We take issue with points made in your News story (Nature 465, 672–673; 2010) about our investigation into how the World Health Organization (WHO) handled conflicts of interest with the drug industry in planning for the H1N1 'swine' flu pandemic (D. Cohen and P. Carter Br. Med. J. 340, c2912; 2010).

You confuse the findings of our separate investigation with a report published on the same day by the Council of Europe.

You also claim it is untrue that vaccine contracts were triggered by declaration of the pandemic on 11 June 2009, and that some countries had already placed large orders for H1N1 vaccine and so could not have been influenced by the WHO Emergency Committee. In fact, the committee met three times before the pandemic was declared, and twice before the signing of the US contract you cite as conclusive evidence of our error.

The first meeting took place on 25 April 2009. The next day, the United States announced a public-health emergency and the creation of seed stock for an H1N1 vaccine (see http://go.nature.com/38QyBj).

The fact that some countries pre-empted the 11 June declaration by ordering vaccine is immaterial. On 14 May 2009, Alan Johnson, then UK health secretary, announced: “We have advance purchase agreements with manufacturers that will be activated if the World Health Organization moves to phase 6 — that is, if it declares a pandemic. We are still at phase 5 at the moment. However, we have always known that it might take four to six months before a matching vaccine becomes available, and more than a year before it can be manufactured in sufficient quantities for the entire population, given that international demand will be high.”

(For a more detailed response to your News story, see http://go.nature.com/agFBIb).