To be so completely shocked by the blood scandal

[ChristmasGutPunch]

I knew a lot of children got sick and died in later life but I thought it was a terrible accident or oversight. A mistake because we didn't know any better. I had no idea there was a conscious decision to infect small boys on purpose to see what happened. How can this possibly have happened? How come I didn't realise the full extent until now??

If I were an affected family member I'd want to murder those involved. It's unbearable.

Yep. People in haematology raised it very early on and were shut down. Closed down. Told not to talk.

This experimentation was instigated by doctors.

However, the same tainted blood infected not only small boys i.e. haemophiliacs, but others e.g. Anita Roddick, who died of Hepatitis C as a result of a blood transfusion giving birth (l believe), as did Mike Dorricott who had a dental operation aged 15.

It’s an appalling scandal that has been known about almost from the beginning.

Have you got a link to this?

Really stupid idea to create Factor VIII treatment for haemophiliacs from mixed donations and from high risk donors such as prisoners and drug users.

As if one donor was affected by Hep C, HIV etc then the whole batch was affected

It's crazy. I honestly always thought it was a mistake as well

I think there were efforts to pass it off as an awful mistake to shut the whole thing down. It’s only the relatives of the people who died, and those who are still affected that has kept the fight for compensation going.

@SheepAndSword https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-69027421

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd117gez027o

https://haemophilia.org.uk/public-inquiry/the-infected-blood-inquiry/the-contaminated-blood-scandal/

This came to light in Ireland some decades ago. I know people who were compensated etc. Obviously a different country but the same thing. It is shocking though.

The nasty conservative government have been avoiding paying out for years. Ireland paid compensation and had a proper inquiry over a decade ago.
It's appalling.

Plus it is truly shocking is how long it has taken for this enquiry to happen in the UK. The equivalent review happened in say France about 20 years ago. More secrecy and obfuscation and delay - horrible.

The entire thing is a disgrace. Ken Clarke should be held liable for this and I truly hope he will be.

The report is coming out tomorrow and it will be worse than anyone expected I think. Watch this space, the echoes of this will be far reaching.

There are no words or money that could ever compensate the victims or their families, it's beyond tragic.

Longer! My ex MIL had been paid out years before I met or married her son and that was early 2000!

And it's absolutely true consecutive UK governments were brushing it under the carpet to avoid paying out. In particular the Conservative governments because this issue became known under the Thatcher government at the time and Ken Clarke ignored it.

I applaud Theresa May for finally starting this enquiry. It took 7 years though!

UK governments have form for avoiding responsibility for decades - read up about Primodos, there are no words.

gosh I havent followed this story other than headlines. I assumed it was a mistake too. So they wittingly infected children with hiv ?

Labour, Tory and coalition governments have had the chance to sort this out over the last five decades. This is not just a Tory issue; it’s a systematic problem with U.K. government and the civil service, as well as the NHS. The automatic reaction of the state, including the NHS is to deny, deny, deny. And then when that fails stall, stall, stall and grind people down. Just look at the post office scandal as well. Another massive failure.

And maternity scandals which continue. Only few days ago Donna Ockenden went public with her comments that the delays in maternity care improvements since her reports are unacceptable.

The NHS culture is awful and it must change urgently. They are denying their negligence ramping up costs and pay outs instead of doing their jobs properly and investing in their services in the first place which would be best for patients, and the NHS itself. It's appalling and the infected blood scandal is no different.

Another in a long list of failures and cover ups. Anyone who thinks that governments in general are above state sanctioned experiments on its population and avoidance of the consequences is naive in the extreme.

I'll just tack Nuclear test veterans on the end as I've got skin (and possible genetics) in that game.

But in order not to de-rail, yes the blood scandal is particularly heinous and callous. Heads should roll.

All governments have avoided paying out.

The issue of blood supply was first raised by David Owen in 1973 and ignored repeatedly while the government bought blood from the US which at the time paid for donations so the people donating really needed the money and we're also more likely to be living lifestyles which caused them to be infected with various diseases which were passed on in the blood donations.

"Labour, Tory and coalition governments have had the chance to sort this out over the last five decades. This is not just a Tory issue; it’s a systematic problem with U.K. government and the civil service, as well as the NHS. The automatic reaction of the state, including the NHS is to deny, deny, deny. And then when that fails stall, stall, stall and grind people down. Just look at the post office scandal as well. Another massive failure."

Thank you @Tryingtokeepgoing. Absolutely spot on. The establishment rallies round to hide, obfuscate and delay.

I knew twins with haemophilia, one died at 16 the other at 20 from contaminated blood products. That was 30 years ago, everyone at the time knew it was because of contamination. I can’t believe this has gone on so long, but I suppose the government will save a fortune in compensation because most affected are dead now.

Canada paid victims of its blood scandal in 2006! It is shocking that it has been dragged out for so long.

It is true both Conservative and Labour governments could have sorted it out and didn't (we're looking at you too, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown) but the problem was created by a Conservative government and there were many more Conservative governments since the 70s/80s. For that reason yet again I will say kudos to Theresa May for finally getting this enquiry underway and picking probably the best of all people to chair it.

Who actually produced and supplied the stuff - wasn't it the American government - did they say it was safe

It's absolutely disgusting, I've been reading the stories of the victims. One that really bothered me was a little boy that contracted HIV as a result, the stigma attached to it back then meant that he & his family were shunned by the whole community and the house was graffitied. Just awful 😒.

Yes it was the US government and they said it wasn't safe. They said it was the cheapest available and not recommended.

So was this the time when the Tory government was making us accept the cheapest available of everything.