H1N1 influenza is the focus of Editor’s Choice in the BMJ, in which it is noted that “since last August, the consultation rates for flu-like illness have hardly budged above the baseline threshold. They’re now less than half that rate and falling. Even the most generous assessment couldn’t attribute this happy state of affairs to either the use of oseltamivir (Tamiflu®) or vaccination against swine flu.”

The topics highlighted by the journal’s deputy editor include:

• The latest in a series of letters in the BMJ looking at the downsides of distant diagnosis by algorithm.

• A call for analysis nationally of number of clinically significant diagnoses that were initially missed because of the too ready diagnosis of swine flu.

• European governments, including the UK trying to offload surplus stocks of swine flu vaccine.

• The search for scapegoats as the chairman of the health subcommittee of the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly calls for an investigation into the role of pharmaceutical companies in the current pandemic, and the revelation of undeclared competing interests (GSK links) of an adviser to WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts, which advises member states on vaccines.