MMR |

Tag: MMR

11 April 2016

Scrutiny is not working in Wales

During the last five years, Cymru Sofren/Sovereign Wales has been petitioning the Welsh Government on various important matters and also asking the scrutinising bodies in Wales to investigate official complaints. It has sadly become obvious that scrutiny in Wales simply isn’t working. It is failing all the citizens of Wales.

The following are ten official complaints jointly presented by Cymru Sofren/Sovereign Wales and Hawliau/The Welsh National Rights Movement, to the relevant bodies in Wales over the last six months. The complaints deal with the various aspects affecting all our lives in Wales and also with the lack of effective scrutiny of the Welsh Government and our public funded bodies in general..

The scrutinising bodies that these were sent to are The Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, the Wales Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee.

All three scrutinising bodies have refused to look into these complaints citing various reasons which themselves do not stand up to scrutiny. Even when it has been stressed over and over that many issues dealt with in the complaints are issues affecting the health and well being of people and children in Wales, still the public bodies have declined to investigate the complaints.

The role of both the Public Accounts Committee and Wales Audit Office is to ensure that proper and thorough scrutiny is given to Welsh Government and public expenditure as fully explained in the Welsh Assembly’s Standing Orders, Chapter 18. Most if not all of the mentioned complaints concern Welsh Government and public expenditure in one form or another. Both the Public Accounts Committee and Wales Audit Office have refused to look further in to these official complaints.

The Public Services Ombudsman for Wales’ role is to consider complaints about public bodies. This they have also refused to do, citing contradictory reasons and constantly being evasive and moving the goalposts when asked to explain their reasons for refusing to investigate the complaints. There are no other obvious official bodies in Wales that can be approached to ask to investigate these serious matters.

Details of all of these complaints have also been sent to every single Welsh Assembly Member with a letter asking them to look into these important matters as our political representatives and as public servants answerable to us, the people. No member has yet replied, responded or taken up any of these complaints themselves.

All the original petitions from Sovereign Wales going back to 2012 can also be found on the Welsh Assembly petitions site which can be found by searching in the search box:

http://www.assembly.wales/en/gethome/e-petitions/Pages/e-petitions.aspx

Alternatively you can follow each individual link/s seen with these complaints.

As two Welsh campaigning/lobbying organisations, we are seriously concerned about the failure of these appointed bodies to investigate these complaints and take appropriate action where needed after being urged to do so for the sake of accountability and transparency. These factors are crucial for effective, healthy Welsh democracy and governance.

Our Welsh representatives are also supposed to be holding the Welsh government to account but they are failing to do this as can be seen by the failure to tackle the important issues seen in theses complaints. This leads to crucial issues being skirted around, contained or ignored. This also leads to the alienation and ultimately the endangering of the Welsh citizens whom they have been entrusted to protect and speak up for.

Our politicians, scrutinising bodies and press have a duty of care as well as a moral duty to address these complaints and to take appropriate action against the Welsh Government and the relevant public bodies where necessary. However this isn’t happening.

It would therefore have to be surmised that scrutiny in Wales simply isn’t working and therefore urgently needs to be thoroughly rebooted with a root and branch overhaul.

It’s worth reminding ourselves of a famous quote by Welsh American Thomas Jefferson, the founding father of the American republic and principal author of the declaration of independence, who made famous the quote:

“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”

The following paragraphs are a synopsis of the ten complaints which have been sent to the Public Ombudsman for Wales, the Public Accounts Committee and the Wales Audit Office.

For more details please look at the supporting information, correspondence, evidence and research to be found with each specific complaint. The history of all the relevant official correspondence between Cymru Sofren/Sovereign Wales, the petition panel and respective Welsh Government Ministers can be followed via the links to the Welsh assembly petition site for each specific petition referred to in the complaints.

Public Ombudsam Services for Wales, Nick Bennet

Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, Nick Bennet

1. A request for the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, Public Accounts Committee and Wales Audit Office to hold a full investigation in to why the Welsh Government has failed in its duty of care to ban the growing and selling of all GMO seeds, foods, animal/fish feeds in Wales because of their inherent dangers to health including cancer risks. As seen in countless peer-reviewed papers as outlined by GM Free Cymru here: http://www.gmfreecymru.org.uk/crucial.html See a link to the petition and all official correspondence on the petition site here.

2. A request for the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, Public Accounts Committee and Wales Audit Office to hold a full investigation in to why the Welsh Government has failed in its duty of care to not go ahead with the proposed draconian compulsory microchipping of dogs which, as admitted by Welsh Assembly Deputy Minister for Farming and Food Rebecca Evans, and as peer-reviewed papers show, can cause tumours and other illnesses in dogs, is needless, expensive and which won’t improve the unification of dogs with owners, as testified by evidence from the equivalent microchipping legislation in northern Ireland seen in this link: http://www.chipmenot.org.uk /news.asp#story15. See the Sovereign Wales article on this here and see a link to the petition and all official correspondence on the petition site here.

Deputy Minister for Farming and Food, Rebecca Evans

Deputy Welsh government Minister for Farming and Food, Rebecca Evans

3. A request for the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, Public Accounts Committee and Wales Audit Office to hold a full investigation in to why the Welsh Government has failed in its duty of care to have a full investigation in to the fact that new housing in Wales caters to UK needs and not solely Welsh needs as is the legislative devolved remit. This as admitted by former housing minister Carl Sargeant correspondence and shown in other research which demonstrates that it is a UK housing directorate and planning inspectorate (part of the UK’s DCLG/Department for Communities and Local Government) that decides on new housing numbers for Wales rather than an exclusive Welsh directorate catering exclusively for existing Welsh needs.

This has led to the Welsh Government, directed by the UK government, announcing that 190,000 new households are needed in Wales for UK needs from 2011 to 2036 – an incredibly disproportionate and unsustainable amount (also see downloadable report here). It’s taken Wales over 3000 years to have the 1.3 million households it has now yet the Welsh government thinks a 15% increase in households for non Wales residents in 25 years is appropriate. Previous projections had pointed out the need for an even more staggering 320,000 new households for a similar time period until it was pointed out to the Welsh government by individuals and groups including Sovereign Wales that their own projection figures and formulas were flawed and massively exaggerated.

There is no difference from this plan to the Israeli government forcing the building of new Israeli settlements in Palestine lands-it is effectively a soft genocide approach in both cases. In fact, the enforced new housing settlements in Wales are more extreme that the situation between Israel and Palestine in this regards.

Mersey Dee Alliance - a completly unnacountable, non democratic cross border group supported by the Welsh government

Mersey Dee Alliance – a completely unaccountable, non democratic cross border group supported by the Welsh government

In 2009, Wrexham’s Deffro’r Ddraig group delivered the most signed petition the Welsh government has ever received, with 24,000 signatures calling for them to stop the local development plan which includes the new mass housing plans. The Welsh government didn’t listen to the democratic voice of north-east Wales, they merely avoided the issue and focused on carrying out an even more destructive plan with the west Cheshire/north east Wales sub-regional strategy which seeks to suck up north-east Wales as an overspill area for the mass building of 20,000 new housing catering for the needs of west Cheshire and Merseyside.

This all without any democratic process, scrutiny or discussion in the Welsh Assembly. The Welsh government therefore has instantly broken their devolved remit under the Government of Wales Act 2006 which forbids them to make decisions in any other country other than Wales. Yet here they are, directed and overseen by the UK government against their own Welsh devolution remit, entering in to a sub regional strategy with north-west England and building 20,000 new households to cater for the needs of Cheshire and the Merseyside region and 190,000 ‘for UK needs’ in the rest of Wales.

Peter Schofield, Director-General for Housing and Planning for the UK government and which directs disproportionate mass housing projections for Wales based on UK needs rather than Welsh needs.

From the international legal definition of the crime of genocide as found in Article II and III of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide , which includes the protection of a national group meaning ‘a set of individuals whose identity is defined by a common country of nationality or national origin’, this mass housing and sub regional plan could be termed genocidal by both the Mersey Dee alliance partnership and the Welsh government.

Whether it is deliberate or not, it will actively destroy the Welsh identity of this area and its people – an identity that can be found in many guises and layers. Based on this, there is surely a clear case for legal and lawful action against the perpetrators of these planned mass housing settlements in Wales.

Tony Thackett, Head of Planning Inspectorate for England and Wales

Tony Thickett, Head of Planning Inspectorate for England and Wales

Perhaps this is something that will not particularly bother many. But it is a principal that should be fought for and protected for the sake of everyone in the world. For when they come for you who will speak out for you? Many activists and campaigners will rightly demand and fight for the rights of the people of Tibet, Palestine and the Kurdish people for example. But these same people will not consider that the nations of Britain deserve the same protections. Wales needs new housing but new housing should be built to cater for local need first and foremost, and most should be priced in proportion to local wages. See a link to the petition and all official correspondence on the petition site here.

Former Welsh government Housing Minister Carl Sargeant

4. A request for the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, Public Accounts Committee and Wales Audit Office to hold a full investigation in to why the Welsh Government has failed in its duty of care to have a full investigation in to the inherent health risks of wireless and mobile phone technologies including in all schools in Wales. This as seen in countless scientific peer-reviewed papers which outline cancer risks, loss of fertility and DNA damage, especially in children, as seen in these Wi-Fi papers. Please note, this is an ongoing petition at the Welsh Assembly. See a link to the petition and all official correspondence on the petition site here.

Welsh Assembly Health and Social Services Minister Mark Drakeford has been personally handed over this information by hand and has refused to look in to it further even though he is by now fully aware of the serious concerns about wi-fi technology, especially for children. Worryingly and bizarrely, as can be seen here, he has also stated that Public Health England are responsible for advising the Welsh Government on such issues even though health is devolved to Wales under the Government of Wales Act 2006.

Health and Social Services Minister Mark Drakeford

5. A request for the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, Public Accounts Committee and Wales Audit Office to hold a full investigation in to why the Welsh Government has failed in its duty of care to have a full and independent investigation in to the safety and effectiveness of all vaccines administered in Wales.

As well as this, it is demanded that there is an investigation in to how and why Public Health Wales gave out exaggerated and misleading figures for people with measles in the 2012-2013 Swansea measles outbreak. The number of cases reported by Public Health Wales and in the media were often up to three times the actual number, as seen in this Sovereign Wales article on the matter. This resulted in a mass MMR vaccination campaign aided by a corporate mainstream media frenzy in Wales. The MMR vaccine is one example of a vaccine that remains highly controversial with numerous questions remaining about its safety and effectiveness.

See a link to the petition and all official correspondence on the petition site here. (page 44) Welsh Assembly Health and Social Services Minister Mark Drakeford has been personally handed over this information about the need for an independent investigation and has refused to look in to it further even though he is by now fully aware of the serious concerns about vaccines and how they are pushed.

Dr Tracey Cooper Chief Executive for Public Health Wales

6. A request for the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, Public Accounts Committee and Wales Audit Office to hold a full investigation in to why the Welsh Government has failed in its duty of care to have a full and independent investigation in to any non transparent training organisation/s, consultancies and charities working within the Welsh government and public bodies in general.

Unaccountable leadership training organisations such as Common Purpose, consultancies and charities using public money should be refrained from any such activity without being fully transparent and providing full disclosure of what their courses entails and what the cost is to the tax payer and the public in general. According to FOI requests and the Welsh Government’s disclosure log, £115,346.50 has been spent on training courses for staff by the Common Purpose training organisation alone. See one of the FOI’s here.

See a link to the petition and all official correspondence on the petition site here.

Common Purpose founder and chief executive Julia Middleton

7. A request for the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, Public Accounts Committee and Wales Audit Office to hold a full investigation in to why the Welsh Government has thus far failed in its duty of care to stop the proposed second Wylfa Newydd nuclear power station at Ynys Mon and instead develop clean coal power using carbon capture technology and/or using the plentiful renewable energy of Wales. The manifesto of Ynys Mon’s campaign group PAWB has demonstrated that viable and safer alternatives to the nuclear station plans could mean that up to 3000 new permanent jobs could be created for the local population as opposed to the few hundred permanent jobs created by a nuclear plant.

The German Government, after the Fukushima disaster and after their research showed increased rates of childhood cancers and leukaemia around nuclear sites in children under 5 especially, is closing all its nuclear power stations by 2022 and embarking on a massive programme of building 12 new coal-fired stations by 2020. The Welsh Government has a duty of care to follow suit and not risk the lives of children and people in Ynys Mon, the rest of Wales and beyond with nuclear power. See a link to the petition and all official correspondence on the petition site here.

8. A request for the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, Public Accounts Committee and Wales Audit Office to hold a full investigation in to why the Welsh Government has thus far failed to establish a public bank of Wales. Under schedule 7 of the Government of Wales Act 2006, it is a legal devolved responsibility of the Welsh government to ensure economic renewal and regeneration for Wales.

A Welsh public bank with a capital investment of £1 billion pounds could leverage out £10 billion pounds in loans to SME’s in Wales and also be used for Welsh infrastructure and energy projects, transforming the economy of Wales overnight. A £2 billion capital investment could be leveraged out to £20 billion pounds etc.

The recently proposed Development Bank of Wales would be of some benefit but it is currently still mothballed and is limited in its scope seeing as a genuinely transformational public bank could be set up to transform and renew the Welsh economy. See a link to the petition and all official correspondence on the petition site here.

Current chair of the Welsh Assembly's Public Accounts Committe Darren Miller

Current chair of the Welsh Assembly’s Public Accounts committee Darren Miller

9. Although not strictly an issue to do with policy, as part of these complaints, the Welsh National Rights Movement also wished to urge the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales to urge the Welsh Government and the National Assembly for Wales to change their respective logos/emblems as currently used. At the moment both organisations use a white dragon. This symbol is seen on the Senedd building and is used extensively on publications and billboards. The national symbol for Wales is of course a red dragon which is well established.

10. A request for the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, Public Accounts Committee and Wales Audit Office to hold a full investigation in to why the Welsh Government has failed in its duty of care to have a full and independent investigation in to stratospheric aerosol spraying (also known as geo-engineering and/or chemtrails) over Wales. See original Sovereign Wales article on this here.

The original petition to the Welsh Assembly petition panel was denied as the topic was deemed as ‘non devolved’ one. We believe that this is very relevant under the devolved remit of health as well as the environment. The original petition can be found here (page 43-44)

Wales Audit Office's Wales Ayditor General Hugh Vaughan Thomas

Wales Audit Office’s Wales Auditor General Hugh Vaughan Thomas

The refusal to look in to any of the complaints by the bodies in Wales which are supposed to provide scrutiny and accountability has sadly demonstrated that there are no ways for Welsh citizens to ensure suitable accountability and due process when it comes to scrutiny of government and public bodies in general. There is simply is no avenue for concerns to be properly investigated. This is very worrying and a serious reflection on Welsh democracy and accountability that there is no other independent public body that can be turned to look in to these very important matters.

The mainstream press and media are by now mostly bought and paid for and do not provide genuine scrutiny. Independent and alternative media provides a small role but it’s a limited one at the moment. Any effective future scrutinising body has to be truly independent to be effective and fit for purpose. Independent from the crown, from the UK, the Welsh and EU government. Essentially, we the people have to set these up in order to scrutinise our own governments effectively.

Suncan Selbie, Chief Executive of Public Health England - the body that tells Public Health Wales goes to for advice on various health issues even though health is a devolved matter for Wales

Duncan Selbie, Chief Executive of Public Health England – the body that Public Health Wales goes to for advice on various health issues even though health is a devolved matter for Wales

However, there are other ways and these ways have to now be looked at as well. One of them is using the law. If the scrutinising bodies in Wales can’t do their job, the citizens of Wales have to start using the law and taking legal action against those corrupt bodies and individuals in Wales. This could involve statute law which also involves the need to find large sums of money to pay often extensive legal fees.

But perhaps more appealing is the prospect of setting up common law courts. Common law is still the law of the land in Britain and countries such as the USA, Australia and New Zealand. Common law can be traced back to the Welsh Britons and the Brittonic king Dyfnwal Moelmud and Cyfreithiau Moelmud/Molmutine laws which he is believed to have established in Britain around 500 BC, later to be revisited by Hywel Dda.

By establishing grand juries, groups of responsible citizens can get together to prepare cases where accused parties are then called to appear in a common law court and put on trial. This is a court of the people and is perfectly lawful. This is one way our Welsh government and our public bodies can be held to account where necessary. Some money would be needed to cover costs but above all, expertise is needed in order to advise and set up such Welsh courts and conduct fair and proper trials. Hopefully there are people out there with expertise in this field who could help set up such courts and conduct trials.

Scrutiny in Wales has little if no public credibility and is simply not working at present. The Welsh public have to demand for themselves a way to ensure accountability and justice when the system has failed them. This will need to change and change quickly.

2 May 2015

MMR Vaccine: Swansea measles outbreak figures given out by Public health Wales and the media were exaggerated

Marion Lyons, Public Wales Health Director, speaking on BBC Wales during the Swansea measles outbreak.

Urgent calls for more more measles vaccination have been seen in the London press in Wales recently, often repeated by members of the Senedd in Cardiff bay.

A recent major measles outbreak which came under the mainstream media spotlight took place between 1st November 2012 and 3rd July 2013 and centered on Swansea and Neath Port Talbot. As can be seen from this Welsh multi agency report released in October 2013, titled ‘Measles in Wales November 2012 to JULY 2013, final October 2013 report‘, 1430 potential cases of measles are given as notified (reported only, not confirmed) pan Wales figures whilst also stating that the real confirmed final case figure was 432.

However, as the screen shots here demonstrate, figures for this measles outbreak given out by Public Health Wales, press and media were mostly exaggerated, ambiguous and not properly explained to the public. This led to actual case figures appearing to be far greater than they actually were. In other words, most of the reported/notifications figures given misleadingly appeared to be actual confirmed cases. But as mentioned above, out of the 1430 pan Wales cases reported by Public Health Wales in the November 2012 to July 2013 measles outbreak, only 432 eventually turned out to be actual confirmed measles cases, with 5 more cases later being added making this final figure 437.

Out of this final confirmed figure of 437 confirmed cases, at least 50 had also had the single or full MMR (Mumps, Measles, Rubella) vaccine jab – 19 having had the single MMR jab and 31 having had the two MMR jabs according to information obtained from the public body.

Furthermore, out of the 437 confirmed cases, the number of people ‘assessed in or admitted to hospital’ in the main Abertawe Bro Morgannwg area is also reported as being only 44 – perhaps not quite the overwhelming epidemic that was sold to the public.

Early reported measles numbers for the November 2012 to July 2013 can also be seen in this official pdf report by the Communicable Disease Surveillance Center Wales used by Public Health Wales whilst the actual laboratory confirmed measles cases for the same period can also be seen in this pdf here by the same center. It can be seen from all these reports that there is a huge difference between the number of reported cases and the number of confirmed ones.

Even more worryingly, according to an article by James Meikle in the Guardian, by now:

‘…….Authorities in Wales are no longer recording laboratory-confirmed cases”

In reaction to this Guardian article by James Meikle, Jackie Fletcher from the JABS (Justice, Awareness and Basic Support) – a support group for parents of vaccine-damaged children asks:

“Why was this decision made? In the world of statistics accuracy is paramount. It also leaves the situation open to misdiagnosis and manipulation of public fears if there is a question of inaccurate stats. We have this bizarre situation were the authorities can tell us the running total of suspected cases of measles but the lab-confirmed cases are either accurate or meaningless – why damage their own stats if measles is really climbing?”

Going back to the exaggerated figures, why did Public Health Wales and the London press in Wales seemingly exaggerate the figures and fail to be far more clear in making the necessary distinction when reporting to the Welsh public and media?

This raises fundamental questions about how information is and isn’t clearly provided to the Welsh public by public bodies such as Public Health Wales, Abertawe Bro Morgannwg Health Board, the BBC and other London media in Wales.

Public Health Wales, under the leadership of Public Health Director Marion Lyons, and ultimately Chief Executive Dr Tracey Cooper, and together with the press and media, appear to have failed to fully and effectively explain the measles figures to the Welsh public.

As the screen captures and links show, numerous Public Health Wales press releases and online media reports from the outbreak period were often publicising unconfirmed ‘reported cases’ as what could be construed as being confirmed cases. Either that or simply failing to mention that the figures were ‘reported only cases’, giving an ambiguous and exaggerated picture in the process:

Incorrect and misleading statements as made by the BBC. Direct link here

Ambigious measles case numbers given by BBC Wales

Ambiguous and potentially misleading measles case numbers given by BBC Wales. Direct link here

More ambigious and potentially misleading measles figures by BBC Wales

More ambiguous and potentially misleading measles figures by BBC Wales. Direct link here

Ambigious/incorrect figures as given by Walesonline

Ambiguous and potentially misleading figures as given by Walesonline. Direct link here

Ambiguity and incorrect figures given by Wales Online

Ambiguity and potentially misleading figures given by Wales Online. Direct link here

A great number of these press reports came from Public Health Wales itself as can be seen in these below Public Health Wales links and screen captures which also contain quotes and statements by Marion Lyons and others alluding to case numbers:

Ambigious figures given out by Public Health Wales

Ambigious and poteantially misleading figures given out by Public Health Wales – Direct link here

Ambigious figures given by Public Health Wales

Ambiguous and poteantially misleading figures given by Public Health Wales – Direct link here

It is incredible that the whole London press and media in Wales appear to have completely failed to effectively question and scrutinise these figures. Not even once has it been raised. The mainstream media seem to have tragically forsaken its role as interrogator of our health and public bodies – instead seeming to roll over and become their mouth pieces without question.

Political bias can be forgiven or at least understood. Failure to question areas that may affect young and future lives is a drastic failure of scrutiny. How did hundreds of paid, professional members of the press and media in Wales fail to point out any potential discrepancy whatsoever, not even as a pointing out exercise made in passing? How could this happen?

Why and how this occurred also raises justifiable concerns about Public Health Wales and public figures such as their Public Health Director Marion Lyons and Chief Executive Dr Tracey Cooper. How exactly could such crucial and elemental information be so badly communicated by such a prominent public body and its prominent employees ?

Marion Lyons Director of Health Protection for Public Health Wales

When asked to comment on their often ambiguous figures, members of the Public Health Wales team have refused to accept any problems and answer that they have always been careful to draw a distinction between notified and confirmed cases. As media and Public Health Wales press releases show, this is blatantly incorrect. This is the one thing they have failed to do properly.

Questions also have to be asked about the effectiveness of the MMR jab. If, as Public Health Wales have confirmed, 50 out of the 437 confirmed cases had had either the single or double MMR jab, this is a 11.4% failure rate in effectiveness if using information from this particular outbreak. 11.4 % is a worryingly high failure rate for a treatment that is being promoted as an unequivocally effective treatment.

Public Health Wales Chief Executive Dr Tracey Cooper speaking in her other role as President of the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQUA)

There is no denying that measles can spread or that it can be a danger to health in many cases. There is also little doubt that some vaccines can be beneficial and can help protect lives in a number of cases. It’s also obviously a very emotive issue and an area to be treated with care and careful balanced consideration.

In general, history does seem to indicate that general improvements in public health, in nutrition, housing and the availability of clean water, reduces the numbers of measles deaths to a few before mass scale enforced vaccine is brought into play.

At the height of the First World war, annual measles deaths in Wales and England were around 17,000, then falling to around 100 in the mid 1950s. In 1962, six years before the first measles vaccine was introduced, this figure was down to 39, falling yet again to 6 in 1979. In other words, as peer-reviewed papers indicate, measles deaths appear to have been already falling fast as quality of life improved, long before the measles vaccine was introduced in 1968.

Measles mortality graph 1901 to 1999

It was not that long ago that parents openly held stay over measles parties for kids in order to ‘get it over and done with’. And although generalisations do not help any victims and their families, the principle of an informed choice is still an important one. As well as abstention, one of the choices for parents is to allow single instead of multi concoction jabs like MMR – a simple idea where a particular disease can be tackled methodically on a one to one basis.

And there are also still a number of unanswered questions and concerns about the contents of vaccines and the myriad of injections that children are obliged to take in general. Children are now obliged to take up to a remarkable 33 various injections or shots by the time they are around 3 years 4 months old. It is only natural and right for parents to want to have all the best available information to hand before making the informed decision of what they believe is best for their child, whatever that decision may be.

The actual ingredients that giant pharmaceutical companies, via governments, insist on injecting into young persons who are not yet able to fully exercise their rightful freedom of choice in the matter, is still highly contentious. As is the media and government derision and intimidation often seen towards the legitimate free choice of parents and those who want to further look into these concerns and come to their own informed conclusions.

Some of the known MMR vaccine ingredients include viral diseases, fecal material, fetal bovine serum (from dead calf fetuses), human serum albumin, Sorbitol, DNA fragments from other species including chick embryonic fluid , Polysorcate 80 ( a sterilising agent) and human diploid cells from aborted human fetal tissue – hardly a recipe that will put responsible parents at ease and not a good start wherever you’re standing. It surely simply cannot be known what all the long-term effects of all these numerous jabs that are now been administered will be.

Many are questioning statements made by health professionals who incorrectly state that the MMR vaccine has no adverse effect, and are also calling for the right of parents to make informed choices and opt for single injections rather than a concotion of injections if they so wish. As there are benefits to vaccines, there are also officially admitted risks. Here and in the below screen shots below, Dr Marion Lyons, Sara Hayes of Abertawe Bro Morgannwg Board and others can be seen to be making statements that many might find misleading:

“There’s no adverse effect to this extra jab and those children would still need to receive the recommended two doses at 13 months and three years four months.”

Incorrect and misleading statement by Marion Lyons on MMR safety – Direct link here

As seen in the screenshot below and this link, Dr Sara Hayes, Health director of Public Health on the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg Health Board also incorrectly states:

‘MMR is a simple and safe jab which will protect your child’s health’

Misleading figures and Statement by Sara Hayes of Abertawe Bro Morgannwg Board. Direct link here

Here and in the below screenshot, an anonymous source believed to be from Public Health Wales incorrectly states that:

‘having three doses of the vaccine was safe but only usually offered during an epidemic’

BBC Wales News report on MMR safety. Direct link here

In reaction to these statements on MMR safety, Jackie Fletcher of JABS states:

“The director of Public Health would do well to study the vaccine manufacturers’ product information before making such claims. The list of serious adverse reactions associated with MMR vaccines are noted there”

On her site, Jackie, referring to the UK’s government Vaccine Damage Payment Unit, also points out that:

“In the UK a person could be eligible for a vaccine damage payment if their severe disability of death was caused by vaccination against any number of diseases (including the MMR vaccine)”

Whilst specific claims of damage and illnesses may sometimes be a contentious issue and very hard for those of us without enough medical background to have enough of an informed enough opinion either way, this does not address the known facts, as Jackie Fletcher points out. It would be very hard to dismiss and ridicule all vaccine safety concerns as the work of ‘attention seekers’ when the manufacturers themselves print the risks on their own products and whilst vaccine damage payments units have been set up by the UK government and elsewhere. Parents, at the very least, have a right to be given all the information about benefits as well as known risks so that they can make their own well informed choices.

It seems incredulous if Dr Marion Lyons, the CEO Dr Tracey Cooper, Dr Sara Hayes of Abertawe Bro Morgannwg Board and others are unaware of all this public information about vaccine risks put out by their manufacturers as well as the fact that a UK Vaccine Damage Payment Unit exists in the UK – an UK government scheme which pays out compensation to parents whose children have been damaged by the MMR jab and others like it as noted above.

We the general public are largely at the mercy of scientists and the medical profession to look out for us. But if they are not allowed to speak their minds, and depend on government grants and often corporate sponsors for their livelihood, how can we not be concerned? If we can’t trust them to do a thorough job who can we trust?

A damning recent 2011 report by Lucija Tomljenovic, PhD of University of British Columbia, titled ‘The vaccination policy and the Code of Practice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI): are they at odds’?” also raises crucial issues about transparency by the UK Department of Health and Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

Her report describes how transcripts of the JCVI meetings allegedly show that some of the Committee members have extensive ties to pharmaceutical companies, that the JCVI frequently co-operated with vaccine manufacturers on strategies aimed at boosting vaccine uptake, and that methodologically dubious studies have been used whilst vaccine safety issues and safety concerns have been downplayed, ignoring the standard precautionary principle in the process.

Tomljenovic states that this:

“could thus be considered as a form of ethical violation or misconduct”

The Welsh and UK Government must know about this report by Tomljenovic and others like it. So far there seems to have been no official governmental response to her research and worrying claims regarding the JCVI.

Ignoring the basic scientific precautionary principle when it comes to injecting substances into children is certainly not something to be taken lightly.

The Precautionary Principle is defined by the European Commission as:

‘The precautionary principle applies where scientific evidence is insufficient, inconclusive or uncertain and preliminary scientific evaluation indicates that there are reasonable grounds for concern that the potentially dangerous effects on the environment, human, animal or plant health may be inconsistent with the high level of protection chosen”

Vivienne Parry, a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, which advises the Government on the controversial MMR injection has previously stated that:

“There’s a small risk with all vaccines. No one has ever said that any vaccine is completely without side-effects. But we have to decide whether the benefits outweigh the risks. If we had measles, it would kill lots of children. If you have a vaccine, it will damage some children, but a very small number”

Vivienne Parry should be applauded for her straight talking. But what often seems like unnecessary scaremongering of catastrophic epidemics have failed to fully convince the Welsh and UK public that they should unequivocally rush out to vaccinate themselves and their children with a myriad of contentious injections. At least not before they have had a chance to look at all the facts in order to make an informed decision over the health of their child or children.

And deriding the work and rights of those well informed people who question the state and media line as heretics and trouble makers is not only wrong but dangerous. Media pushed polemicism and cognitive dissonance are amongst us, meaning that people are often unable to think freely and in a reasoned, analytical way.

Playing the man or woman rather than playing the ball also means that the science and ethics involved are often brushed aside. This lack of objective reality often leads to unhelpful knee jerk reactions – dismission and willful ignorance often being the preferred choice. Perhaps this is at least understandable in a world with so many media induced fears being generated on a daily basis.

One of the few papers in Wales who have previously had the courage and decency to give a fair and balanced voice to all sides of the vaccine debate is the South Wales Evening Post. It says a lot about where we are today that a paper publisher needs to be commended for giving a platform to both sides of a story. This is not what a free society is supposed to be about.

Requests for the Welsh Government to look in to the safety and effectiveness of all vaccines administered in Wales have not yet been taken up (see a refused petition by Sovereign Wales in the Welsh Government’s inadmissible petiton list or pdf here – page 44 for both) Even though health is a devolved issue, powers in relation to the licensing of vaccines and the regulation of monitoring of vaccine safety are not devolved and vaccine damage payments are areas bizarrely exempted from Welsh Government responsibilities under Schedule 7 of the Government of Wales Act 2006.

But an independent investigation into potential risks could only be a good thing for all. If those people raising concerns about MMR have no legitimate argument, then why should proponents of MMR and other vaccine shots be concerned in any way? Surely this could be the perfect opportunity for these concerns to be laid to rest if they are so unfounded, as many in public health bodies would claim?

The question must surely come down to well-informed parental choice. The Health Service is supposed to be a Health ‘Service’, not a statist pharmaceutical enforcement agency. And we the public are supposed to have a choice, not an ultimatum. In the case of vaccines, this choice has to include abstention as well as the common sense option of single vaccines rather than the concoction of contentious chemicals that are presently offered.

Public Health Wales and the Welsh Government are entrusted with our health. It remains to be seen how they and the London media in Wales seem to have failed to communicate much-needed health information as clearly and effectively as possible to the Welsh public in the case of the Swansea measles outbreak of 2012-2013.

It also appears that the present London media and press in Wales have again sadly failed in their purported scrutinising, and that this now falls down to us the citizens of this country. The Public Health Wales Executive team can be found here: Marion Lyons, Director of Health Protection for Wales can be emailed at Marion.lyons@wales.nhs.uk. Public Health Wales Chief Executive Tracey Cooper can be emailed at Tracey.cooper@wales.nhs.uk. Or, more effectively, respectfully demand to speak to Tracey Cooper by telephoning Public Health Wales on 02920 227 744

JABS (Justice, Awareness and Basic Support) is one of the longest running independent support groups in Britain for parents who believe their children have suffered severe harm or have died following childhood vaccinations. The group was launched in January 1994 and has since been fighting to achieve justice for children and their families affected by vaccines.

JABS is set up by a husband and wife whose own son became severely ill after being given the MMR vaccine and fought for and won vaccine damage payments from the UK government. They receive no other charity or state support and rely on donations to carry on with their courageous and crucial volunteer work. For their website and other organisations that deal with the vaccine debate and for further academic peer-reviewed research and reports please see below links:
JABS
Vac Truth
Child Health Safety
Government Vaccine Damage Payments – how to claim

4 Comments