Professor Neil Ferguson has history of over-inflating the threat level of disease and viruses. Most strikingly, in 2005, he predicted that up to 200 million people could die from the Bird Flu epidemic in South-East Asia. In the end, only 282 people died worldwide of the disease between 2003-2009. In 2010, Professor Ferguson was revelled to have close ties with the pharmaceutical industry who made £5-8 billion from 2009 vaccine profits alone.