As former Prime Minister says infected blood scandal was ‘bad luck’ JASON EVANS strikes back, #Prime #Minister #infected #blood #scandal #bad #luck #JASON #EVANS #hits Welcome OLASMEDIA TV NEWSThis is what we have for you today:
Many people see Sir John Major as a ‘nice’ old PM, perhaps short of ideology and charisma, but a decent man who did his best.
On Monday, however, another side of Sir John emerged as he testified at the investigation into the 1970s and 1980s contaminated blood scandal, in a room full of victims and their families. It was the worst treatment disaster in NHS history.
It was a scandal that killed more than 2,000 innocent people, including my father, Jonathan Evans.
Yet Major told the investigation that what happened to these victims amounted to ‘incredible bad luck’.
It is understandable that his remark was greeted with the panting of shock of those in the room – me included. For it revealed not only shocking ignorance, but also breathtaking numbness.
‘Bad luck’?
suffering
Let me be clear: happiness has nothing to do with it.
The death and suffering of thousands of people was caused by negligence on the part of the state, which then refused to take responsibility, and failed to provide victims and their families with the compassion they need and the compensation they so deserve. desperately deserved.
Later, Major offered what he suggested as an excuse: ‘It was not meant to be offensive. . . what I meant was. . . by pure accident it was a random sample. ‘
There was nothing random about it. The deaths were the direct result of treatment given to 5,000 hemophilia detained long after the alarm about its potential dangers was sounded. Treatment that, far from improving patients’ quality of life, sentenced some to death and others with serious illnesses as they contracted Hepatitis C and HIV from infected blood products.
For three decades, patients and their families have been desperately struggling for answers. But politicians, government officials and health officials have repeatedly tried to dissuade us, fearing that debt recognition will result in costly compensation or damage to their careers.
Now, with the investigation – which began in 2018 – we finally have the chance to get answers. It is therefore devastating when a former Prime Minister dismisses decades of suffering as an ‘accident’.
This saga of incompetence, lies and cover-up began in the mid-1970s. Until then, hemophilia was treated with a blood clotting agent called cryoprecipitate, made from blood plasma. Like a regular blood transfusion, it relied on voluntary donations given by the NHS.
A letter written by the former prime minister warned that a sympathetic response to the victims of the infected blood products ‘could lead to an open-ended commitment of great proportions’.
But then came the new treatment, Factor VIII, using blood plasma collected from tens of thousands of donors. If only one donation was infected, it infected the entire batch.
In Britain, blood donors were, and still are, not allowed to be paid, but the plasma used for Factor VIII, manufactured in the US and other countries, was often paid for.
Plasma collectors set up centers in poor, ‘slip-drive’ places, and – as they paid cash for donations – lured drug users and * workers intravenously, who were more likely to carry viral infections. There have even been Pay-for-Plasma surgeries in US prisons where higher viral risk activity, such as unprotected * and needle sharing, was common and the incidence of HIV and Hepatitis C was high.
Since there was no screening of the blood collected from such sites, there was nothing to prevent infected supplies from entering the system.
Despite Britain being warned in early 1983 to withdraw the products from use by the UK’s most senior epidemiologist, Dr Spence Galbraith, Britain continued to buy them and give them to people like my father.
In mid-1983, hemophilia with AIDS began to be diagnosed in Britain, but research has shown evidence that some clinicians have suppressed this information and reduced the risks. Galbraith’s warnings were ignored and the state continued to import large quantities of lethal Factor VIII and continued to administer them.
At Treloar College, a school in Surrey for disabled children, hemophilia boys were given the new coagulation treatment without any warning of the high risk of contamination. Of the 89 boys treated at Treloar, less than a quarter live today.
Shockingly, there have often been long delays between a diagnosis of Hepatitis C or HIV and the terrible news passed on to patients, putting women and partners at risk.
That was the case with my father. Like all young couples on their wedding day, he and my mother were blissfully happy when they got married in 1984. At first, Dad’s hemophilia did not hold him back. His joints became stiff from time to time from internal bleeding, but he led an active life and worked as a carpenter.
A year later, he received the devastating news that he had HIV. It had been on his notes for six months then. Fortunately, my mother was not infected.
avoid
My last memory of him dates back to 1993. At the age of four, I was taken to see him while he was lying dying, when he was reduced to a skeleton. He died shortly afterwards.
Even before his death, my mother was fired from her job at a bakery because, as the manager said, they could not have someone handling food whose husband had AIDS.
My parents’ lives became hell. They received threatening phone calls and were avoided by neighbors.
Only much later did I learn the truth: that my father was the victim of grotesque incompetence, negligence and cover-up when doctors, government officials and eventually government ministers tried to reduce the link between Factor VIII and the number of hemophiliacs. infected with hepatitis C and AIDS.
A new treatment called Factor VIII used blood plasma collected from tens of thousands of donors, but if only one donation was infected, it contaminated the entire group. Pictured: John Major testifies at the Infected Blood investigation in London
By 1987, John Major was general secretary of the treasury. On Monday, a letter he wrote in November of that year was read to the inquiry. It warned that a sympathetic response to the victims of the contaminated blood products could ‘lead to an open-ended commitment of great proportions’.
“Can it not give rise to court action against the Government because of the implication of negligence?” he said.
‘Did the law firms give a view on the possible consequences of a sympathetic response? I do not feel we can afford to give such a response before the pros and cons have been carefully considered. ‘
devastate
It seems to me that these are the cool words of a politician who wants to save treasury costs and win himself political capital. What about those ruined lives: children shrunk to pockets full of bones, men like my father die in pain at the age of just 31? Are these just numbers on a spreadsheet?
What was more shocking than what Sir John said is what he did not say. Each witness is asked after testifying, “Is there anything you want to add?”
In this investigation, several officials took the opportunity to acknowledge responsibility or express sympathy.
But when asked, Sir John said, ‘No, I think that’s it.’ If he had made a sincere apology, it would not have changed anything, but it would have helped us all psychologically. Yet he did not apologize or express deep sympathy.
It was a kick in the teeth for people who had waited 30 years. All I can hope for is that the investigation delivers the answers, and compensation, so long delayed. But it will be no thanks to Sir John Major.
Jason Evans is the founder of Factor 8 (factor8scandal.uk), an advocacy organization for victims of the infected blood scandal and their families.
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