Two news items caught my ear listening to BBC Radio 4′s Today show, this morning.

The first is that the advice given by the World Health Organization in 1990 on eating five portions of fresh fruit and vegetables to prevent cancer and other chronic diseases does not bear up to close scrutiny as a new study of half a million people has found that getting your five a day has little effect on cancer risk.

The second item was mention that the UK government has struck a deal with pharma giant GlaxoSmithkline regarding the tens of millions of unused H1N1 (swine flu) vaccines. Once again, it was the World Health Organization that recommended everybody be innoculated against this disease to prevent the spread of potentially the worst viral pandemic ever. Well, H1N1 turned out not to be quite so lethal nor so virulent as the WHO suggested and might be added to the list of other medical emergencies that were controlled or otherwise fizzled out in recent years, SARS, BSE, avian influenza etc.

Medicine is a complex issue. Looking after the health of billions of people is no simple matter. But, given that artificial intelligence (but not towel-folding robots) may actually be hundreds of years off (a third item on Today), we might safely assume that we shall have yet more episodes that turn out to be crying wolf in the years to come. However, when Canis lupus really is baying for blood at our doors we will not doubt turn to the WHO experts for help once again.