking potential pandemics before they hit. [News Source]

Adjuvanted swine flu vaccine bests unboosted shot. The first head-to-head study comparing swine flu vaccines in Britain found that children given a shot containing a booster, or adjuvant, had a stronger immune response than those receiving one without it. [News Source]

Swine flu hoax? Get real. Governments had asked the WHO to coordinate their response to flu pandemics, and the WHO did exactly that, triggering expensive government health measures and vaccine purchases. Critics now claim that it was a conspiracy to boost vaccine company profits. [News Source]

WHO faces questions over swine flu policy. As the 193 member states of the World Health Organization meet in Geneva, questions over the body's handling of the H1N1 swine flu pandemic are high on the agenda. [News Source]

Let there be life. Beyond doubt, the creation of synthetic life in a US laboratory, announced on Friday in the journal Science, has aroused awe, admiration – and antagonism – around the world. [News Source]

The good, the bad, and the volatile: Can we have both healthy pools and healthy people? Given the popularity of swimming for recreation and sport, it is remarkable that we are only in the early stages of understanding swimming pool chemistry, human exposure(s), and potential health risks. [News Source]

Expert panel examining WHO’s swine flu handling to review confidential contracts with industry. An expert panel investigating the World Health Organization's response to last year's swine flu outbreak said Wednesday it wants to see confidential exchanges between the U.N. body and drug companies. [News Source]

World was ‘lucky’ with H1N1. World Health Organisation chief Margaret Chan said on Monday that the world had been "lucky" with the swine flu pandemic last year after the virus failed to mutate to a more deadly form... [News Source]

Hog giant PSF passes smell test, but clock ticking. Hog processing giant Premium Standard Farms LLC spent $40 million over the last decade developing technology after a court ordered it to sharply reduce odors at its Missouri farms, but a looming deadline is threatening another costly lawsuit. [News Source]

Living in denial: Why sensible people reject the truth. Here's a hypothesis: denial is largely a product of the way normal people think. Most denialists are simply ordinary people doing what they believe is right. [News Source]

H1N1 post-mortem: $2-billion, 428 deaths – but they did the right thing. There have been 428 deaths in Canada due to influenza A/H1N1. The response cost more than $2-billion. In retrospect, it looks like a debacle: A massive amount of money spent on a minor threat. But hindsight is no way to judge a potential public health disaster. [News Source]