The following video (about 1 hour, 16 minutes) of a UC panel discussion is the first of three parts. Part 1 –embedded below — is focused on science, Part 2 on economics and Part 3 on foreign policy.

YouTube commenters — there are only three so far — range in knowledge from ignorant to uninformed, their consensus apparently being that all the panelists are “liars” intent on perpetrating  a hoax and subjecting Americans to forced vaccinations.

In fact, the panelists are all leading academic researchers, and yet not all of one mind. Professor Palese doesn’t believe the current H1N1 flu is a pandemic at all, but rather a fourth type of seasonal flu variant, whereas Professor Simonsen says that it has some of the most common markers of a pandemic flu virus, such as its disproportionate impact on children (unlike most seasonal flus).

It’s difficult for me to grasp the barren intellectual landscape of a mind that would imagine that a set of diverse academics — whose careers rest on their intellectual honesty and research integrity — would band together to form a conspiracy against the American people.

In any case, back to reality. Here’s Part 1: