Everyday we hear of tragedy, but when difficulties arise for someone whose life could be parallel to your own, you are more likely to be unnerved.
As I spoke to vaccine-injured Siobhán O’Grady, close in age to me and also a woman working in a hospital with a science background, I couldn’t help thinking that could have been me.
Like a Tom Wolfe novel, her story starts with the ‘wrong’ and through a series of unrelated events cascades downwards to a situation where she cannot work because of ill health and cannot receive any non-existent compensation, or social welfare because of your family circumstance. That leaves her without present or future income. Siobhán worked as a medical scientist in Mayo General Hospital and when the Covid 19 vaccine became available it was strongly recommended she get vaccinated as her work included handling
Covid 19 infected material. Within 24 hours of her Astra Zeneca shot on February 11 th 2021 she was admitted to A&E with cardiorespiratory complications. Siobhán, a self professed former ‘gym bunny’ is now mostly housebound or bedbound.
Her completion – prior to receiving the vaccine – of a fitness fundraiser for every month in the lockdown of 2020 adds another layer of pathos to her story. This is a woman who through her charity, her work, and her acceptance of vaccination, tried to help others – yet when she presented for healthcare with her vaccine injury, she met a wall of silence. Yet, despite that stonewalling, when Siobhán sought her personal medical records through Freedom of Information she found that a link between her injuries and her vaccine had been documented on her records.
The acknowledgement denied to her in person was deemed appropriate for medical records. It begs the question, to whom are our health professionals first responsible? Siobhán’s experience, unfortunately, is not an exception. Another attendee at the public meeting I organised and held in Dún Laoghaire last month, describes being told with a hand raised to her face, I’ll stop you there, I am a fan of vaccines’, when she asked of a medic if her injuries could be related to her Covid 19 vaccination.
SEVERE APLASTIC ANEMIA
Another speaker at the public meeting in Dún Laoghaire told of his diagnosis of severe aplastic anemia following a Moderna booster in May 2022. Stephen Cornwall took two doses of Astra zeneca in 2021 but required a booster to enable him to travel. Septicaemia, retinal haemorrhage, bone marrow failure and weekly blood transfusions followed, leaving Stephen clinically depressed and anxious.
In his case the consultant haematologist acknowledged reports of autoimmune thrombocytopenia and albeit rare, reports of Aplastic Anaemia developing following Covid-19 vaccination. Two more people on the night, which saw people travel from Howth to Wicklow to the meeting, spoke of family members who had died within days or weeks of Covid-19 vaccination. The ending of the illness benefit, which is paid up to a maximum of 2 years, was also raised by an essential worker who suffers from functional neurological disorder after receiving his 2nd Pfizer BioNTech vaccine. David O’Leary is yet another vaccine injured person left with an uncertain financial future before he can contemplate his future healthcare needs.
MEETING IN THE DÁIL
Siobhán O’Grady spoke to TDs and Senators in the AV room of Dáil Éireann last week along with two other women who say they have suffered vaccine injuries, Janet Collins and Karen Erswell. Ms Erswell, a primary school teacher, said she had suffered a “severe reaction” to the covid 19 vaccine and was admitted to A&E the following day. She is now under the care of Professor Jack Lambert and three neurologists, a respiratory consultant, and other specialists and now takes 19 prescribed medications daily.
She was in tears as she told TDs and Senators that some of her treatments were not going to be funded by her medical insurance and “urgently” asked the government and HSE to intervene. She described living with vaccine injuries as feeling like “a life sentence for a crime I didn’t commit”.
Janet Collins, a mother of three, said that she took the vaccine to protect others, including her husband who was going through cancer treatment at the time, but the Covid shot left her “barely able to function”. She said that she has been passed from specialist to specialist since. Two TDs then told the meeting in the Dáil that they had also suffered adverse effects from the Covid 19 vaccine.
Independent Ireland TD Richard O’Donoghue said that he suffered a transient ischemic attack, (TIA) ot a mini-stroke after taking the Covid 19 vaccine. He said that he “ended up getting a TIA myself” and that the mini- stroke was “unexplained” and that he is now on aspirin to keep his blood thinned because of clots. “So people did get adverse reactions to it.
They did,” he said, adding that he would support cross-party efforts to ensure those who suffered adverse effects could get the help they needed. Meath TD, Peadar Toibín, (who is my brother) told the Dáil meeting that he had suffered from Bell’s Palsy – temporary paralysis of the facial muscles after his Pfizer vaccination. He said that those with Covid vaccine injuries seemed invisible in the public system and should be heard, urging the establishment of a vaccine injuries scheme.
VACCINE INJURIES SCHEME
The Government has long since published the report of an Expert Group chaired by Mr. Justice Meenan on the necessity of an alternative to the court process in dealing with clinical negligence claims and certain vaccine injuries.
In December 2020, Mr. Justice Meenan called for a compensation scheme to be established ‘as a matter of urgency’ stating ‘a strong moral argument that the State which actively encourages vaccination, should accept responsibility for those who suffer harm as a result’. Despite this, little further progress has been made.
The former Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly stated in 2021 that Covid 19 vaccine injuries would be included in any such scheme and the current Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll McNeill said in February this year that her department is working on it. It is hardly surprising with these delays that trust and confidence in a fair system is ebbing away.
Amongst the reasons I organized the meeting in Dún Laoghaire was to allow personal stories to be heard, and to call for the establishment of a vaccine injuries scheme.
Those who were delayed when they sought answers in relation to adverse reactions to the point where it is now too late for them to take a personal injuries claim must also be allowed to seek compensation. At the meeting in the Dáil, it was heartening to see general agreement amongst the 12 TDs and Senators who attended on the need to form a cross party group to push for a long overdue covid vaccine compensation scheme.
REPORTING ADVERSE REACTIONS
The lack or difficulty in reporting injury or in some cases fatalities, was also raised at the packed public meeting. The dangerous or negligent absence of reporting of the adverse effects of Covid 19 vaccination was also highlighted by the Cork City Coroner Philip Comyn at the Roy Butler Inquest in October last year. Roy Butler, a previously fit 23-year-old soccer player from Waterford died days after receiving the Johnson & Johnson Covid 19 vaccine. The manufacturers or license holders of the vaccine admitted only hearing of Roy’s death through Social Media.
His death apparently had gone unreported either to the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA), or the EMA, the European Medicines Agency – the Irish and European statutory bodies tasked with recording and monitoring a database of reported adverse effects associated with the use of medicines. However, the Coroner’s verdict did not assign blame to the Covid 19 vaccine. In his verdict, the Coroner did say however that: “The lack of hard data concerning adverse reactions to vaccines or other medicines affects the ability of clinicians, medical experts and regulatory authorities in carrying out their duties”.
He went on to say that an information campaign was needed to inform the public and presumably all involved in healthcare provision, of the role of the HPRA and the importance of reporting adverse effects. Ironically, the assistant pathologist in this case above, is quoted as referring to the regulatory authority as the NDAB – a name not used since 1996.
It would appear that there is widespread lack of knowledge about whom to report adverse events of any medical preparations or vaccines, as well as a reluctance to do so when reference is made by the injured party.
PATIENT SAFETY
If this Government has any concern for future patient safety we need to run without delay, an information campaign on the role of the HPRA, highlighting the necessity amongst the public and health professionals to report concerns. The public should be aware that proof of causation is not required, this is about incidence and data collection.
We need funded research into the reasons for the dramatic fall off in repeat Covid 19 vaccinations. With any new or novel licensed medical preparation, it should be mandatory to report all deaths occurring within a month following consumption or uptake.
The success of any future vaccination programmes whether for adults or children can only be secured if we know that proper pharmacovigilance is taking place, that the public and healthcare professionals know how this can take place, and that there will be a prompt response when new or additional risks come to light. Of course this will not benefit those who currently suffer injury from existing vaccines. For these, the long-promised Vaccine Injury Compensation Scheme must be introduced now.
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