The state massacre of infected blood: how England knowingly killed 3,000 people
More than 30,000 people in the UK infected with contaminated blood between the 1970s and 1990s. Many were children. "The Government knew, it was not an accident"
ROME – “It was not an accident”. They knew everything, they knew the risks, yet they continued to administer potentially infected blood to the population, causing more than 3,000 deaths in about twenty years, many of whom were children. It was a real state massacre, he concluded the independent public inquiry into the infection or death of thousands of people in the UK from contaminated blood. It was avoidable, and has continued over the years with a “subtle, pervasive and chilling” cover-up by the NHS and the government.
The investigation lasted five years, carried out by a team led by Sir Brian Langstaff. More than 30,000 people in the UK, 3,000 of whom died, were infected by contaminated blood from the 1970s to the early 1990s, either from receiving transfusions in the operating room or through products created using plasma imported from the United States to treat hemophiliacs. The 2,527-page final reportfound that patients were misled about the risks and, in some cases, infected during research conducted without their consent, even in the case of children.
“It was not an accident – says Langstaff – the risks of hepatitis from blood transfusions or the use of plasma were known before the birth of the national health service in 1948, while the importation of factor VIII products should never have been authorized in 1973.”
“Over the decades, various governments have repeated inaccurate, defensive and misleading policies. The persistent refusal to hold a public inquiry, combined with a defensive mentality that refused to admit that a wrong had been committed, left people without answers and without justice. This also meant that many chronically ill people felt obliged to devote their time and energy to the investigation, often at great personal cost.”
