The article by Nicoll et al. [1] claims that learning lessons from the 2009 swine-flu pandemic means placing infectious diseases in proper perspective. We do not find a single proof for that. Moreover, the article misinterprets our paper [2]. The authors [1] agree that ‘‘sound infectious disease epidemiology must be applied to the surveillance of influenza epidemics’’ and that ‘‘data currently provided by the Global Influenza Surveillance Network are insufficient.’’ However, they do not respond to the cited work by Jefferson [3] that ‘‘the data on the seasonal influenza are similarly weak and the estimates of disease frequency, mortality, and case fatality are vague. Consequently, the effectiveness of seasonal influenza vaccination campaigns and of antiviral medications is more than questionable [3]’’. WHO’s changing of the definition or description of a pandemic in May 2009, removing the phrase ‘‘enormous numbers of deaths and illnesses’’ from WHO’s website, is not a myth [1] but has been documented [4]. To imply the invention of a new myth by proposing that the improvement of social conditions prevents epidemics of non-communicable (NCD) and communicable diseases (CD) alike, is remarkable, but contradicts the literature [5, 6, 7]. Tuberculosis is an example; although no effective drug or vaccination against tuberculosis was available in the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century, this major scourge declined dramatically with the improvement of social conditions. Life expectancy ‘‘in the record holding countries’’ increased linearly from 1840 to 2000 by 40 years, i.e. 2.5 years per decade [8]. The life expectancy increase of 20 years from 1840 to 1920 cannot be linked to the invention of effective drugs or vaccinations but to the improvements in social conditions such as income, housing, working conditions, nutrition, education and sanitation. Nowhere did we criticise ‘‘the modern public health approach to tuberculosis control such as case finding and ensuring completion of proper antimicrobial treatment’’; nowhere did we question the present strategies of public health bodies to combat tuberculosis or vaccinations against diseases such as measles, mumps, whooping cough, etc. The attempt to label us vaccination opponents is unfounded. On the other hand, side effects of vaccinations must be monitored and investigated: Why do the authors not mention two epidemiological studies from Sweden and Finland indicating a fourto nine-fold increased risk of narcolepsy in children vaccinated with adjuvant containing Pandemrix as compared to unvaccinated children [9]. Deaths associated with Pandemrix vaccination have been reported from Sweden [10]. The willingness of the public to accept influenza vaccination depends primarily on the credibility, quality, and independence of advising institutions [11, 12]. Fear-mongering such as performed by industry-dependent marketing U. Keil (&) Institute of Epidemiology and Social Medicine, University of Munster, Domagkstrasse 3, 48149 Munster, Germany e-mail: keilu@uni-muenster.de