brand logo

Is corruption boosting a vaccine culture in Sri Lanka?

28 Oct 2021

  • Need for the investigation of vaccine purchases
BY Manuka Wijesinghe The 16-year-old teenager who suffered a heart attack six days after receiving his first dose of the US-German made Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine will receive financial assistance of Singaporean dollars 225,000 from the Government of Singapore, said its Health Ministry in a press statement recently. Medical investigations in Singapore had found that the youth had developed acute severe myocarditis or heart inflammation, which had led to cardiac arrest. “The myocarditis was likely a serious adverse event arising from the Covid-19 vaccine he received,” the statement noted. The payment of compensation to the child for vaccine injury will be provided by Singapore's Vaccine Injury Financial Assistance Programme for Covid-19 Vaccination (VIFAP). Pfizer, the vaccine manufacturer is indemnified against vaccine injury claims all over the world, although the company had made a profit of $ 45 billion in the first quarter of this year from its Covid-19 vaccine. In Sri Lanka, there has been little public discussion regarding the potential harms and risks of vaccine injury, the side effects and the long-term impacts of vaccines, including potential reproductive toxicity. Nor is there much information on vaccine adverse events reporting as in other countries. Many countries in Asia, such as Vietnam, Thailand, etc., with critical leaders and health policymakers, have delayed the Covid-19 vaccine roll out and sought to observe and balance the risks versus benefits of using inadequately tested Covid-19 vaccines that were authorised for “emergency use” only, despite the World Health Organisation (WHO) and global media hype promoting vaccination. Rather than follow a more circumspect path and pausing to do due diligence to assess the post-vaccine deaths and injuries that are mounting among the elderly and those with co-morbidities at this time, the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) is rushing to vaccinate children and provide boosters although the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not recommend boosters at this time. Why is the Health Ministry rushing to vaccinate children rather than seeking trials-related information? Sri Lanka, already one of the most vaccinated countries on the planet, is currently flooded with vaccines! Expensive Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines that require storage at super cool temperatures seem to be in fashion. They have been procured by the GoSL and the Health Ministry at warp speed through Pfizer’s notoriously opaque contracts. Not so long ago, Pfizer was fined millions for its role in the opioid addiction crisis in the US by the US Justice Department (DOJ) for not fully revealing the contents of some of its opioid drugs. Questions arise: Is the rush to vaccinate children related to the hasty purchases of vaccines? Recently, there have been several resignations at the State Pharmaceuticals Corporation (SPC) as questions are being raised about vaccine procurements and the mysterious data wipe at the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) database. The Pfizer-BioNTech gene therapy vaccine that is proposed for children was developed in less than a year, although it usually takes an average of seven to 12 years to trial and test vaccines. Would the Sri Lankan health authorities’ mad rush to vaccinate children and provide boosters, create a vaccine culture if not vaccine addiction in the country? What are the risks and dangers of boosters, and what, if any, is the science behind mixing different vaccines developed with different technology platforms – Chinese, Indian, and American messenger ribonucleic acid (rNA) vaccines – on a person’s immune system? Why in the world is such a vaccine madness that could cause serious damage to an individual’s immune system, ongoing? Rather than rushing to vaccinate more people, a seroprevalence survey, given the high possibility of herd immunity and the scientific fact that Covid-19 is endemic (rather than pandemic), like any other Asian flu – as Singapore has noted, would be appropriate. However, the Health Ministry seems to be promoting a dangerous culture of vaccine addiction that would debilitate its citizens’ immune systems, health, and wellbeing, while enriching unethical pharmaceutical companies. A vaccine numbers game: Why rush to vaccinate children in Sri Lanka? Like Covid-19 cases and deaths sans context or comparison that are part of a daily media show to spread fear and promote lockdowns, vaccine numbers are also now part of the Covid-19 numbers game. Earlier this week, the so-called Epidemiology Unit Acting Director Dr. Samitha Ginige, boasted that Sri Lanka is among the top 10 Covid-19 vaccinated countries. Nearly 60% of Sri Lanka’s 22 million population are double vaccinated, while a first dose has been given to 67.4% of its total population. Australia, a far wealthier country with a population of 25 million, has delayed vaccination and is in no rush to vaccinate children. By design or accident, Australia did not rush to vaccinate its population early in the pandemic with vaccines developed at warp speed, but rather locked its borders and destroyed its economy. If Australia was in as big a rush to vaccinate its population early this year, its good friend, the US would have surely provided Aussies with vaccines from Pfizer or Modena sooner, just like the US-UK-Australia defense agreement (AUKUS) was set up very fast to build nuclear submarines, while causing a diplomatic spat with France and China. The Government of India refused to authorise the use of Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine which were not trialed in Asian populations and because the company has asked for indemnity in the event of vaccine injury. These mRNA vaccines also use new untested technologies whose intermediate and long-term impacts are entirely unknown. Meanwhile, the entire continent of Africa has a mere 3% Covid-19 vaccine rate. Strangely at this time, children in Ghana are being jabbed with another vaccine. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), has produced an anti-malaria vaccine which has a mere 30% efficacy rate but this vaccine is being promoted by the WHO. Is this in lieu of Covid-19 vaccines? However, debt-trapped Sri Lanka is rushing to vaccinate children with Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines and also promoting vaccine mixing with a Pfizer-BioNTech booster proposed for those already double vaccinated with the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine! What is the science behind this? Boasting about vaccines in a pandemic of corruption Questions arise as to whether the Sri Lankan health authorities, rather than boasting about the numbers vaccinated, should be embarrassed about its failure to do due diligence by rushing to vaccinate people without a study of the adverse effects, without taking into consideration a pandemic of corruption based on questionable WHO advice, and experts funded by pharmaceutical companies that are making massive profits out of vaccine sales. All the evidence shows that children are at miniscule risk of Covid-19, although schools have been shut for almost two years in Sri Lanka. Indeed, Covid-19 vaccines could harm more children and university students than the virus itself.  Additionally, children in Sri Lanka receive the Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccine which also provides broad protection against respiratory tract illnesses including Covid-19 as numerous studies have shown. Babies and children get many vaccines, but the health authorities have not conducted studies of vaccine interactions and the potential harm and long-term impacts from mRNA vaccines on Sri Lankan children. Research studies in Israel and Europe show that myocarditis, pericarditis (inflammation of the pericardium which is a sac like structure with two thin layers of tissue that surrounds the heart to hold it in place and help it work), anaphylaxis (severe, potentially life threatening allergic reaction), as well as antibody dependent enhancement (ADE), in the event of encountering the natural virus, are some of the serious side-effects of mRNA vaccines, which spur the production of the dangerous spike protein in those who receive these vaccines. However, recently, another four million Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines were ordered again by Sri Lanka. For whom, since already almost 70% of the population is vaccinated and many have had the virus naturally with the high likelihood that the country has reached herd immunity status?  Why has the Government not conducted a seroprevalence study to ascertain antibody levels and herd immunity in the population rather than rushing to buy more vaccines that need to be stored at super cool temperatures, when most of the population is already vaccinated? Who in the Sri Lankan health system at the Health Ministry is responsible for this vaccine business? Why the rush to vaccinate children and promote boosters when there is mounting evidence that booster shots could lead to harmful immune mediated side-effects? BCG vaccine, Ivermectin: Indian Bar Association vs. WHO Chief Scientist At this time, the Bar Association of India is suing the WHO Chief Scientist Saumiya Swaminathan for denying the effectiveness of an affordable and readily available drug – Ivermectin, and depriving Covid-19 patients of timely and effective treatment, causing innumerable deaths and manslaughter. While denying that Ivermectin may treat Covid-19 patents, the WHO has also denied that the BCG vaccine provides broad protection against Covid-19. The 100-year-old, tried and tested BCG vaccine provides broad protection against Covid-19 as numerous studies have shown and vitiates the need for mRNA vaccines. However, this information about the patent free BCG vaccine’s effectiveness against Covid-19 has been concealed from the public. Rather, inadequately trailed Covid-19 mRNA vaccines are being promoted by the WHO which is funded by big pharmaceutical companies and the US. The WHO rushed emergency use authorisation for inadequately trialed and tested mRNA Pfizer gene therapies. mRNA Covid-19 vaccines utilises never before used technology platforms to conduct mass vaccination. The long-term impacts of Pfizer vaccines which use mRNA technology on children, a particularly vulnerable group, as their immune systems tend to be hyper sensitive, are entirely unknown at this time. Originally developed against tuberculosis (TB), the 100-year-old, patent fee, and affordable BCG vaccine offers broad protection and sharply reduces the incidence of respiratory infections, while also preventing infant deaths from a variety of causes as numerous studies have shown. Experts from many countries note that the BCG vaccine trains the immune system to recognise and respond to a variety of infections, including viruses, bacteria, and parasites. Ever since the WHO’s so-called Covid-19 pandemic was announced, talk about randomised trials being needed for the 100-year-old tried and tested, patent free, and affordable BCG vaccine to determine its repurposing and effectiveness against Covid-19 was part of the discourse. But this has not happened. On the other hand, relatively un-trialed mRNA gene therapies never before used in mass vaccination campaigns were promoted by the WHO with emergency use authorisation. Pfizer-BioNTech was the first to receive WHO authorisation. In Sri Lanka, serious questions arise about the island’s Covid-19 health policy and medical ethics at the Health Ministry and associated doctors organisations that are promoting mass vaccination with mRNA vaccines. Who in the Health Ministry, the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA), the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA), and the NMRA whose database was erased so that we do not even know the expiry dates and contents of the vaccines, is responsible for ordering so many vaccines? Should these not be resold to other countries that may need them? Why are Sri Lankan children effectively “guinea pigs” of big pharmaceutical companies which have not completed phase three trials for their vaccines? No health emergency in 2020, but spike in deaths in 2021 after mass vaccinations In 2020, there were a mere 204 Covid-19 deaths in Sri Lanka. However, the WHO and many Sri Lankan doctors organisations and unions called for the lockdown of the country and school closures on the pretext of saving the health system. Indeed, in 2020, there was a 10% reduction in the mortality rate in the country compared to the previous years, but schools were shut down for much of the year. Data from the Census and Statistics Department (DCS) shows clearly that there was no health emergency in 2020, but debt-trapped Sri Lanka, following questionable WHO advice, rushed to purchase and vaccinate its population in 2021 with expensive, inadequately trialed and tested vaccines! After the militarised mass vaccine roll out, deaths spiked in 2021, with many prominent and less well-known people, including the former Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera and media tycoon Kili Maharaja who got the vaccines, dying of so-called Covid-19-related symptoms. However, there have been no questions raised as to why so many people who took vaccines have died. The Sri Lankan health authorities do not maintain a Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) which should be maintained in a situation of mass vaccinations with inadequately trialed gene therapies. Legitimate questions arise as to the extent to which the spike in deaths in Sri Lanka in 2021 was caused by vaccine adverse reactions. There appears to be a lack of research, evidence-based policymaking, and due diligence with regard to understanding the risks that vaccines may pose to the health and wellbeing of the island’s population too in the mad rush to vaccinate following global media hype and big pharmaceutical companies funded WHO expert recommendations. Have Sri Lankans been rendered guinea pigs of big pharmaceutical companies who did not carry out phase three vaccine trials in the Global South? Vaccine geopolitics: Australia’s delayed roll out and AUKUS Many countries with critical leaders and health policymakers have delayed vaccination and sought to balance the risks versus benefits of using inadequately tested Covid-19 vaccines. Inadequately trialed and tested vaccines may have long-term negative impacts on the health and wellbeing of the population, particularly children who have their whole lives ahead of them. Strategically located Sri Lanka, in the crosshairs of big power rivalry and vaccine geopolitics, with a WHO and big pharmaceutical industry colonised health system, has however beaten Australia and India, to vaccinate and render its population Covid-19 vaccine experiment guinea pigs, for vaccines that have not had phase three trials! Indeed, Australia presents a remarkable case of delayed vaccine roll out, while extending  lockdowns, seemingly sabotaging its economy and blaming China for the Covid-19 crisis! Finally, there is mounting evidence that both the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Coronavirus Two (SARS-CoV-2) virus that causes Covid-19 and the vaccines were developed in the US and Chinese laboratories through “gain of function” (GOF) research collaborations funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director and the Chief Medical Advisor to the President Anthony Stephen Fauci and the National Institute of Health (NIH), via the Eco Health Alliance, New York, US. Moderna was set up as a US Advanced Research Projects Agency Department (DARPA) project and holds several coronavirus patents. GOF research renders pathogens more deadly when they move from host to host. Seroprevalence surveys in several states of India have established that almost 60% of the population has been exposed to Covid-19 and developed antibodies. Why are Sri Lankan authorities following WHO experts and rushing to flood the country with unnecessary Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines purchased at high cost when the country likely has herd immunity? As Freetown University Professor Nyasa Mboti of the, wrote: “By its own admission, the WHO seems to have declared Covid-19 a pandemic in order to avert a Covid-19 pandemic. This seems illogical. You cannot be in a pandemic that has not yet started and you can only avert a crisis that has not yet taken place…The current global Coronavirus crisis is proof that global agencies such as the WHO can actually cause irreparable harm. Perhaps their global roles need to be called into serious question.” (The writer is an author of books and an alternative medicine practitioner) The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.


More News..