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YESTERDAY, DURING LEADERS’ Questions in the Dáil, Independents4Change TD Clare Daly raised claims about a 14-year-old she said suffers from narcolepsy, and said that he had been denied documents under discovery by the HSE.
She said that the HSE had previously indicated that it would voluntarily disclose documents, but then went to the High Court last week to “obstruct this boy and people like who are seeking documents under discovery”.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny replied that he was unaware of the details of the case but promised that he would look into it as the matter “deserves immediate analysis”.
Suffering
Clare Daly detailed the experience of the 14-year-old narcolepsy sufferer and the difficulties she said he had experience since being diagnosed with the disease.
“He can fall asleep without warning and has done so,” she said. “He has smashed his teeth and broken his bones.
He experiences terrifying hallucinations in a state of sleep paralysis. He has to be given expensive anaesthetics so that he can get a few hours’ sleep. He has developed joint and muscle pain.
The condition limits “every aspect of his daily life” and it will continue to do so for the rest of his life, the TD for Dublin North said.
This “avoidable catastrophe” was caused by the swine flu vaccination Pandemrix, she said.
This boy and 80 others like him were affected, according to Daly.
In 2014, a link between the vaccine and narcolepsy was confirmed in Ireland.
HSE
Daly said that, despite the HSE saying it would voluntarily disclose documents, it and “the State Claims Agency went into the High Court last week unnoticed and undocumented to obstruct this boy and people like him who are seeking documents under discovery”.
She wants to know why the HSE decided to purchase Pandemrix even after she said “it knew it was dangerous and untested”.
Poland, Switzerland and the US did not give a licence to Pandemrix, but Ireland gave GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) full indemnity against its harmful side effects.
She asked the Taoiseach if the Minister for Health, in 2009, was made aware of the safety profile of this vaccine compared to others and why the “least safe vaccine” was chosen.
She also called on the Taoiseach to introduce a no-fault vaccine damage payment scheme.
“A serious matter”
Kenny said that this was a matter that deserved “immediate analysis” and he didn’t have answers for Daly at that moment, because he was not aware of the details of the case.
He said: “Deputy Daly said the situation was avoidable given the information that was available to the company. A court case is ongoing.”
The Taoiseach did say that a centre of excellence was in the process of being set up at St James’s Hospital, and that the programme for government included a commitment to examine supports for people harmed by vaccines.
He acknowledged that it was a serious matter and said he would work with Minister for Health Simon Harris to see that this case was followed up as soon as possible.
Daly added that the case was “one of the biggest public health scandals in recent years”.
She said knowledge on the dangers of these vaccines was known a decade ago, and that this case had been on the agenda as a priority in the Minister for Health’s first briefing a year ago.
She concluded by saying that the State Claims Agency would return to court on 23 May, and asked the Taoiseach to instruct it to bring forward the documentation to “assist people in their fight for justice”.
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Thank god we actually have some people worthy of representing us in the dail, people who actually want the best for irish people.
Massive kudos to Clare Daly on this, she goes to show that independents are the only TDs seemingly capable of providing opposition and questioning the corrupt state. Worth remembering when election time comes around.
@Revolting Peasant: xla
@Theunpopularpopulist:
Clare Daly?! A great politician?
Fair dues to her on this issue but as regarding her overall performance she seems to be aiming for the “free everything pay for nothing vote”.
kenny promised to look in to it. Yeah right, it was forgotten before the first pint was finished
@William Clay: Kenny usually drinks soft drinks in public. You wont see him in the Dail bar very often.
Once again we see the interests of big pharmacy being put before the rights & needs if the citizens of our country ,,, who serves who here ???? Are big pharmas here to benefit the people or are the people here to benefit big pharmas ????
@Peter Carroll: CTN alert.
Well done Clare for bringing this scandal up in the Dáil, it is a particularly disgusting state of affairs that GlaxoSmithKlien were given indemnity over this. It would be worth seeing the minutes of whatever meeting took place to arrange this, Harney should be on trial for child abuse and treason.
80 kids is only what are known about there may be more with lesser symptoms, there may be adults affected by this vaccine and what about the babies of the pregnant mothers who were encouraged to get vaccinated? We simply don’t know the full scope of the damage that was done by this multinational corporation
Corruption in HSE ? Never …..
@Willy Malone: …on a Sunday.
The rest of the week? All too possible.
As much as I dislike Daly, this one stank long before people started developing narcolepsy.
tip of the iceberg..I guess this is another one that will be ignored and brushed under the carpet
The injustices keeps coming and nothing being done by the FG. FF clowns.
Clare Daly and Mick Wallace are the only TDs that seem able to expose the endemic corruption this government is engaged in.
Fair play to them.
@Dave Doyle: Mick Wallace shouldn’t be allowed into the dail until he pays the state the €2 milllion he owes us. Think of how many nurses that would pay for?
@Theunpopularpopulist: less than one over a standard 30-year career.
@Dave Doyle: another CTN
If anybody is interested in finding out more about this scandal then this is a good starting place.
Plenty of reference links.
@Revolting Peasant: so are you claiming that firm of solicitors, not doctors or scientists, is not biased?
William, where do I claim anything? have you got your reading glasses on? if not go and get them, I’ll wait.
That post is to give a link for anyone interested in further reading on the subject. At the end of the report it supplies links to the references used for the report. Those references are from publications such as The Lancet, De Spiegel and the FT, so you can take your reading further if you so wish.
Now next time you want to jump in with a comment try and get it right.
@Revolting Peasant: you claim there’s a “scandal” and link us to a solicitor’s firm aka ambulance chasers and a few newspapers known for publishing scientifically illiterate nonsense like the IT. The Lancet article is concerned with the flu. So what? This is BS.
@William Grogan: If you don’t find it scandalous that GlaxoSmithKlein knowingly promoted the use of a vaccine that contained an accelerant proved to cause neurological damage, for a hyped pandemic, and that our government then granted indemnity without knowing the full scope of the damage that’s been caused, an indemnity costing thousands of euro using up precious state resources, that means the kids affected will only receive minimum redress and your only concern is that a solicitors firm has taken their case and written about it, then that’s fine you’re entitled to your opinion.
I have just developed a level of respect for Clare Daly after reading this…how dare governments put our children & others at risk…Clare has gone where others are afraid to go…question the Govt’ about tactics relating to vaccines…HPRA should be dragged in there to answer also…disgraceful.
If this young boy were in Egypt the government would send a doctor immediately to check on him.
Clare Daly and Mick Wallace make the rest of the TDs look like bewildered clowns.
It’s highly unlikely that this has anything to do with the vaccine. It won’t stop the ambulance chasers though.
Nobody ever seems to mention the crisis posed by the sudden outbreak of swine flu , or the 3189 cases and 22 deaths in Ireland that year.
That said, there does seem to be a proven link between this one vaccine and narcolepsy. Compensation would seem appropriate.
@Tom the Bomb: From what I understand the level of fatalities from this particular strain of flu was less than the usual strains that go around. Flu is a killer we shouldn’t loose sight of that.
@Tom the Bomb: no there isn’t and be very careful using the word proof.
Between the scandals in the gardai, and now the HSE/HPRA giving a master class in how to get your ass covered, I’m beginning to think that all public bodies should need investigating from the top down, from the taoseach to the ministers to the heads of each body and so on
have your say