By Norma Erickson
Mothers Alliance Ireland recently submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Irish Medicines Board for complete information regarding adverse events reported after Gardasil vaccinations. Their request was refused.
The SaneVax Team believes this refusal is contrary to the best interests of Irish citizens. People have a right to know the entire extent of potential risks involved with any medical intervention prior to consent, including vaccines.
One cannot grant informed consent without having all of the information necessary to make a sound decision. The government of Ireland has an obligation to grant public access to information regarding reported adverse reactions, as well as information about the potential benefits of HPV vaccination.
Much to their credit, Mothers Alliance Ireland did not accept this refusal. Their response is printed below, with their kind permission.
A Chara,
We wish to seek an internal review of the decision of the IMB Freedom of Information Officer, Ms. Jackie Cottell, to refuse information requested by Mothers Alliance Ireland in our request under the Freedom of Information Act. We had requested the IMB to provide us with full information about the numbers of adverse reactions reports received on the Gardasil vaccine.
In her response, dated 26th January, 2011, to our FOI request, Ms. Cottell said that “the provision of any anonymised adverse reaction data falls outside the provisions of the FOI Act, as described in our section 15 & 16 document ‘Guide to information held by the IMB”. We checked out the document but could find no section about adverse incidents reports relating to drugs/vaccines. There is no section 15 or 16, at least not on the document we viewed. Is there another version of this document other the one on the IMB web page?
With regard to the provision of anonymised adverse reaction data, MAI wishes to point out that it is standard practice in the USA and other developed countries to make this date available to the general public.
There is serious public concern that the IMB, for some extraordinary reason best known to themselves, are interpreting and sanitizing the original reports to control the flow of information reaching the public relating to the true extent of the adverse reactions.
MAI now request you to reverse the decision of the IMB Freedom of Information Officer, and make the anonymised adverse reaction data available to us and the general public. The public need a true account of the adverse reactions reported, not a sanitized version.
Is mise, Nora Bennis MAI National Spokesperson
Leave a Reply