Polish Prime Minister says swine flu hysteria generated by pharmaceutical lobby
07 November 2009
The Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said yesterday that the lobbyists of pharmaceutical companies were responsible for creating the hysteria sweeping the globe over the „swine flu“ virus.
According to a report on the Polish TV channel, TVN24, Tusk said that the hysteria over the swine flu was being created in order to force governments to pay out millions on contracts for pandemic vaccines.
Tusk said that the Polish government would not spend large sums on vaccines for the relatively harmless swine flu when the seasonal flu kills more people.
Also, he criticised the pharmaceutical companies for trying to shift their responsibility for paying compensation for any death and damage that their vaccines cause onto the government.
"We know that the companies that are offering the vaccines against the H1N1 flu do not want to take responsibility for the secondary effects of the vaccine. They refuse to put [the vaccines] onto their market because their legal responsibility will be larger. They demand clauses which are probably not in conformity with Polish laws, and which pass all responsibilty to the government of a country for the secondary effects and eventual compensation,“ Tusk said, according to the AFP.
Tusk expressed support for the stance of the Health Minister Ewa Kopacz, a family doctor, who has refused to buy the swine flu jabs on the grounds they are not adequately tested by the medical authorities.
The Polish Deputy Minister for Health Adam Fronczak also noted that more people had died in the swine flu vaccines than from the actual virus in one country, apparently Sweden, according to TVN24.
"In one of the countries where there was a big contract for vaccines, two people died because of h1n1 but four people allegedly died a few hours after vaccination,“ he said.
The Swedish government has distributed more than a million doses of swine flu vaccines but there are no government figures available on how many jabs have been given to people making it impossible to assess the damage being caused by the vaccine. Also, there is only very limited or no requirement to report damage caused by the swine flu jab in Sweden.
La Pologne refuse les vaccins H1N1
AFP
06/11/2009 | Mise à jour : 16:46
Le premier ministre polonais Donald Tusk a accusé aujourd'hui les sociétés pharmaceutiques de chercher à rejeter sur les gouvernements la responsabilité pour d'éventuels effets secondaires des vaccins contre la grippe H1N1, justifiant ainsi le refus de la Pologne de les acquérir.
"Nous savons que les sociétés qui offrent les vaccins contre la grippe H1N1 ne veulent pas prendre la responsabilité des effets secondaires de ce vaccin", a déclaré Tusk à la presse. "Elles refusent de les mettre sur le marché, parce que leur responsabilité juridique serait alors plus grande. Elles demandent des clauses qui ne sont probablement pas conformes à la législation polonaise, et qui rejettent toute la responsabilité sur le gouvernement d'un pays en ce qui concerne les effets secondaires et des indemnisations éventuelles,", a-t-il ajouté.
La Pologne refuse pour l'instant d'acheter des vaccins contre la grippe H1N1, estimant qu'ils n'ont pas encore été suffisamment testés par les autorités médicales.