The swine flu "helpline" and website only became live last week. But already thousands of courses of antiviral drugs have been "dispensed" according to tick-boxing of symptoms. Officials estimate that 100,000 more people caught the flu in the last week alone - although, out of probably several hundreds of thousands altogether, only 26 have died.

There was a long delay in the launch of this online/phone service. But it wasn't so as to ensure it was fully professional and the best possible substitute for seeing your doctor. On the contrary, it has been staffed by 1,500 workers without any medical qualifications, who were given just 6 hours training. They are probably temps, too - and who knows what they are paid by the private outfit which the government contracted to provide this new "service".

On the other hand, workers at NHS Direct, the 24-hr helpline which is professionally staffed, and who had to cope with flu enquiries up to now, are having their jobs cut, as we speak, by this same government!

Indeed, in a sense the way this flu "pandemic" has emerged and how it has been handled really shows how this system is entirely unfit for purpose. If there is truly such a threat from a flu pandemic, how come the WHO has not led the vaccine research and manufacture and supply of anti-virals - funded by all governments? Instead, rival drug companies were left to compete to supply the drugs and produce the vaccine. So pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline has just been able to announce profits up 12%! Roche and Sanofi-Aventis will soon follow!

What's more, while the "Tamiflu" everyone is getting may become less effective as the virus develops resistance, the (GKN) vaccine which Brown is buying, will only be available in October - when joint international, not-for-profit efforts could probably have made it much faster and for minimal cost!

Of course, the last thing we can expect from Brown's government is that it would challenge the drug companies' profiteering out of the flu pandemic. Not when it, itself, is actually cutting NHS services which could have provided direct, competent help - rather than expanding these services so that they can adequately meet what it claims could be a really critical situation by this autumn! Small wonder that new health minister Andy Burnham is asking the public not to get hysterical and overload the NHS! Because he has set the scene for just that.