24 March 2022: Foster - D

Jenni Richards has an interesting technique of sometimes exaggeratedly inflecting her voice upwards as she ends a question. It seems to elicit fuller responses to certain questions, almost subconsciously signposting to the witness that they are invited to say more than they might have thought they would say.

Perhaps the recent hit song from Disney was based on growing evidence in the 1980s about a new virus spreading among intravenous drug users and "practicing" homosexuals. Doctors went to conferences to be confronted with the possibility of haemophiliacs being caught up in the new "plague". They travelled back to their labs and consulting rooms humming the song "We Don't Talk About AIDS, No, No, No, No".

Dr Foster, after the realisation of AIDS began to dawn, backtracked on the suggested risk of people rushing to cryo and the impact on plasma stocks. He was unhappy about the suggestion the concern could have been more for the uninterrupted workings of the PFC, ahead of patients in need anti-haemorrhagic products.

Prof Bloom was a chatting buddy of Dr Foster at conferences, but they didn't cover the hot topic of AIDS. While at the same time, other attendees at the same events were reacting with urgent horror about AIDS by writing detailed messages to key colleagues back at the ranch. Dr Foster's noted analogy was equally well imagined. He saw the initial trickle of AIDS cases in the haemophilia community as being "the first puffs of smoke from the volcano". Other delegates had a similar analogy when they described their clear uneasiness at the AIDS revelations as being "the tip of the iceberg".

When the Americans tried to defend their blood as being universally considered to be bad news due to AIDS, their very first response was to cite "Ludlum et al". Of all the actors on this global stage, they resorted to CAL. I venture to suggest he probably loved the notoriety.

At the time of AIDS being first highlighted, Dr Foster quickly recognised that the risk from unpaid UK donors also presented a problem. This goes against the long-standing narrative, as seen since the early 80s, of the overly simplified and ultimately misleading couplet of US-bad, UK-good.

Lord Glenarthur was a target of Dr Foster for having a too complacent response to the AIDS threat, including when the good Lord was advising Government Minister, Clive Jenkin. He directly disagreed with the Glenarthur suggestion of a lack of evidence. Perhaps precociously, Dr Foster worried at the time of the UK potentially becoming a "dumping ground" for US blood and products which were no longer able to be used for the home market.

Prof Peter Jones of Newcastle also gets a mention, this time as a known paid consultant to the pharmaceutical industry.

The magic roundabout of claims, counter claims, personalities, and purse-strings appears to have created a situation best summed up by Walter Scott. "Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive."

Speaking of magic roundabouts, Zebedee says "Boing, time to get back to the hotel."