In July of 2009, amid the national swine flu panic stoked by the CDC, I got two tips from insiders: the CDC had instructed hospitals and states to stop testing for swine flu! Doctors were to presume that any patients who came in with flu-like symptoms had swine flu, or H1N1, and treat them as such without testing them to confirm it.
How strange! both of my sources told me, separately. I had to agree. Why would the CDC not want to collect the best data possible during an outbreak that the agency implied could bring America to its knees? The CDC had already green lighted emergency development and approval of what could be a very lucrative swine flu vaccine.
The CDC’s official rationale for stopping tests was that swine flu had supposedly become so widespread, it was reasonable to save money on tests and just assume everyone who caught something that looked like any sort of flu had the H1N1 variety.
My sources were suspicious.
I remember the words of one of them—a government scientist. He told me, “CDC is either trying to inflate the number of swine flu cases or downplay the number. Your job is to figure out which it is.”
I was stunned by what I discovered. And a CBS News manager short-circuited the resulting story to keep it off of the Evening News.
Hellbound and Down 
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