The month ahead

A postmortem on the pandemic that never was will feature highly on the agenda of the World Influenza Congress, held from 7th-9th December in Amsterdam. The annual meeting of scientists, public health officials and drug companies will examine whether 2009’s pandemic should have been declared at all, and whether “pre-pandemic mass vaccination” is the only way to save the world.

The annual World Health Report, published in November, will focus on the financing of health systems and offer a roadmap to universal coverage. It could prove painful reading for President Obama, whose healthcare reforms face an uncertain future after the midterms.

The government’s advisory council on the misuse of drugs seems to exhale controversy wherever it goes. Its current chair, Leslie Iversen—successor to the sacked David Nutt—keeps up this tradition with a talk on 14th December on whether cannabis is more of a medicine than a menace. Visit the British Pharmacological Society for more details.

It’s not often you get to chuck genius physicists out of a sinking balloon, but that’s the deal on offer at a debate at Foyles on Charing Cross Road on 24th November. Acclaimed biographer Graham Farmelo will act as spin doctor for Paul Dirac, who predicted antimatter, but expect some stiff basket-gripping from defenders of Stephen Hawking and Isaac Newton.

The Royal Institution’s ever-popular Christmas lectures are fully booked, but take your children to a preview on 25th November, at which Mark Miodownik explains why hamsters can survive falling out of planes and why elephants don’t dance (www.rigb.org).