MEDICAL MISTAKES & ERRORS. What is happening at the NHS Trust in Shrewsbury and Telford is old news. It has been happening for decades

• The piece that follows was written in 2008, and published in my E-Book, 'The Failure of Conventional Medicine'.
• Since that time there has been regular reports of 'medical mistakes' and 'medical errors' within the NHS, and around the world.
• These mistakes and errors cause serious illness and disease and death.

The most recent health scandal concerns what has been happening at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust, where there is now an ongoing investigation into more than 600 cases of newborn children and mothers dying, or left injured.

Further, we are being told that this may be just the tip of the iceberg, and that the scandal has been going on for decades, and that the failure "might be more widespread in the NHS".

Yet are these really just mistakes and errors?

Or the consequence of operating a medical system 

that is INHERENTLY dangerous?

A failed system of medicine

So this is what I wrote 11 years ago, about the same kind of 'mistakes' and 'errors' that are currently hitting the headlines .....

     "It has been estimated that between 5-10% of patients admitted to hospital are infected with hospital-acquired diseases, such as MRSA (360 deaths in 2005 in England alone) and Clostridium Difficile (1,300 death in 2004). The problem, according to the NHS is that health professionals needed to do more to address hygiene to improve patient safety - thereby ignoring the troublesome fact that whilst these infections can be spread by bad hygiene their actual cause is the overuse of antibiotics - conventional medicine's most miraculous miracle drug!

It is the same throughout the world. On 25 October 2006 the BBC reported that in Italy it has been estimated that as many as 90 people die in hospital every day “due to medical malpractice and organisational errors”. Note that the deaths are not caused by ‘medicine’ - but by malpractice, and error. The calculation of 33,000 annual deaths is more than the number of people killed on the roads in Italy, which means that there are an awful lot of ‘errors’ and ‘malpractice’ going on!

Celia Hall, Medical Editor, Daily Telegraph.
"One NHS patient in 10 'is harmed in hospital'"
6 July 2006. This article said that nearly a million patient safety incidents or 'near misses' in a single year were recorded in NHS trusts, drawing attention to the effectiveness of the Patient Safety Agency. It estimated that in 2004-05 there were 974,000 patient safety incidents in England and Wales and MPs believe that 22% of mistakes go unreported.

In the same Daily Telegraph article the charity, Peter Walsh, the chief executive of 'Action against Medical Accidents' (AvMA) called for stronger sanctions.

               "We hope the report will give an injection of urgency into work to improve patient safety. Whilst there has been welcome progress we want to see more teeth given to existing guidelines and safety alerts. It should be compulsory for NHS providers to implement them".
Sarah Bosely
Guardian
11 August 2006This outlined 40,000 NHS drug errors logged in a year, the figures having been collated by the National Patient Safety Agency. The article said that the statistics inevitably underestimated the problem 'since not all errors are reported'.

Jerome Burne
Daily Mail
12 September 2006
              "In the UK, 10,000 people are killed every year by adverse drug reactions which happens when the prescription drug supposed to be curing you kills or harms you instead. That is more than the number who die from cervical cancer, taking illegal drugs, cancer of the mouth and passive smoking combined. It's actually more dangerous to visit your doctor than it is to drive your car - in 2004, traffic accidents were responsible for some 3,221 deaths. Yet a further 40,000 people each year are made sick enough by drugs they are taking to be admitted to hospital".
 

WDDTY e-news
Doctor Error: It’s rife, especially among the newborns
7 February 2008 

"It's an urban myth - and one that happens to be true - that the death rate plummets when doctors go on strike. Patients in hospital are especially vulnerable to the doctor's ministrations, and it's even worse for the newborn baby who hasn't yet made it home. A new study into newborns that needed 'hospital' care - usually because of low birth rate or premature birth - has revealed the extent of doctor error or doctor-induced (iatrogenic) problems. Researchers monitored the progress of 388 babies who had been admitted to a neo-natal unit in Southern France from January to September 2005; in that time, researchers witness 267 doctor errors, and nearly 30% of these were serious. Two babies died as a direct result of the errors".
(Source: The Lancet, 2008; 371: 404-10).

WDDTY reported on research (published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, 2006; 166: 1410-6) that studied the progress of 7,054 patients admitted to a veterans' hospital between 2003 and 2004. Of these, 792 patients suffered a heart attack while in the hospital (about 11%) and that they were twice as likely to die from the attack.

As the article says, this means that up to 2,690,000 people could be harmed by medical ‘mishaps’ every year. This represents around 4.5% of the entire population. It goes on to say that in the USA, where twice as much is spent on pharmaceutical drugs, the problem could be affecting up to 13,450,000 people every year. Government officials were said to be 'shocked' to hear that nobody knows how many of the reported 'blunders' ended in death. Apparently, only 1 in 4 hospitals 'own up' to the patient when something goes wrong; the rest presumably blame the patient illness on admission. Just 1 in 25 drug reactions is ever reported.

Edward Leigh, chairman of the Commons Public Accounts committee said that 1 in 10 people admitted to a hospital in Britain every year will suffer a mishap or accident that will harm him, and that this is based on known, reported accidents. Apparently, the committee members discovered that the situation is not getting better, that doctors and hospital staff are not learning from mistakes, but repeating them every year, that guidelines are being consistently ignored, and safety recommendations are not being implemented.

 SO HOW LONG MUST WE CONTINUE TO ENDURE THESE STORIES?

WHEN WILL WE RECOGNISE WHAT SHOULD BE NOW OBVIOUS?

CONVENTIONAL MEDICINE IS INHERENTLY UNSAFE

IF WE WANT SAFE MEDICINE....

.... WE HAVE TO RETURN TO NATURAL MEDICINE

SCIENCE IS NOT A PANACEA. It is not always definitive. It does not resolve everything. So how can we tell when it's right or wrong?

We live in the age of SCIENCE! But we need to be able to differentiate between good and bad science, and we are not really very good at doing so. The problem is we have been taught to believe many things about science.

• It is a panacea, providing answers for all kinds of difficulties and disputes.
• That science gives us definitive answers about what is right and what is wrong. 
• That science can resolve differences of opinion that have been debated for centuries.

Often scientists can do this, indeed, scientific evidence is usually presented to us alongside an assumption that it had done just this. And, indeed, sometimes it does - when the the science does not concern matters in which there are too many variables to contend with.

• So science knows, conclusively, what will happen when we mix two chemicals together. 
• Science knows, without contradiction, how the sun and planets currently interact, and how the constellations function. 
• Science has worked out how living organisms function and live, how they survive and how they die.
• And much more.

But often science quite clearly does not do this. For instance, social science, economics, psychology, and many other areas of human activity, where science has been applied but does not resolve very much at all. One reason is that there are just too many variables. Too often, then they are presented to us on the basis that science does have definitive knowledge, that it can predict what will happen. But it doesn't do so.

Science is often too optimistic about its ability to make sense of the world, and the problem we should all face is how we can different between the two.

This blog deals with two areas of scientific endeavour where the failure to resolve critical issues have been most notably absent, not just because there are too many variables that complicate what is happening, but because the 'science' has been taken over by powerful corporate interests.

• Climate change

Climate change and global warming is perhaps something that science should be able to come up with something decisive and conclusive about what is happening. And, in fact, it does! The bulk of the scientific community investigating climate change are clear - it is be caused by the impact that we (humanity) are having on our planet. The science is well known, and its conclusions have been getting clearer over the last 40-50 years.

Unfortunately the science of climate change was not coming up with answers that powerful corporate interests wanted or liked.

Quite the opposite, science was coming to conclusions that had massive implications for the petro-chemical industry, the coal and steel industries, the aviation industry, motor manufacturers, et al. So instead of accepting the science they began to fund and finance a kind of 'counter' science, one that denies that it is their industrial activity (the basis of their profitability) that was damaging our planet.

So for all us 'non-scientists' uncertainty and confusion was introduced.

• Pharmaceutical medicine

Conventional medicine, and its use of toxic drugs, has been with us since the 12th century. But it was at the start of the 20th century that the idea that 'science' would eventually be able to overcome illness and disease. After all, we could now travel without horses, communicate by telegram and then by telephone, we could fly - and all of this thanks to science.

So medical science was born. New 'scientific' drugs began to be lauded as miracle cures. Painkillers did seem to work. And antibiotics were able to revolutionise health care, enabling amazing new surgical operations.The result was that the pharmaceutical industry grew in size, wealth and power. They funded the new medical science, which gratefully came up with new and exciting drugs and vaccines. The industry now dominates national health provision around the world.

Yet, as with climate change, there are small voices raising questions about whether medical science is correct, that we are better, healthier because of it. Not least because the 'wonder' drugs proved to be less than wonderful, and caused the most dreadful 'side effects' that harmed patients. Many of them had to be withdrawn, or banned, because they were just too dangerous to give patients.

However, this has not caused too much uncertainty or confusion as the pharmaceutical industry had, by this time, become so powerful it could ensure these dissident voices were not heard. It could control governments, national health services, drug regulation, and the mainstream media.

So for many people there still is no scientific debate about medicine. Pharmaceutical medicine is what keeps us alive and healthy - just as we are told.

So there is an important question that needs to be asked - how can we tell when science is right or wrong? There are two criteria that we have to apply.

• 1. Who is funding the science?

The paymaster, he who pays the piper, can have an undue influence over science. It should not have such an influence, but it almost inevitably does.

Scientists funded by industries that contribute to climate change will tend to deny that climate change is caused by human activity. This kind of science, bought and paid for by industry, has become the preserve of the far, or ultra-right of politics. The USA President, Donald Trump, represents (and is part of) the interests of these polluting industries, and for them climate change just does not exist. Mainstream science is wrong, and it suits Trump, and like-minded people, to believe this.

Likewise, medical science is almost exclusively funded by the pharmaceutical industry, which now controls drug testing, drug regulation, the huge conventional medical establishment, and the mainstream media, through which we get most of our information about pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines.

So to make sense of what science is telling us, in whatever field, we need to know more about the scientists, and who is funding them. Mainstream climate science is not funded, and so does not speak for powerful corporations. It is essentially independent, its conclusions do not make money for anyone, quite the reverse, it does not speak for vested interests.

Medical science is funded by, and speaks for the pharmaceutical industry. The drug testing industry, many university medical departments, prestigious medical journals - none of them would be able to exist without the largesse of drug companies. Those small voices who are questioning, or speaking against the 'science' of the pharmaceutical industry come mainly from the tiny world of natural medicine. There is little or no profit in doing so.

•  2. Does the science explain what is happening in the world?

Yet there is a more important, and perhaps simpler way of determining the validity of the message that science is giving us:

Does it help us understand what we can see to be happening in the world?

So we should ask - is climate change happening? Are the polar ice caps and the glaciers melting? Is sea level rising? Are there more hurricanes and typhoons than there have ever been? Are there more severe weather events? Is there more flooding? Are there more droughts? Is global temperature rising? Is desertification happening in some parts of the world?

If so, who has the best explanation? Climate scientists? Or climate deniers?

And is pharmaceutical medicine working, as we are told? Is it overcoming illness and disease? Are doctors able to cope with the medical needs of their patients? Are people getting ill, and then getting better? Are the medical outcomes of pharmaceutical drug treatment positive ones? Are people, and governments, able to afford the costs of pharmaceutical medical treatment?

Or, alternatively, are chronic diseases now running at unprecedented epidemic levels - arthritis, asthma, autism, COPD, dementia, heart disease, kidney disease, liver disease, mental health, et al? And are there a plethora of new, previously never-heard-of-before diseases, especially those that are affecting our children?

Scientists are like everyone else, every other profession. Some are honest, seeking only the truth, trying to explain what is happening in the world. Some are dishonest, willing to do and say anything as long as they are well rewarded for doing so.

And each and every one of us has to make a judgement about science - what science is telling us the truth - and what science is speaking to conform to the wishes of their paymasters.

 

PHARMACEUTICAL DRUGS IN SHORT SUPPLY. But as they are harmful why should this be a problem?

In recent months the mainstream news media have been telling everyone that there are shortages of pharmaceutical drugs. For many people, like myself, who have no use for them this was not the frightening news that it was made out to be. They are dangerous. They harm us. We are better off, healthier, without them.

But it introduces new dangers.  

• GPs have voted for pharmacists to be given powers to dispense an equivalent preparation or dosing regime when the prescribed medication is unavailable, without returning the prescription to the GP.
•  Prescribers are being advised to prioritise supplies of certain medications and to consider switching patients to unlicensed alternatives in some cases, as more than 100 drugs remain out of stock.

Yet to my surprise I have discovered that some doctors agree with my assessment. In Pulse, the GP's e-magazine, one GP wrote this in an article entitled "The drugs don't work, so why worry about shortages?"

               "Call me weird, but I reckon there’s a positive spin to the acute on chronic medicine shortage debacle..... It’s true that we’re reaching the point that shortages are even affecting the alternatives, and when there’s no alternative, there’s no drug. But actually, for me, that’s the positive. Because, frankly, I think we doctors prescribe far too many drugs"

I could not agree more, which is rare for me, agreeing with a doctor about the value of pharmaceutical drugs! He does not mention the harm caused by pharmaceutical drugs but goes on...

               "Assuming shortages continue, and extrapolating this effect, hopefully loads of patients will stop loads of drugs. When the drug unavailability issue whips the therapeutic rug from under patients’ feet, they don’t keel over. A few might suffer, but I’d argue a net benefit on the basis that many won’t notice any difference, and a significant number will probably feel better."

I wondered whether he would receive a hostile response from his colleague, so look at the foot of the article, and found comments that agreed with what he had written. One said, quite simply "Well said", another that it would not last, but another said this ....

               "Marvellous opportunity to discuss stopping HRT with the elderly users who have not yet succumbed to breast cancer and stroke".

A doctor admitting a link between Hormone Replacement Therapy and breast cancer and stroke?

It shows that some doctors do understand that pharmaceutical drugs are causing harm to their patients. It shows that doctor-morale is low, that confidence in pharmaceutical drugs is limited, even amongst doctors who spend most of their working day prescribing them. 

But I wondered how many doctors have been quite as transparently honest - when talking to their patients?

DISEASE & THE SEARCH FOR CURES. Is it possible to find a cure without first knowing the cause?

If your car, or washing machine, breaks down, the mechanic you employ to fix it will first need to ascertain the cause. 

Only then will (s)he be able to fix the problem.

Yet this is not what conventional medicine does. Indeed, our doctors usually go out of their way to deny one of the most important causes of serious illness and disease - iatrogenesis.

I realised this first several years ago whilst starting to put together my DIE's (the Disease-Inducing-Effects of Pharmaceutical Drugs and Vaccines) e-book. Each page of this book focuses on an illness or disease in order to see whether conventional medicial drugs and vaccine can cause it. In doing so I found that conventional medicine routinely denies that their drugs and vaccines cause all kinds of illnesses. 

Indeed, time and time again, conventional medicine states that "there is no known cause".

At one level, perhaps, this is understandable ignorance. What car mechanic, for instance, would want to admit that your car was not working because a previous repair he had done had caused the problem?

But if the mechanic ignored the fact that his/her previous fault was causing the current problem, would he be able to fix the problem? It is unlikely.

But this is what conventional medicine does all the time. In writing each separate page of my DIE's e-book I used the UK's NHS website to see how they described the cause of serious illnesses and diseases. In some cases what they say is that "there is no known cause". In others they describe what is happening, what is going wrong within the body - and mistakenly present this as a cause. Here are some examples of both - all relating to illness that are running at unprecedented levels.

ALLERGY (cause not known)

          "Allergies occur when the body's immune system reacts to a particular substance as though it's harmful. It's not clear why this happens, but most people affected have a family history of allergies or have closely related conditions, such as asthma or eczema. The number of people with allergies is increasing every year. The reasons for this are not understood, but one of the main theories is it's the result of living in a cleaner, germ-free environment, which reduces the number of germs our immune system has to deal with. It's thought this may cause it to overreact when it comes into contact with harmless substances."

Pharmaceutical drugs known to cause Allergy.

ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE (mainly description)

          "Alzheimer's disease is thought to be caused by the abnormal build-up of proteins in and around brain cells..... Although it's not known exactly what causes this process to begin, scientists now know that it begins many years before symptoms appear. As brain cells become affected, there's also a decrease in chemical messengers (called neurotransmitters) involved in sending messages, or signals, between brain cells. Levels of one neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, are particularly low in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease. Over time, different areas of the brain shrink. The first areas usually affected are responsible for memories.

Pharmaceutical drugs known to cause Alzheimer's Disease.

RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS (cause not known)

          "Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune condition, which means it's caused by the immune system attacking healthy body tissue. However, it's not yet known what triggers this.

OSTEOARTHRITIS (mainly description)

           "As part of normal life, your joints are exposed to a constant low level of damage. In most cases, your body repairs the damage itself and you do not experience any symptoms. But in osteoarthritis, the protective cartilage on the ends of your bones breaks down, causing pain, swelling and problems moving the joint. Bony growths can develop, and the area can become red and swollen.
The exact cause is not known...." 

Pharmaceutical drugs known to cause Arthritis.

ASTHMA (cause not known)
          "The exact cause of asthma is unknown.People with asthma have swollen (inflamed) and "sensitive" airways that become narrow and clogged with sticky mucus in response to certain triggers. Genetics, pollution and modern hygiene standards have been suggested as causes, but there's not currently enough evidence to know if any of these do cause asthma.

Pharmaceutical drugs known to cause Asthma.

AUTISM (cause not known, and also denial)
          "It's not clear what causes autism. Nobody knows what causes autism, or if it has a cause.
It can affect people in the same family. So it may sometimes be passed on to a child by their parents."

However, most unusually, conventional medicine knows what does NOT cause autism, including vaccines!

Pharmaceutical drugs known to cause Autism.

ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER - ADHD (cause not known)
          "The exact cause of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is not fully understood, although a combination of factors is thought to be responsible.

Pharmaceutical drugs known to cause ADHD.

CANCER (description, no cause discussed)

          "Cancer is a condition where cells in a specific part of the body grow and reproduce uncontrollably. The cancerous cells can invade and destroy surrounding healthy tissue, including organs."

Pharmaceutical drugs known to cause cancer.

CHRONIC FATIGUE & ME (cause not known)

          "It's not known what causes CFS/ME, but there are a number of theories – for example, it may be triggered by an infection, or certain factors could make you more likely to develop the illness.

Pharmaceutical drugs known to cause CFS & ME.

DIABETES (entirely description)

          "The amount of sugar in the blood is controlled by a hormone called insulin, which is produced by the pancreas (a gland behind the stomach).

Pharmaceutical drugs known to cause Diabetes.

IRRITABLE BOWEL (cause not known)

          "The exact cause is unknown – it's been linked to things like food passing through your gut too quickly or too slowly, oversensitive nerves in your gut, stress and a family history of IBS.

CROHN'S DISEASE (cause not known)

          "The exact cause of Crohn's disease is unknown."

Pharmaceutical drugs known to cause Crohn's Disease

MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS (cause not known)

          "Exactly why someone develops multiple sclerosis (MS) isn't known. It's not caused by anything you have done and it's not clear whether it can be prevented.

Pharmaceutical drugs known to cause MS.

I could go on with a much larger list of illnesses, but the ones mentioned have become some of the most serious throughout the developed world, running at epidemic levels, and still on the increase.

What this clearly demonstrates is that the mechanic-doctor does not know what is causing these epidemic levels of disease, instead doctors are myopically working in the dark, either unable or unwilling to accept that the pharmaceutical drugs (s)he is using are (at the very least) an important contributory factor to all these diseases.

So does conventional medicine have any effective, of safe treatment for these epidemic illnesses?

The answer, from a previous blog, 'How effective is conventional medicine', again using evidence from the UK's NHS website, is clear that it does not

And part of the reason for this is that conventional medicine cannot bring itself to admit that the cause of most of these serious illnesses is iatrogenic - doctor induced.

And that conventional medicine ignores one effective treatment for most, if not all disease, is to stop giving harmful pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines to patients!

Severe allergic reactions rise in children in England over past five years

Severe allergic reactions English children have risen in each of the past five years!

This was reported in some of the mainstream media over the weekend, for example, in this BBC article, dated 15 November 2019 which reported that

               "The number of children being admitted to hospital in England with a severe allergic reaction has risen every year for the past five years. NHS figures show 1,746 children were treated for anaphylactic shock in 2018-19, up from 1,015 in 2013-14"

• So what has caused this near doubling of anaphylaxis in five years?

As usual, mainstream media coverage is vague about this, perhaps not surprisingly as all the accounts I have read clearly come from a single (conventional medical) source which has been meekly and obligingly regurgitated. So we are told

              "Scientists say environmental factors could be to blame for more allergies."

The accounts do not go further into this 'scientific' explanation. They do not, for instance, tell us what environmental factors have increased so much in the last 5 years to cause this near doubling of allergy, and anaphylaxis. They do, however, go on to talk about "the most common causes of severe allergic reactions" which they describe as foods such as nuts, fish and shellfish, and factors such as "wasp and bee stings, drugs and dairy products, among others".

Unfortunately, all except one of these do not cause allergy, they are merely triggers. These are the things we become allergic to, and they are all things that our body should be able routinly to cope with.

Yet did you notice that single word that was slipped into the BBC News article - "drugs"? So do pharmaceutical drugs really cause allergy, and anaphylaxis? Absolutely they do! Where is the evidence? It is contained within the literature of the conventional medical establishment itself!

I have written about the link between allergy, anaphylaxis and pharmaceutical drugs elsewhere, and I have listed the drugs that are most implicated in the allergy epidemic. They include

• painkilling drugs
• sleeping drugs
• antibiotic drugs
• anticonvulsant drugs
• insulin
• drugs that interfere with our immune system

But, most of all, it is the vaccines that conventional medicine is busy pumping into us, not least into our children, that are creating and extending the allergy epidemic.

In my article I outlined the case against vaccines, and their connection with the allergy epidemic. It is irrefutable. But it is a case conventional medicine, and their friends in the mainstream media, deny. They don't want us to hear. about it. Hence the single word reference. Which, in fact, is one word more than the media usually uses when pointing to the culpability of the pharmaceutical industry!

One recent USA study, which compared the health of vaccinated and unvaccinated children, has said this about the link between serious illness and vaccines.

               "vaccinated children were 4.2 times more likely to be diagnosed on the autism spectrum or with attention deficit and hyperactivity. Learning disabilities are 5.2 times more prevalent in vaccinated children. Eczema was 2.9 times more likely. The most shocking problem facing the vaccinated children was allergic rhinitis. The study documented a 3,000% increase of allergic rhinitis in vaccinated children compared to the unvaccinated group." (My emphasis).

Which all goes to prove - we are in the midst of an allergy crisis - a crisis which is getting worse - and we are not being told what is causing it - not by our doctors - not by the NHS - not by the Department of Health - and certainly not by the mainstream media!

We are on our own out here.

If we want to stay well and keep our children safe

we are going to have to learn this for ourselves.

HOW EFFECTIVE IS CONVENTIONAL MEDICINE? Why are there no pharmaceutical drugs that can cope with chronic disease?

Chronic disease is now rife throughout the so-called 'developed' world. These diseases are all running at unprecedented levels. They have become epidemics. And conventional medicine has no effective treatment, notably pharmaceutical drugs, to deal with them. So how effective is conventional medicine?

To find the answer to this important question we do not have to look beyond the published literature of the conventional medical establishment itself.

Whilst researching and writing my 'Why Homeopathy?' E-Book I was amazed how many times, and for how many illnesses, conventional medicine had to admit that it had little or no effective treatment. I gathered my information on conventional medical treatment from the UK's NHS website, surely a reliable source, which states that the website is "Your complete guide to conditions, symptoms and treatments...". Here is a sample of statements taken from this website about the way it treats these serious illnesses, all now running at epidemic levels.

Alzheimers Disease          "There's currently no cure for Alzheimer's disease. But there is medication available that can temporarily reduce the symptoms. Support is also available to help someone with the condition, and their family, cope with everyday life'.

Vascular Dementia
          "Treatment can help prevent further damage to the brain in people with vascular dementia and may slow down its progression. But there's currently no cure for the condition or a way to reverse the damage that's already occurred.

Frontotemporal Dementia
          "There's currently no cure for frontotemporal dementia, but there are treatments that can help manage some of the symptoms."

Osteoarthritis
          "There's no cure for osteoarthritis, but the condition does not necessarily get any worse over time."

Rheumatoid Arthritis
          "Although there's no cure for rheumatoid arthritis, early treatment and support (including medicine, lifestyle changes, supportive treatments and surgery) can reduce the risk of joint damage and limit the impact of the condition."

Asthma
          "There's currently no cure for asthma, but treatment can help control the symptoms so you're able to live a normal, active life."

ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder)
          "Treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can help relieve the symptoms and make the condition much less of a problem in day-to-day life."

Autism
The NHS does not mention treatment, and refuses to accept that this condition is an illness (so therefore does not need treatment)!
          "Being autistic does not mean you have an illness or disease. It means your brain works in a different way from other people.It's something you're born with or first appears when you're very young.If you're autistic, you're autistic your whole life. Autism is not a medical condition with treatments or a "cure". But some people need support to help them with certain things.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome / ME
          Treatments for CFS/ME aim to help relieve your symptoms...CFS/ME can last a long time, but most people's symptoms will improve with time."

COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease)
          "There's currently no cure for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but treatment can help slow the progression of the condition and control the symptoms.

Irritable Bowel
          "It's usually a lifelong problem. It can be very frustrating to live with and can have a big impact on your everyday life.There's no cure, but diet changes and medicines can often help control the symptoms."

Crohn's Disease
          "There's currently no cure for Crohn's disease, but treatment can control or reduce the symptoms and help stop them coming back.

MS (Multiple Sclerosis)
          "There's currently no cure for multiple sclerosis (MS), but it's possible to treat the symptoms with medicines and other treatments."

And so it continues...... There are many, many more serious illnesses for which the NHS makes similar admissions on its website. Conventional medicine has no treatment for them - and this is admitted from within their own literature.

In addition, there are many other illnesses that are currently being treated with antibiotic drugs, and when resistance to these drugs becomes total this means that these too will become 'untreatable'.

And, of course, illnesses which are treatable are treated with pharmaceutical drugs that have dreadful side effects which leads to the creation of more serious illness.

So when the NHS, and other conventional health services throughout the developed world, are in constant and serious financial trouble, it is entirely predictable. Conventional medicine has no effective treatment available to them to treat the diseases that have become epidemic.

• If the conventional medical establishment were more honest about their ineffectiveness, less arrogant about the medical claims, this might be more acceptable.
• If the conventional medical establishment was more humble, and look beyond its myopic obsession with pharmaceutical drugs, it might be able to look towards natural medical therapies, like homeopathy, which do have effective treatments for these chronic diseases.
• If medicine, and medical organisations like the NHS, was willing to be more co-operative, if it was able to take the best available treatments from every medical therapy, and offer them to patients, we would all benefit.

But this would seriously undermine the ascendancy, the dominance, the control and the profitability of the pharmaceutical industry. So for medical institutions like the NHS it remains a long way off.

But it is just a short distance for the individual patient!

Cannabis-Based Drugs for MS & Epilepsy. Now under control of Pharmaceutical Industry. So it's okay for NHS to prescribe them. What is the back story?

Two new Cannabis-based drugs, to treat epilepsy and MS, have been introduced by NICE and they will now be available on the UK's NHS. As usual, the introduction of these new drugs has been heralded by the mainstream media, charities and patient groups as 'long-overdue'.

Epidyolex is for children with two types of severe epilepsy, Lennox Gastaut syndrome, and Dravet syndrome. Both syndromes feature multiple seizures on a daily basis.

Sativex is a mouth spray that has been approved for treating muscle stiffness and spasms (spasticity) in MS (multiple sclerosis).

As usual, the two drugs were described by the media in glowing terms. Epidyolex, we were told, can reduce the number of seizures by up to 40% in some children, and this was confirmed by many parents who have been fighting for the drugs to be made available on the NHS. However, certain aspects of the story were not told, and perhaps will never be told if we rely on conventional medicine, and the mainstream media.

1. The Side Effects of the Drugs
The known side effects of the drugs were not mentioned. This is not unusual, of course. Introducing new 'wonder' drugs, and denying the harm they cause, is the strategy which maintains our faith in conventional medicine. But they are a matter of record in conventional medical literature.

• Epidyolex
• Sativex

So as usual the dangers of these drugs will not become known to non-doctors until a few more years down the line, when prescription will be increasingly restricted because of the harm they cause.

2. Why are the Drugs needed?
Conventional medicine undoubtedly needs the drugs. The number of children with life-threatening epilepsy syndromes is growing rapidly, as is MS. Both now affect unprecedented number of people. Both have become modern epidemics. And, as usual, conventional medicine has no effective or safe treatment for either.

So why do we have this need to treat so many new diseases? Why do so many people now suffer from these conditions? The problem with these "Why?" questions is that conventional medicine does not want to ask them. It's a disease; people are sick; and doctors have to provide treatment. It's that simple! Unfortunately it isn't!

• Epilepsy (seizures) are known to be caused by pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines.
• MS is known to be caused by pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines.
  

So doctors need these cannabis-based drugs for treating conditions they caused in the first place. These are iatrogenic diseases, another example of conventional medicine CAUSING disease with its drugs, and then coming up with new drugs to treat the sickness it caused in the first place.

3. The Cost of Drugs
This is, of course, a great business plan. Produce and sell a drug that causes disease; and then another drug that treats this iatrogenic disease, drugs which in turn cause more illness and disease. And pharmaceutical companies can charge incredible, mind-boggling sums for their drugs. Epidyolex, for instance, was approved for use in Europe in September 2019, but NICE initially said the drug was not good value for money as it cost between £5,000 and £10,000 per patient each year.

Sativex is reported to cost about £2,000 a year, per patient. It was licenced in 2014, and NICE said at this time that it was not cost effective. Now, it would seem, it is quite acceptable. For conventional medicine, of course, to have a drug is preferable to identifying the cause of an iatrogenic disease, at its source, and thereby eliminating it. There is no profit in that!

Remember these are drugs based on cannabis, basically a weed that costs very little to grow - but more of this later.
But the NHS has renegotiated these prices, so they are no longer deemed to be expensive. Quite how 'inexpensive' they have become remains unclear. We are not told. But it is a common business practice, in all industries, to ask for silly, exorbitant sums for a product, then to reduce the price so making it seem like a bargain.

4. The 'Active' Ingredients
These drugs are cannabis-based; they are not cannabis. Pharmaceutical companies have always isolated the 'active' ingredients of plants. Epidyolex, for instance, does not contain the main psychoactive component of cannabis, THC. Many parents of children with extreme epilepsy are paying many thousands of pounds each month for imported drugs that contain both THC, and another active ingredient, CBD. They have reduced the number and severity of seizures and they are furious that NICE has failed to approve cannabis-based medicines that contain both ingredients.

The reason for isolating the 'active' ingredient, especially of a plant-based drug, is that it gives the drug company control - over its production - and over its cost. If the active ingredient can be patented so much the better, they can charge even more. We are not dealing with herbalism here, we are dealing with a very Big Business - the pharmaceutical industry!


 5. Pharmaceutical Control
 Drug companies have a virtual monopoly within the NHS, as it does in most national health services throughout the world. And they fight to preserve their dominance. There have been a number of cases that demonstrate this, and I wrote about this one in 2014, and again in 2019.

• The parents of Ashya King fought to have their son, who suffered from cancer (probably caused by pharmaceutical drugs), treated with Proton Beam therapy, and were imprisoned and prosecuted because they removed him from a hospital in England. They disobeyed the conventional medical authorities, and paid the price.

The time that it has taken for cannabis-based drugs to be approved mirrors this situation. The drugs were unacceptable until such time that the conventional medical establishment were certain they were able to control the treatment. It's all about control, maintaining their dominant position. It is not about medical treatment, certainly not safe or effective medical treatment.

This is, of course, the same reason why the NHS hates homeopathy, and other natural medical therapies. They are not in control! Natural therapies will never be accepted within the NHS - because they may prove to be safer, and more effective than what they have to offer. And that would never do!

HEALTH & THE POLITICS OF THE GENERAL ELECTION (2019). The 'Why?' question that is never asked.

As I predicted (in August 2019) health is becoming a major issue in the General Election. It was easy enough to predict! Health has been a major, if not the issue, in every General Election since 1945. The reason? I have made the argument many times.

• Health is good: therefore spending on health is also good: so politicians fall over trying to outbid each other.

In this link I outline the financial costs of spending ever-increasing amounts of money on a system of medicine that is palpably failing to deliver good health. It is a system of medicinem based oh pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines, that is NOT making us better. It's actually making us SICKER - year by year. This is why the UK's National Health Service (NHS) is in continual crisis, always demanding more money. It has created a vicious circularity.

The more money we spend on conventional health services  >> the sicker we become >> the more money is needed >> the greater the demand for more resources >> politicians agree to provide more money >>> so we get sicker >> and so on, election after election.

Yet this election is bringing up many other huge spending commitments, by all parties. These are secondary health issues, issues that have arisen because of the ongoing failure of conventional medicine. I will focus on the two main areas.

• Education and Care for Disabled Children. It is not possible to have a health care system that is producing epidemics of autism, ADHD, birth defects, et al., without ultimately having to provide them with specialist education and care support.
• Social Care for an Ageing Population. If the health care system cannot deal with epidemics of arthritis, cancer, heart disease, COPD., diabetes, et al., and which is producing epidemic levels of dementia, an increasingly dependent ageing population has to be looked after.

As an electorate, and a society, we are too willing to look at the current situation, and respond to it. There lots of children with special education needs - so why do we not cope with their needs better? There are lots of older people who cannot look after themselves, and need high levels of care - so why do we not cope better with their needs? In some respects, thank goodness that we do - we live in a society that does demand better for our children and older people. Thank goodness we do live in society that cares.

But there is a question that is never asked, and therefore never answered. The result is that no real political solutions are never found for these problems. It is to ask the question - 'WHY?'

• Why are there increasing numbers of young people who need more government funding and support?
• Why are there more older people who need more government support and funding?
  

When there are attempts to ask 'Why?' the political and medical answers are grossly inadequate, and ultimately futile. They focus on non-problems.

• Children with special needs have always existed.  Yes, but never in such numbers! 
• There is an ageing population. Yes, but the proportion of older people requiring care has never been higher than it is now.

These are the secondary costs of the failure of conventional medicine. I wrote about this in October 2018, and again in January 2019. It is no longer about increasing NHS funding. It is about picking up the pieces of a failed medical system. And this General Election is highlighting how the NHS, and the dominance of the pharmaceutical treatments, has created the election agenda that is going to be ruinously expensive.

And the sad fact is that most patients, all our politicians and political parties, plus our meek, unquestioning mainstream media, are still failing to ask the correct question.

WHY?

No wonder our NHS is in constant financial crisis. Doctors know that 12% of patients are harmed by drugs. And they also know the cost!

Regular readers of this blog (follow it to get regular updates of the publication of new blogs) will already know the harm pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines can harm our health. We know all drugs can cause harm, they all have serious side effects. But just how many patients taking a drug will suffer from harmful side effects?

The British Medical Journal might be able to help - and the figure they come up with is staggeringly high. As WDDTY (November 2019) has reported "12% of all patients are harmed by a drug or procedure - and that figure could be higher still as adverse reactions are seriously under-reported". This refers to the BMJ article, published in in July 2019, "Prevalence, severity, and nature of preventable patient harm across medical care settings: systematic review and meta-analysis"

So, yet again, we discover that the conventional medical establishment KNOW the harm they cause to patients, and THE EXTENT of the harm they cause.

WDDTY states that 6% were harmed by 'mistakes', and another 6% were harmed by "drugs properly prescribed or procedures properly carried out". But as they correctly point out, other studies have shown that drug harm is seriously under-reported - that only between !% and 10% of drug side effects are ever recorded.

So what is the real figure? 12%? Or more? WDDTY continues, confirming the seriousness of these 'side effects' ...

          "Of the patients harmed because of an error, 12% died or suffered severe complications."

Reviewing the figures, from the NHR Greater Manchester Centre, researchers from the London school of Economics, concluded that patient harm "is prevalent across health systems".

• These are the health systems we all pay for, and which most patients rely upon when they are ill.

So what is the cost to the NHS of this harm? Our doctors know this too. Another BMJ article, also published in July 2019, "Costs of preventable harm could pay for thousands of nurses" focuses on how the £millions that would be saved might be spent on more nurses - presumably so that these additional nurses could provide patients with more of the same harmful drugs and treatments.

More importantly, perhaps, the number of patients who would be saved from harm might be a considerable benefit too.

So huge numbers of patients are harmed by 'medicine'. And huge amounts of NHS money then has to be spent on trying to redress that harm (except, presumably, for those who have been killed).

So no wonder the NHS is in constant financial trouble! 

It has to run ever harder in order to keep up with the harm it is causing to our health!

Are Older People responsible for Conventional Medicine's continual health crisis? Or is Conventional Medicine responsible for the sickness of Older People?

"The Elderly suffering from medicines overload"

 This is the headline of an article published by the GP e-magazine, Pulse, on 5th November 2019.The article itself reports a House of Lords committee, which found that elderly patients are being put at risk of being 'poisoned' by their medicines because not enough research has been done on the best doses to give older patients, not enough is known about harmful drug interactions.

This is not new news. It has been happening for decades. It was happening when I managed a group of residential homes for older people in Northamptonsire - in the late 1970's. I wrote about it in last year, in a blog "It's us older people who are ruining the NHS! We should all be ashamed of ourselves for being so sick!

               "The NHS is in crisis. It always needs more resources.And when asked why it cannot manage, why every part of the NHS is failing to cope with patient demand, we are told that it is because of an ageing population. So, all you old people, it is YOU who are to blame! Or are we?

Or are we indeed? My conclusion in that 2018 article was simple and straightforward.

                "Older age has much to recommend it - as long as you stay away from conventional medicine!"

The House of Lords is not pulling punches. It might still call pharmaceutical drugs 'medicine' (which implies that they make us better) but the actually describe them as 'poisons' which is more accurate.

Aging Care has come to a similar conclusion in their article, 'Medical Over-treatment can have dire consequences for seniors'.

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement comes to a similar conclusion in "The hidden drug problem of older adults; medication overload".

And any web search will bring up a host of articles, some going back decades, identifying health issues with older people that are related to pharmaceutical drugs.

So what will conventional medicine do about this new House of Lords committee report? They will do nothing! Pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines that harm are all conventional medicine has to offer, so what else can they do, other than ignore it. Shelving reports like this is what conventional medicine has been doing for years.

But fear not! There will be other reports, in the years to come, that will point out the same thing - drugs harm older people, and make them sick. The problem is that these will be ignored too, until such time as we ALL begin to realise that 

• pharmaceutical drugs are not 'medicines' - they are poisons
• it's not about 'over-treatment' - its about treatment
• and the problem is no 'hidden' - it is out here in the open

VACCINE INFORMATION FOR INFORMED CHOICE

          "When men differ, both sides ought equally be heard by the public, for when truth and error have fair play, the former is always an over match for the latter"
                                                                                                                                   Benjamin Franklin

The NHS tells us that all vaccines are safe. Doctors insist we should all be vaccinated, some that vaccination should be made mandatory. The government, and the mainstream media support this position, they all dismiss any ‘anti-vaccine’ information as ‘fake news’, and seek to censor debate on the issue.

Yet despite this many people, at least 10%, refuse to be vaccinated, or allow their children to be vaccinated. Why? So where do they get their information? And is this information really fake news, or news that the powerful pharmaceutical industry does not like?

Everyone should be able to accept, or refuse vaccines on the basis of all the evidence. Informed choice is not more important than in making decisions about our health. We are regularly told about the safety of vaccines. So where is the evidence that vaccines are, or can be harmful? The following links are some of the best sources.

PATIENT INFORMATION LEAFLETS
Nobody should ever accept a vaccine without first reading the patient information leaflet that comes with each one. Most patients are not shown these. The documents include the known and accepted side effects of vaccines. Pharmaceutical companies are obliged to supply this information; but it is worth noting that they do not have to include every known vaccine side effect, just those that have been proven beyond further doubt or question.

VACCINE INJURY AND COMPENSATION SCHEMES
Although conventional medicine says that vaccines are safe, many national governments have set up organisations whose task it is to recompense people who have been injured by these ‘safe’ vaccines.

Vaccine Damage Payment. (https://www.gov.uk/vaccine-damage-payment)
The UK Government has paid out about £73 million to nearly 1000 children and adults, representing 1 in 8 claimants who were a minimum of 60% injured by a vaccine between 1979-2014. These government sponsored schemes have accepted that vaccines can cause a multitude of devastating injuries, including brain damage, seizures, deafness, Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS), encephalitis (inflammation of the brain), and even death.

BOOKS THAT OUTLINE THE HARM CAUSED BY VACCINES
There are several books available that deal with the question of vaccine harm, and alternatives to them.

Vaccinations: A Thoughtful Parents Guide:How to Make Safe, Sensible Decisions About the Risks, Benefits and Alternatives

The author, midwife, herbalist, and mother of four, Aviva Jill Romm, examines current research on vaccine safety and efficacy, and offers a sensible, balanced discussion of the pros and cons of each routine childhood vaccination. The book presents the full spectrum of options available to parents: full vaccination on a standardised or individualised schedule, selective vaccination, or no vaccinations at all. The book also suggests ways to strengthen children's immune systems and maintain optimal health and offers herbal and homeopathic remedies for childhood ailments.

Miller's Review of Critical Vaccine Studies400 Important Scientific Papers Summarized for Parents & Researchers

This book confirms that there is a large body of scientific evidence confirming numerous vaccine safety deficits that counteract well-publicised benefits. Several studies in this book show that mercury and aluminium in vaccines can cause neurological, immunological and developmental harm. Other studies show that childhood vaccines are associated with an increased risk of cancer, allergies, seizures, bleeding disorders, and type 1 diabetes. The peer-reviewed scientific studies in this book also show that a history of measles and mumps is protective against fatal heart attacks and strokes, that the pertussis vaccine caused virulent vaccine-resistant strains of pertussis to emerge, that chickenpox vaccines reduced cases of chickenpox but increased cases of shingles, that children have an increased risk of requiring emergency care after receiving MMR, and much more.

Vaccine Side Effects. (http://www.vaccine-side-effects.com/)
This is a freely downloadable E-Book. It seeks to balance the risks of vaccine side effects against the risks of common childhood illnesses, and help you feel confident about making the right decision for the health of your child. It provides some simple facts that will stop you being pushed into a decision before you are ready to decide for yourself. The book explains why much of the advice provided by independent health officials on the benefits of vaccines is false, outdated and makes no scientific sense. And it provides clear, simple and logical facts to help you discuss one of the most important decisions for the long term health of your child

PERSONAL STORIES OF VACCINE HARM
Vaccine damage is not a statistical problem. Each case of vaccine harm represents a personal and family tragedy. The following websites include the testimony of many people who have suffered vaccine damage.

Vaccine Injury UK (http://vaccineinjury.uk/category/witnessing-vaccine-injury/vaccine-injury-stories)
This website outlines lots of compelling personal stories about how they, or their children, have suffered from vaccine damage.

Vaccine Injury Info (https://www.vaccineinjury.info/)
Formerly a German website, written by a homeopath, the core of which are literally hundreds of reports of vaccine damage by individual sufferers, or their parents.

PATIENT SUPPORT GROUPS
There are several websites that have been set up by concerned people, many of whom have suffered from vaccine injury, their sole objective to provide information, and help other people reach their decision about vaccination.

Arnica (https://www.arnica.org.uk/)
The Arnica Network was formed in 2007 by parents concerned about the vaccination program and interested in the role of natural health, and natural immunity in disease. Within 5 few years, 75 Arnica groups were started nationwide, reflecting the strong interest in natural immunity and the need for like-minded friendship groups and support systems when making such choices for our families.

Jabs (Justice, Awareness & Basic Support). (http://www.jabs.org.uk/)
JABS, as a self-help group, neither recommends nor advises against vaccinations but we aim to promote understanding about immunisations and offer basic support to any parent whose child has a health problem after vaccination. We want comprehensive information for all parents to make an informed decision on the benefits and risks of vaccination. JABS supports free choice and full information on the real risks of vaccination and childhood diseases.

European Forum for Vaccine Vigilance (https://www.efvv.eu/)
This is an alliance of member organisations, and individual members, from 25 European countries. It consists of consumer groups and pro-choice groups whose members in turn include medical professionals and scientists. Their combined memberships exceed 100,000. They call on all Europeans to stand together in a demand for a united vaccination policy based on freedom of choice and informed consent. They believe that mandatory vaccination is not only a serious risk but a violation of human rights and dignity. They demand transparency and caution as well as recognition and concern for the many vaccine-injured in Europe and beyond.

SCIENTIFIC STUDIES & RESEARCH  INDICATING THE VACCINES ARE UNSAFE
There are many medical research papers that have shown that vaccines are unsafe. These are rarely publicised, largely ignored by conventional medicine and the mainstream media, but access to them can be gained through these websites.

Med Science Research (https://medscienceresearch.com/)
An online library of medical papers relating to vaccination. It states that there are thousands of scientific studies in the medical literature on the dangers of vaccines, and provides access to them.

Vaccination Information Portal (https://vaccination-information-portal.com/)
This website offers what they describe as “reliable, balanced information for parents”. It includes 223 scientific studies looking into the harm caused by vaccines, and evidence about how vaccines have caused autoimmune disease.

STRIVE. Student & Teacher Initiative for Vaccine Education. (https://striveuk.webs.com/)
This is a research group run by and for students and teachers. It was founded to provide and promote evidence-based information about vaccinations. They report on a constantly updated resource of scientific opinion, studies, reports and documentaries, that will empower students to make responsible and educated decisions about their healthcare.

WEBSITES THAT DISCUSS VACCINE SAFETY & EXPOSE VACCINE DANGERS
These are general websites that seek to discover the truth about vaccine damage, and who seek to expose the misinformation and cover-up that conventional medical establishment engages in .

Vaccine Awareness (http://vaccineriskawareness.com/)
V.A.N provides fully sourced information about vaccinations to enable parents to make a fully informed choice about their child’s vaccinations. Their aim is to support the right of every parent to give informed consent, or informed refusal, by providing all the information available. It is intended both for parents who do not want to vaccinate, and parents of vaccine damaged children,

Learn the Risk (https://www.learntherisk.org/)
Learn The Risk is a non-profit organisation in the USA whose objective is to educate people worldwide on the dangers of pharmaceutical products, including vaccines and unnecessary medical treatments, “that are literally killing us”.

Child Health Safety (https://childhealthsafety.wordpress.com/)
This is a British website that aims to provide reliable information on child health safety for parents who want to know about whether they should vaccinate and other health related information. It provides links to important information to assist parents cut through the often misleading, exaggerated and incorrect information given by governments and health officials.  Child Health Safety seeks to publish detailed information often not available elsewhere on issues of vaccination and child health safety.

Child Health Defense (https://childrenshealthdefense.org/)
The website of Robert F. Kennedy (Jr), whose stated aim is to provide reliable information on child health safety for parents who want to know about whether they should vaccinate, and other health related information. It provides links to information which may assist parents cut through the often misleading, exaggerated and incorrect information given by governments and health officials. Its mission statement is to end the epidemic of children’s chronic health conditions by working aggressively to eliminate harmful exposures, hold those responsible accountable, and establish safeguards so this never happens again.

Danger of Vaccines (http://dangersofvaccines.com/about-us/)
This website is written by two parents whose children were damaged by vaccines. Their stated mission is to inform the public about the many dangers of vaccines, presenting information and evidence that shows vaccines are dangerous and sometime even deadly.

Informed Consent Action Network (https://www.icandecide.org/)
Their mission statement states that “you are the authority over your health choices and those of your children. In a medical world manipulated by advertising and financial interests, true information is hard to find, and often harder to understand”. Their stated goal is to put the power of scientifically researched health information into our hands and to be bold and transparent in doing so, thereby enabling your medical decisions to come from tangible understanding, not medical coercion. They campaign for parents’ rights, to protect children, and to support science-based inquiry.

Whale (http://whale.to/vaccines.html)
This website offers access to a huge amount of material that covers every imaginable vaccine, including vaccines that have been withdrawn over the years, usually after they were found to be unsafe.

Vaxxed TV Channel (https://www.youtube.com/vaxxed)
When you get tired of reading all this information, this website provides access to a multitude of videos about vaccines, and the damage they are known to cause.

AUTISM AND THE MMR VACCINE
Put Children First (http://putchildrenfirst.org/index2.html)
This is a book on history of vaccines. Put Children First was founded by parents to let the world know that the Centers For Disease Control (CDC), a division of the Department of Health and Human Services in the USA, is covering-up the relationship between a near-tripling of vaccinations for our children in the 1990s, and the epidemic of autism and other neuro-developmental disorders that began at exactly the same time.

THE HPV VACCINE (GARDASIL, CERVARIX)
HPV vaccines are now given to young girls to prevent cervical cancer. It probably has one of the worst safety records of all vaccines, and in its relatively short history, has a record of destroying the lives of fit and healthy young children.

Time for Action. (http://timeforaction.org.uk/)
 Time for Action is a campaign group run by UK families for UK families, whose daughters have all experienced serious, life changing health problems following HPV vaccination.

Come Look. (http://comelook.org/index.html)
This Irish website carries information relevant to the government's attempt to administer the Gardasil vaccine to 12 year old schoolgirls. They state it is not their intention to challenge the manufacturer's claims of actual vaccine efficacy, instead focusing on discussing the safety assurances of the vaccine who advocate its use in mass vaccination.

S.A.N.E VAX (HPV). (https://sanevax.org/)
This website describes itself as the ‘First International HPV Vaccine Information Clearing House”. Their mission is to promote only Safe, Affordable, Necessary & Effective vaccines and vaccination practices through education and information. They say they believe in science-based medicine, and that their primary goal is to provide the information necessary to make informed decisions regarding health and well-being.

DOCTORS WHO DO NOT THINK VACCINES ARE SAFE
Although most doctors conform to the official line, there are some doctors, and doctor’s organisations, who speak out.

Physicians for Informed Consent. (https://physiciansforinformedconsent.org/about/)
Physicians for Informed Consent (PIC) delivers data on infectious diseases and vaccines, and unites doctors, scientists, healthcare professionals, attorneys, and families who support voluntary vaccination.

Dr Jayne Donegan. (http://www.jayne-donegan.co.uk/)
GP & Homoeopath, with a special interest in vaccination. Dr Donegan is currently the only doctor in the UK whose opinion on vaccination has been tested in extensive UK legal proceedings (GMC 2007) and found to be valid, based on sound research and peer reviewed medical literature ‘beyond reasonable doubt’.

Vaccination Decision. (http://vaccinedecision.info/)
The website of Dr Brian Boyd, the stated purpose of which is to provide information that can help make decisions about vaccines. Additional information is provided to help parents give their child the best opportunity to develop a healthy immune system, which should be the primary objective in this healthcare decision.

WHAT IS THE LIKELIHOOD OF VACCINE DAMAGE?
Conventional medicine, when not denying that vaccine can cause serious damage to health, claim that such damage is ‘rare’.

Obviously the rarity of this damage is off little assistance to those who become one of the ‘rare exceptions’ to the claimed safety of vaccines.

Yet how rare is vaccine damage? Conventional medicine assesses rarity through the number of reported cases of vaccine damage set against the number of people who are vaccinated. Yet studies show that only between 1% and 10% of drug side effects are ever reported, or recorded. This means that vaccine damage is between 10 times, and 100 times less rare than is admitted.

Reporting vaccine damage might even be lower than this, as doctors have been so busy trying to convince us that vaccines are safe, they can often be found denying that ill-health following vaccination has anything to do with the vaccine.

VACCINES AND INFORMED CHOICE
The decision to vaccinate, or not to vaccinate, should be based on the best information available to us. Conventional medicine will continue to claim that vaccines are safe, indeed essential to our health. The information contained within all the links referred to in this article suggests that this is not so.

Indeed, evidence that vaccines can cause harm can be found within conventional medical literature, for instance, in the Patient Information Leaflets, mentioned above.

Everyone should be able to accept, or refuse vaccines on the basis of ALL the evidence. Informed choice is never more important than in making decisions about our health. So it is not possible to make an informed decision on vaccines unless the evidence of vaccine harm is also fully considered, alongside the claims made by conventional medicine that they are safe.