Committee
Public Petitions Committee 27 October 2015
27 Oct 2015 · S4 · Public Petitions Committee
Item of business
New Petitions
Human Papillomavirus Vaccine (Safety) (PE1574)
Freda Birrell
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I thank the committee for allowing me to provide additional information relating to my request for a round-table discussion to be held in Edinburgh between scientists and medical professionals from both sides of the HPV vaccine safety debate. I speak today on behalf of not only the UK Association of HPV Vaccine Injured Daughters, whose lives have been turned upside down after HPV vaccine administration, but each of the 2,019 people from 55 countries who have signed the petition because they are having similar experiences and support open scientific discussion. Our association, which was organised at the beginning of this year when it became apparent that we needed to co-ordinate everyone’s individual efforts as a group, represents families from Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland and operates under the banner of the UK Association of HPV Vaccine Injured Daughters. As a group, we have been able to receive greater publicity, and increased awareness has caused our membership to grow by leaps and bounds. Our initial group of 60 members has expanded to 208 and rising. Despite the fact that Scotland accounts for only 8 per cent of the UK population, 15 per cent of the association’s members come from it. We do not know how many others are out there, but for now there appears to be no end in sight. A senior politician in Ireland, Paschal Mooney, recently made an impassioned plea to Irish Government officials regarding the Irish HPV vaccination programme, the lack of informed consent and the devastating effects on young girls around the country. Specifically, he mentioned Irish girls being admitted to psychiatric hospitals following HPV vaccinations. Japan has rescinded the Government recommendations for HPV vaccines and has initiated studies to determine whether there is a causal relationship between HPV vaccines and adverse outcomes as well as a 21-year study to determine whether HPV vaccines have an impact on cervical cancer diagnosis rates. On 31 October, the national association of HPV-adverse sufferers in Denmark is hosting an HPV vaccine information symposium to bring families together with medical professionals, health authorities and legal professionals to explore treatment options and potential legal remedies. Denmark has recently made the decision to change from Gardasil to Cervarix as the HPV vaccine of choice. In the past week, at the urging of Liselott Blixt, a Danish politician with a Gardasil-injured daughter, the Danish Government has set aside 7 million krone to conduct an independent investigation into the HPV vaccine and its side effects. Our association is in the process of compiling information for the European Medicines Agency’s consideration in its safety assessment of HPV vaccines. Of the 88 family reports analysed to date, 68 per cent reported that their daughters experienced health problems serious enough to interfere with their education; 24 per cent reported symptoms so severe that their daughters could no longer participate in educational activities; 70 per cent required help with daily care; and a full 91 per cent reported being told that their daughters’ medical conditions were psychological in origin. On that last point, it is interesting to note that national health authorities in Denmark, Norway, Japan, France, Spain and many other countries have led doctors and other vaccine administrators to believe that any new medical conditions experienced after HPV vaccine administration are most likely psychosomatic. Consequently, as many UK families have experienced, the average medical health professional faced with a patient exhibiting symptoms that they have never seen before and which do not fit neatly into any current diagnostic criteria naturally assumes that they are psychological problems. I put forward the following facts for the committee’s consideration. According to the insert in the package for Merck’s Gardasil 9, which is the new vaccine that is coming in, 3.3 per cent of participants who were given Gardasil, which was used as the control during the most recent clinical trials, experienced new medical conditions potentially indicative of auto-immune disorders. That works out at 3,300 per 100,000 recipients. According to a press release from Sanofi Pasteur MSD dated 17 June 2015, 183 million doses of Gardasil have been distributed worldwide. If we use Merck’s own clinical trial percentage, we see that there could be as many as 6,000,039 girls around the world suffering autoimmune conditions, which could very well influence their health for the rest of their lives. According to the World Cancer Research Foundation, 528,000 cases of cervical cancer were diagnosed worldwide in 2012. Is this worth the risk? I am very much aware that HPV vaccines are controversial and that this information puts Scotland at a crossroads with a very difficult decision to make. Do we accept what the manufacturer and its list of experts are saying and assume that HPV vaccines are safe and effective and that there just happens to be an epidemic of psychosomatic disorders spreading around the world, affecting certain young people who have one thing in common: they were injected with the HPV vaccine? Do we listen to experts from both sides, try to discover exactly what the situation is and make every effort we can to get the problem solved? Do we sweep all these families under the proverbial psychological disorder carpet and ignore their misery, or do we treat them with the dignity and respect that they deserve by using every means at our disposal to identify those at risk of serious adverse reactions and to develop successful treatment protocols for those who are already suffering? Please demonstrate to the world that Scotland is still a country that does not ignore the suffering of innocents, and show the world Scotland is not afraid to hold open and honest scientific discussions, no matter how controversial the subject might be.
In the same item of business
The Convener
Lab
The next petition is PE1574, by Freda Birrell on behalf of the UK Association of HPV Vaccine Injured Daughters on human papillomavirus vaccine safety. Member...
Freda Birrell (UK Association of HPV Vaccine Injured Daughters)
His daughter has had a relapse.
The Convener
Lab
I am sorry to hear that. Please pass on our regards. I will hand over to you, Mrs Birrell. You have five minutes or so to introduce the subject, and then we...
Freda Birrell
Thank you. On the off-chance, convener, I have brought a one-page summary relating to Lucy Hinks, copies of which are available if members would like to take...
The Convener
Lab
Thank you. We will have a look at that.
Freda Birrell
I thank the committee for allowing me to provide additional information relating to my request for a round-table discussion to be held in Edinburgh between s...
The Convener
Lab
Thank you very much. Chic, do you want to come in at this point?
Chic Brodie (South Scotland) (SNP)
SNP
Thank you, convener. In the past two-and-a-half years since I initially met Freda Birrell and others who are involved, I have done some personal research on ...
The Convener
Lab
Thanks very much. I want to ask a direct question, Mrs Birrell. Who should call the round-table together? Whose responsibility should it be to invite people...
Freda Birrell
I would like to think that, after listening to what I have said and perhaps asking many more questions and getting more evidence, the committee will be influ...
Chic Brodie
SNP
When I had the privilege of being a member of this committee, we dealt more widely with the issue of mesh implants. After what Freda Birrell has said, it mig...
Angus MacDonald
SNP
Good morning, Mrs Birrell. The committee quite recently considered a petition from Jamie Rae on behalf of the Throat Cancer Foundation that called on the Sco...
Freda Birrell
In Australia and America, boys are included on the programme. I am not quite sure, but there is a possibility of it happening in New Zealand, and I am aware ...
Angus MacDonald
SNP
But there is evidence.
Freda Birrell
Yes. I know of one particular family in America whose twin son and daughter were vaccinated at the same time. Both of them were taken seriously ill and devel...
Angus MacDonald
SNP
Thank you.
Jackson Carlaw
Con
Good morning. Mrs Birrell and I have met on a number of occasions over the years, and I applaud her for the focus that she has brought to this issue. It is ...
Freda Birrell
In February 2014, Japan held a round-table discussion over two-and-a-half days. There was a symposium to begin with and then scientists and doctors from both...
Jackson Carlaw
Con
Sorry, but may I interrupt? I think that I get the drift. Presumably, however, the fact that those discussions have taken place in those other legislatures w...
Freda Birrell
I would not be happy if there was no progress. The reason why I say that is that somebody has to realise that young girls worldwide—in Scotland as well—are i...
Jackson Carlaw
Con
I understand the perseverance with which you have approached the issue, Ms Birrell. You are convinced, from the body of evidence to which you have been expos...
Freda Birrell
Yes.
Jackson Carlaw
Con
So the issue at hand is really the Scottish Government’s attitude to the vaccine.
David Birrell
The real issue is to get these girls properly treated.
Freda Birrell
Yes—I have said that. As David says, my main issue is to get these girls properly treated. One of the things that I and many of my colleagues have discovered...
Jackson Carlaw
Con
As I recall, you had the father of one of these girls present in the Parliament at a cross-party round-table discussion that took place.
Freda Birrell
That is correct.
Jackson Carlaw
Con
So that is the secondary thing. Your concern is the attitude to the vaccine and also the appropriate treatment of those people who have been adversely affect...
Freda Birrell
It is, and it is to ask why this is happening. It may not be happening to all, but why is this happening to a good portion of the young people in this countr...
Jackson Carlaw
Con
No. I said that, coincident with the time since the vaccine was introduced, there has been a fall in the number of people who have cervical cancer. I was not...