Narayana Kumar of The Economic Times of India wrote a scathing report of fraud and scandals surrounding the Gates vaccine empire: Controversial vaccine studies: Why is Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation under fire from critics in India?
Kumar starts out his 4 page article by focusing on the current case before the India Supreme Court regarding deaths and injuries occurring during drug trials carried out over Merck’s HPV vaccine Gardasil and GSK’s Cervarix. Vaccine trials were conducted on thousands of girls between the ages of 9 and 15. Within a month of receiving the vaccine, many of the children (ages 9 to 15) fell ill and by 2010, five of them had died. A further two children died in Vadodara, Gujarat, where an estimated 14,000 tribal children were vaccinated with another brand of the HPV vaccine, Cervarix, manufactured by GlaxoSmitheKline (GSK).
The girls and their parents did not even know what kind of vaccine trial they were participating in. Shockingly, the report stated that many of the consent forms used to vaccinate the girls were signed “illegally,” either by the wardens from the hostels where many of the girls resided, or using thumbprints from illiterate parents. This travesty was not discovered until a team of health activists from the non-government organization SAMA, an organization specializing in women’s health, decided to investigate what had been going on.
Most of the girls were students, and an investigation showed that as many as 120 girls who participated in the HPV vaccine trials “experienced adverse reactions such as epileptic seizures, severe stomach ache, headaches and mood swings. The Sama report also said there had been cases of early onset of menstruation following the vaccination, heavy bleeding and severe menstrual cramps among many students.”
Kumar points out that after these adverse reactions, a report was conducted to explain them all away as not related to the vaccines, so that the approval process could move forward to market the HPV vaccine in India. That report, according to Kumar, was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) who declared the project a total success. Authorities in India have looked into BMGF, and see a huge conflict of interest:
Activists allege that these two institutions have a working relationship with pharma companies. The main charge against GAVI is that it has representatives from pharmaceutical companies on its board while the PHFI accepts grants from pharma companies. “BMGF and GAVI are pushing the [vaccine] agenda with governments around the world, including India,” says Ritu Priya Mehrotra, professor of Social Medicine and Community Health and School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. The community health activist says the biotechnology industry was pushing more and more vaccines into India and that the health ministry was not ensuring that adequate testing was done before recommending their use in government programmes. (Source.)
The Economic Times stated:
“The Sama report also said there had been cases of early onset of menstruation following the vaccination, heavy bleeding and severe menstrual cramps among many students. The standing committee pulled up the relevant state governments for the shoddy investigation into these deaths.
It said it was disturbed to find that ‘all the seven deaths were summarily dismissed as unrelated to vaccinations without in-depth investigations …’ the speculative causes were suicides, accidental drowning in well (why not suicide?), malaria, viral infections, subarachnoid hemorrhage (without autopsy) etc.”
GAVI is an organization started in 2000 and funded by BMGF. In short, they work together with the World Health Organization (WHO), specifically UNICEF, to purchase vaccines from pharmaceutical companies for distribution in poorer countries. The Gates basically help poorer countries buy more vaccines, which in turn increases the markets of the vaccine manufacturers among poorer people who would not normally be able to afford them. WHO is the largest purchaser of vaccines in the world, but member country contributions via tax revenues often fall short of the volume of vaccines they wish to purchase and distribute, so BMGF stepped in to help form GAVI to make up the difference. Kumar reports:
The GAVI board comprises of a representative each of the pharma industry from the industrialized and developing countries, a sore point with some experts from the aid world. In an article in the The Guardian three years ago, leaders of international aid agencies such as Oxfam and MSF said the representatives of companies needed to step down from the GAVI board. “Pharmaceutical companies’ representation on GAVI’s board creates a conflict of interest. The current structure is far too cosy,” said the article quoting Mohga Kamal-Yanni, a senior policy adviser with Oxfam. (Source.)
Kumar then moves on from the HPV vaccine scandal and writes about the deaths of many infants soon after they were immunized with the Pentavalent vaccine, a five-in-one shot, which was promoted by BMGF and GAVI, even after the deaths were revealed. (Health Impact News previously reported this story here.) Kumar reports:
In an opinion piece published recently in Deccan Herald titled “New Vaccines: Gates Foundation’s philanthropy or business?”, Dr Gopal Dabade of the All India Drug Action Network said that GAVI had committed a $165-million grant for the phased introduction of Pentavalent in India and provides a subsidy of Rs 145 per injection for five years after which the government will have to pay the total cost of the vaccines. “BMGF is a founding partner of GAVI. Its initial grant helped establish GAVI and it continues to support its work. Some of the pharmaceutical companies have affiliation with BMGF to manufacture the vaccine,” Dr Dabade said.
Unlike the U.S., victims of vaccine harm and fraud will get their day in court as the Supreme Court in India takes up the HPV Gardasil fraud claims. Also unlike the U.S., investigative reporters like Narayana Kumar are doing their job and publishing their findings in the mainstream media, informing the public.
Read the full report from The Economic Times
Sources: HealthImpactNews; VacTruth.com
