25 March 2022: Foster - A

Comrade Foster saw it as his duty as an apparently card holding lefty to stoke up safety issues related to AIDS through the unions. That sounds derogatory, and maybe a natural righty would say quite properly so. Regardless, the arguments towards agitation he presents are enlightening in hindsight as far as they present an alternative to the official preferred narrative on aspects such as "no proof".

His unionism was also, in his strategic opinion, an alternative route to achieving better UK-wide plasma gathering and using arrangements. He did this behind the scenes since Cash and Watt were not union men. By the witness having a foot in two camps, Jenni is able to exploit the gap in between. I suspect there will be a few watchers among Dr Foster's former peers and colleagues who will be clenching their fists (at least their fists) at his righteous revelations.

So Hepatitis is mentioned, as an aside, as a "general complication", but according to the notice it states that complications are "rare". The only recognised "side effects" of F8 are maybe some nausea and/or headache. Surely this is a massive elephant in the syringe? The blindness to any shortcomings of concentrates is stunning, so much so that they couldn't see the wood (obvious risk) for the trees (inconvenient evidence).

In a properly "rare" way, we see Sir Brian intervene mid-question from Jenni to the witness, and see him asserting his Chairman role to assume responsibility for answering the incomplete question rather than the witness. This Chair is very assured and confident in his place at the table.

On at least one occasion, availability of plasma for research was so short that a number of members of Dr Foster's staff, including himself, donated blood so the research could go on. Research plasma was of secondary priority to plasma for patients, but crucially, at no point was there a shortage of cryo if clinicians wanted to revert to it while the viral issues with concentrates was not yet properly understood.

A meeting attended by the witness, Prof Ludlum and other Haemophilia clinicians recognised how cryo was being extensively used in home treatment. A suggested research project into cryo for home treatment elicited a note of interest from Prof Ludlum about its use for children in relation to liver disease and hepatitis. At the same meeting, a question about continuing to archive computer information  was raised. The matter was to be reviewed but the question remains, have all the previously archived records been retained and made available to the Inquiry? Where were these archives held? UKHCDO?

On the news of the first patients being infected with AIDS by PFC products, Dr Foster reflected that they knew it was "just a matter of time" before that happened. That's another stark admission on behalf of his former peers and colleagues.

Sir Brian has been making lots of personal written notes during this session. He is spending a lot of time following the screen on his desk with the live transcript running.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

26 July 2023: Sunak - A

And in walked the Prime Minister (PM), at exactly 2pm. One minute later the Chair enters. Sir Brian said a few words of thanks for the special circumstances related to access people had to endure due to the additional security arrangements. The PM gave the oath following his own religious affiliation. Counsel contextually reviewed how the witness had stated that his knowledge and involvement relied on other Ministers, however he had received more recent briefings in preparation for the appearance today. The first questions went straight to the communications from Penny Mordaunt when she was Paymaster General (PG). These highlighted in strong terms the need for action at the time and not to delay. Before answering, the witness wanted to say how he recognised this was, “An appalling scandal … people have suffered for decades” (and other fine words not backed up with action). In relation to the letters from the PG, he did not see them under the normal situation of a triage to filter the c...
Read more

25 July 2023: Dunn - B

Questions from core participants: Was there an investigation into the newspaper leaks? She was not aware of one, but that would have been taken forward by the Cabinet Office. (Fox and chicken coop comes to mind.) What are the main elements being used to come up with the leaked figures? She was not able to say but would get back to the Inquiry with that information. On psychological support, will the research be made publicly available, and when? She expected it would be and was expected in August. The research was understood to have been commissioned in 2022, but the need was highlighted in 2020. Why did it take so long to get to the point of commissioning the work? She said there was a process of “ongoing dialogue” after which it was decided that what was required was more ongoing dialogue. (That’s not exactly how it was phrased.) The Chair referenced himself as having, on several occasions, expressed the hope that he can recognise how everyone in the UK, including England, was benefi...
Read more

17 November 2022: Panel on finding the undiagnosed - A

Another panel of leading medics were assembled to address the issue of how to find people who are still undiagnosed. There was one from each of the four nations: Professor Graham Foster (England); Professor John Dillon (Scotland); Doctor Brendan Healey (Wales); and Dr Joanne McLean (Northern Ireland). As usual, for each witness there was a brief review of their respective roles and responsibilities. The situation in England started with a description of the HCV elimination initiative and its arrangement involving the pharmaceutical companies which was lauded by the English witness but seemed curious. For their cooperation, the pharma companies get anonymous, headline data on patients. There is a three phase elimination programme in England. Phase 1 is about oral therapies. Phase 2 is about risk groups. It involves an incentivised process to encourage the identification by re-engagement with patients who had had a positive test but had not been treated. It involved about 50,000 people. ...
Read more