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Just all of those involved - the UK infected blood scandal

ArethosemyfeetArethosemyfeet Shipmate, Heaven Host
in Hell
This story is one long stream of awful, punctuated by the truly deplorable:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/may/20/we-were-kids-infected-blood-report-welcomed-by-survivor-of-school-trials
I can half understand people making national decisions being somewhat callous, but the recruiting of sick kids into unadvertised clinical trials and pumping them full of things you know are likely pathogenic is Mengel or Asperger levels of awful.

And that's before we get into the cover up from the utter pieces of diseased shit from both parties, the NHS and civil service over decades. And the cheapjack pharmaceutical companies mixing blood from every skint sex worker, drug addict and unhoused person they could get a needle into and calling it safe. There isn't a big enough rocket to launch them all into the firey heart of the sun like they deserve.

Comments

  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    There is - understandably - a great deal of anger being expressed over this whole shameful affair:

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/may/20/politicians-should-hang-their-heads-in-shame-over-uk-infected-blood-scandal

    There's no room in our already overcrowded prisons to hold all those who should be in jug. Send the fuckers responsible (if they can be found) into exile in Rwanda...
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited May 2024
    A thoughtful opinion piece from the Guardian:

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/20/fatal-shredded-evidence-contaminated-blood-scandal-justice-report

    The government's decision as to a compensation (ha!) package is awaited.
  • DiomedesDiomedes Shipmate
    I had a close friend who died because of this terrible situation - he was haemophiliac, given contaminated blood and contracted HIV and Hep C. He just happened to be Gay as well which meant that many people were sure it was his lifestyle that was at fault and therefore the blame fell on him and sympathy was unwarranted. I have been so very angry about this for so long. I'm glad that the truth is out there at last.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    Diomedes wrote: »
    I had a close friend who died because of this terrible situation - he was haemophiliac, given contaminated blood and contracted HIV and Hep C. He just happened to be Gay as well which meant that many people were sure it was his lifestyle that was at fault and therefore the blame fell on him and sympathy was unwarranted. I have been so very angry about this for so long. I'm glad that the truth is out there at last.

    Someone I know at church had a gay friend who became infected, as a result of contaminated blood, and was so distressed that he took his own life.
  • SandemaniacSandemaniac Shipmate
    As a very short child there was talk of giving me growth hormone. I can't help feeling that I dodged a bullet there. Someone I was at school with was haemopholiac and is now dead... I fear they didn't.
  • DoublethinkDoublethink Admin, 8th Day Host
    edited May 2024
    The infected blood scandal dates from 1977, I think it is worth knowing that life expectancy with severe haemophilia in 1970 was 11 to 13 years.

    It does not, of course, make what happened right - but it gives some context as to how people might come to make these kinds of decisons.

    Timeline of the development of haemophilia treatment.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
    British governments were routinely callous with other people's lives in the 1970s and 1980s (and still are in many respects).

    Which is no help to victims but if we look at all the other scandals like Windrush, the pattern is exactly the same.
  • quetzalcoatlquetzalcoatl Shipmate
    Isn't there also a culture of impunity? I'm thinking of the Post Office scandal, Hillsborough, etc. We are untouchable.
  • EirenistEirenist Shipmate
    I suspect most of those who took the decisions that led to this disaster will be safely dead by now - one reason why this can was kicked down the road for so long.
  • ArethosemyfeetArethosemyfeet Shipmate, Heaven Host
    Eirenist wrote: »
    I suspect most of those who took the decisions that led to this disaster will be safely dead by now - one reason why this can was kicked down the road for so long.

    Many of those responsible for the cover up, and the kicking of the can, are not. Ken Clarke, beloved of liberals for being a Europhile, has shown himself once again to be an utter bastard.
  • quetzalcoatlquetzalcoatl Shipmate
    Yes, I couldn't believe Clarke yesterday, and factually wrong to say there is no proof of blood transmission.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
    I'm not defending anyone but this appears to be a typical situation in government as described by the comedy Yes Minister. I don't know if Ken Clarke really was a bastard however I'm absolutely sure that there was institutional inertia within UK government departments which avoided blame, resisted change and 'kicked the can' down the road.

    Ministers have priorities and it is almost never a priority of a minister to rock the boat or to take on trouble if they can avoid it.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    Ken Clarke, at 83, is still in the land of the living. Should he be punished in some way for his complicity and mendacity?

    Victims of the scandal have called for him to be stripped of his peerage, which seems not unreasonable...
  • Martin54Martin54 Suspended
    Most wise @Doublethink. Right doesn't come in to it does it? It's like safeguarding at church. We learn from the past. What can go wrong will.
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