Thirty-three cases of narcolepsy have been reported in Skåne in Sweden after Sweden’s massive vaccination campaign against swine flu in 2009.
http://www.thelocal.se/39192/20120219/
Swedish doctor Steffan Sylvan said that themass swine flu vaccine campaign had led only to side effects, calling it a medical tragedy.
“If the results are true for the whole country and the vaccine campaign only led to side effects, then the only thing this massive vaccination campaign resulted in is a medical tragedy “, says Staffan Sylvan, doctor for contagious disease protection in Uppsala who wants to see an independant review of the effort as soon as possible.
http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/smittskyddslakare-vaccinationen-en-medicinsk-tragedi_6859885.svd
Full report below translated by Björn:
Doctor at contagion protection wants to see an independent investigation
Josefin Pehrson, SvD
In Uppsala county the vaccination campaign turned out to have no effect at all.
“If the results are true for the whole country and the vaccine campaign only led to side effects, then the only thing this massive vaccination campaign resulted in is a medical tragedy “, says Staffan Sylvan, doctor for contagious disease protection in Uppsala who wants to see an independant review of the effort as soon as possible.
The swine flu got same effects in Australia and New Zeeland, where no one was vaccinated, as in Uppsala county where a mapping of the flu has been done recently.
- We see no difference at all in the results and can therefore not see that the vaccination has had any effect here says Staffan Sylvan, doctor at contagion protection in Uppsala.
“A medical tragedy” is his description of effects from the vaccination.
- If the results are general for the whole country and have only resulted in side effects, then is a medical tragedy the only thing this massive vaccination campaign resulted in.
Stefan Sylvan among others wants just like Göran Stiernstedt at Swedish Municipalities and County Councils see an independent review of the campaign.
- The commission must be appointed very soon, and it has to be an entirely independent, not like the one where The National Board of Health and Welfare on their own paid for a consultant to do. It must not be bound to authorities which have been involved in this.
He hopes that a commission not just shall show what went wrong in the process leading up to the vaccination in 2009, but also give guidelines for coming pandemics.
Already at an early stage Staffan Sylvan questioned the effort internally, which SvD’s reviw last Sunday showed, where an email from him to other doctors at contagion protection and Anders Tegnell, then chief at the contagion protection unit of The National Board of Health and Welfare, was cited. He underlined then that the flu which had reached Sweden was “a milder variant” than what one had anticipated and wrote “I think that one should reflect a little before one enters into such a costly and uncertain project” but got the answer there wasn’t any freedom for action.
Do you regret today you just questioned the effort internally?
- I do not question vaccinations. On the contrary, they are the best means of protection we have against disease and death. What I initially questioned was the fact the procurement of 18 millions of doses were so locked. I mean this was miserably and that it was so pressed to decide that there was no freedom to act [otherwise]. That I stand firm for.
To go out with one’s hesitation in that situation wouldn’t have affected anything, means Staffan Sylvan.
- There was no possibility of influence, the contracts were written. We were never involved in any discussion about how one should write these contracts, then we could have been in another situation.
Before/prior to new negotiations about procurement of vaccine he turns decidedly against having contracts linked to the WHO classifications of pandemies.
- No that isn’t possible. Rule number one is to plan for the worst but have flexibility. That we didn’t have then.
Apart from appointing an independent commission as soon as possible he thinks the most pressing thing in today’s situation is to take care of those who have suffered from the side effects of the vaccine.
- Is that fundamently a political decision, which it likely is to a certain part, then politicians must take responsibility for what has happened. The indemnity question must get a satisfactory solution for the individuals who have gotten their lives ruined.
