NHS Trust ignores current risk-benefit data
A concerned parent wrote to HART to share a letter she had received in her son’s bag. With her permission, we would like to publish both the letter, and her very well thought out response.
Ultimately, parents must take back responsibility as the gate-keepers of their children’s health, because regulatory systems have been captured and are monumentally failing.
This is extremely topical, given the press release from UsForThem on 3 February, regarding a successful complaint brought to the UK’s Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA) — the regulator responsible for policing promotions of prescription medicines in the UK – for misleading parents about Covid vaccine safety.
We hope you will take the time to read both the original letter from the NHS to the concerned parent, as well as their extremely well-articulated response.
We join this parent in eagerly awaiting a detailed response from Kent & Medway NHS Trust.
Original Letter – Also available as PDF for download HERE
Response from Concerned Parent
Dear Kent and Medway Covid Vaccination Team
I received the attached letter via my son’s school. It reads like a one-sided Pfizer advertisement. There is no attempt to balance risks and benefits, in fact there is no mention of risks whatsoever.
The first paragraph makes claims about vaccine benefits in the past. The second paragraph makes unquantified claims about serious illness from covid that are not specific to the healthy teenagers this letter is targeting. This is a misleading way to frame the discussion.
What are the specific risks to healthy teenagers from the current Omicron variants of covid? How effective is the current vaccine in reducing these risks? What are the specific dangers to teenagers from the vaccine?
Even the most fanatical pro-vaxxers accept that there is some risk of cardiac problems, particularly to teenage boys and young men, from mRNA vaccines. There is disagreement between doctors and scientists about the level of this risk but not about its existence.
There are two important principles in medical ethics – first do no harm and informed consent. I know from my first two covid jabs that there is no discussion of risks and benefits at these appointments. We rely on information from the NHS. This NHS letter fails to mention any possible risks so any parent or teenager relying on it to decide to go ahead is being denied informed consent.
Why are you pushing teenagers to get boosted before the booster offer is withdrawn later this month? If the decision to withdraw the offer is the right thing to do, surely pushing this now is wrong. If pushing boosters now is the right thing to do, why are they being withdrawn? You can’t have it both ways.
Are there financial or other incentives within the Covid Vaccination Team or wider NHS based on the numbers of people being vaccinated?
This is a serious matter concerning the health of young people. I would be grateful for specific answers to the specific points I have made.
