Open letter to UK Secretary of State for Health & Social Care

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● NOTES TO THE EDITOR

PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release
30 April 2020

Open letter to UK Secretary of State for Health & Social Care Doctors and health campaigners call on UK government to maintain transparency around Covid-19 vaccines

Two organisations at the forefront of integrative, environmental and ecological medicine yesterday sent an open letter to Matt Hancock, the UK Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. As the government gets ever more involved in the development and future roll-out of Covid-19 vaccines, it is being asked to consider a new narrative around vaccines – one based on transparency.

The Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) International and the British Society for Ecological Medicine (BSEM) argue that it is imperative that citizens and independent scientists are given access to the information needed to independently weigh up the safety and effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines that are currently under intense development.

Executive and scientific director of ANH, Robert Verkerk PhD, co-author of the letter to Matt Hancock said today, “The narrative around vaccines must change for the benefit of everyone. We’re being told repeatedly that restrictions won’t be fully relaxed until a vaccine is available. The public has a right to know what to expect.

Verkerk continued, “It’s imperative that we don’t find ourselves in the same place as after the last pandemic vaccine, Pandemrix, was released on the public, when important data on side effects was withheld leading to unnecessary and serious injury.”

The two organisations are requesting that transparency is maintained across 10 discrete areas. These include:

Dissemination of full results from trials in the public domain,
Provision of raw data to independent researchers,
Disclosure of the details of the platforms being used and the extent of their previous use,
Full reporting of all adverse events,
Clarification of eligibility and criteria for no-fault vaccine injury payments,
Details of any government indemnity of manufacturers,
The extent of naturally acquired immunity in the population, and,
The need to involve Parliament should mandatory vaccination be contemplated.

Recent history of vaccines targeting HPV and ‘swine flu’ reveals that vaccine makers and health authorities withheld information that prevented the public from being able to give properly informed consent to vaccination. No-fault vaccine injury payments have been issued to the few who have had the resources and tenacity to fight for their severely disabled loved ones in court, yet much of this has never made the news. Verkerk added, “Contrary to the impression sometimes given, developing a safe and effective vaccine is far from a straight forward process. Vaccines for respiratory viruses have been particularly challenging, and the data emerging from trials are unlikely to be black and white.”

Dr Damien Downing, president of the BSEM and co-signatory to the letter remarked, “The BMJ and others have been pushing the pharmaceutical industry and licensing authorities to be transparent on adverse effects. But vaccines are used so widely, generally on healthy people, that there is a grave lack of informed consent.

“Why are vaccine manufacturers commonly indemnified by governments against liability if they carry no risk?” asks Dr Downing, “For society’s sake,” he continued, “we have to get this right. We can’t afford another tragedy as occurred with Pandemrix and the HPV vaccines Cervarix and Gardasil.”

The ANH and BSEM have offered to have discussions about their proposal for vaccine transparency with the Department of Health and Social Care and await a response.

ENDS.

CONTACT

For more information, please email ANH executive coordinator, Meleni Aldridge, at [email protected] or telephone +44 (0)1483 362212.

Address: Alliance for Natural Health International, Old Station House,
78 Dorking Road, Chilworth, Surrey GU4 8NS, United Kingdom