On 20 May, the Infected Blood Inquiry published its findings, providing damning evidence showing how both NHS officials and government ministers have been culpable in thousands of deaths related to a global scandal involving contaminated blood supplies.
To prevent further needless death and suffering, we must unite and fight to kick the profiteers out of our NHS.
Scandal unveiled
In the 1970s, a new treatment for haemophilia was developed that relied on donated plasma, replacing traditional methods.
It was later discovered that entire batches of plasma were contaminated with deadly viruses. As a result, around 2,900 people in the UK – and 70,000 globally – have since died from HIV and hepatitis C, or have unknowingly contracted these diseases from a partner who received this therapy.
Today, fewer than 250 of those infected with HIV as a result of this fatal error remain alive.
The UK inquiry has described the scale of the scandal as “horrifying”, accusing the government and the NHS of repeatedly failing patients.
Blood on their hands
The treatment in question involved pharmaceutical companies pooling the blood of over 40,000 donors together in massive vats. As a result, every single batch was contaminated with HIV and other viruses.
Pharma firms were aware of this danger. And safer treatments existed. But these were not used, as they were more expensive.
Early concerns about these risks were raised. Despite this, haemophiliacs were used as experimental subjects without their consent.
Pharmaceutical companies even advertised for blood donations in gay clubs during the height of the AIDS crisis – specifically targeting those with hepatitis, as part of their vaccine development projects.
This contaminated blood was used in treatments provided to patients worldwide. This included children in Britain. One letter revealed in the inquiry showed doctors referring to these young recipients as “cheaper than chimps”.
Pursuit of profit
Heat-treating procedures were later introduced to make blood products safer. But this only became standard after a German company adopted the practice, forcing others to follow suit so as to avoid losing market share.
By 1985, heat treatment was standard globally – but still not in the UK, where it was deemed too expensive.
Even after pharma companies were eventually banned from selling contaminated products in the US and UK, they continued to sell them globally, fully aware of their potentially deadly impacts.
The drive for profit pushed these ruthless businesses to go to any-and-every length to maintain their markets and margins, regardless of the human cost.
Government complicit
The UK government has been exposed as completely complicit in this scandal. Despite repeated warnings, Tory PM Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet failed to act, and even tried to cover up the crisis.
Before the risks of hepatitis became public, meagre compensation was offered to those infected with HIV – but only if they signed waivers agreeing not to sue for any other viruses: a clear attempt to block victims from seeking justice.
Now, thanks to a hard-fought campaign and a lengthy inquiry, forty years after the first contaminated treatments were taken off the market, the British government has agreed to compensate victims up to £2.5 million each.
This is a welcome step. But those who have suffered have had to wait far too long for justice.
Expropriate the profiteers!
The total cost of this pay-out is estimated to be around £10 billion. But instead of making the billionaires and fat-cats foot the bill, it will be passed onto the working class – including the victims themselves – through higher taxes and further austerity.
Most recent coverage of this scandal has focused on the government cover-up and NHS failures over the decades. But little has been said about the role of Big Pharma, which created and profited from this disaster.
The most profitable pharma multinational made a £79 billion surplus last year by squeezing public health services and vulnerable individuals.
We should therefore demand that compensation comes from the bosses’ pockets: from the pharmaceutical monopolies that not only got away scot-free in regards to this scandal (and many others), but that actively profited from this tragedy.
These businesses should be expropriated, along with all the other private profiteers, and placed under workers’ control as part of a fully-public NHS; managed not by a bureaucratic capitalist state, but run in the interests of society’s health, not for greed.
