Opinion: The modern-day cult of Moloch

We are not entirely immune

“Don’t give any of your children to be burned in sacrifice to the god Molech—an act of sheer blasphemy of your God. I am God.” [BibleGateway: Leviticus 18:21 (The Message)] Molech is also spelt Moloch or Molek.

I have watched with horror the war, conflicts, and atrocity wielded with political rage on the issue of wearing masks, mask mandates, and other kinds of protection and prevention from contracting the Coronavirus especially in schools, in America and elsewhere.

I do not intend to postulate, but I would start from a basic premise. If you do not have natural or acquired immunity against the Coronavirus, you do not want to risk contracting it. Whilst the odds of succumbing to the COVID-19 disease with symptoms requiring hospital admission and the threat to life are somewhat minimal if you have no underlying conditions, the risk is not removed. Healthy people have died, very healthy children have died.

Protections help prevention

Now, until we had vaccines, the only way we managed the spread of the Coronavirus was through government-imposed lockdowns and restrictions along with mask mandates, social distancing, crowd control, and healthy preventions as avoiding enclosed places and limiting our interaction with people outside our immediate households.

For those who are vaccinated, the risk of contracting the disease is reduced, but the possibility of being a vector of transmission without presenting symptoms is there. Where a pandemic is in play, the responsibility is both personal and communal to hold the effects of the pandemic at bay and until the pandemic is eradicated and that does not seem to be in the near term, we still need to consider some preventative and protection measures for our sakes and those of others, some of who might well be vulnerable.

Children are vulnerable

As immunisation is still under review for administering to children in many domains because of side effects that could be life-threatening, children remain part of the vulnerable cohort if exposed to the Coronavirus and when exposed to it in the school environment might be vectors of transmission to their social and home communities. That should be in consideration and reasonably so.

To posit the argument for some protections when returning to the school environment as it is obvious that there are many strains and variants of the Coronavirus with highly transmissible rates in the community should never be up for debate, it should be one of the most agreeable actions to adopt except where clear medical exemptions require otherwise.

I am just perplexed

The politicisation of the mask mandates with parents vehemently protesting their children wearing masks in school settings where their children are meeting with others and whilst the same children no natural or acquired immunity to the Coronavirus is at first baffling if not irresponsible. It is madness of the order of utter befuddlement.

You begin to wonder if the people against the vaccination and other protections against viruses including the Coronavirus have not become like the worshippers of Moloch, the Canaanite deity amongst whom were involved in child sacrifice and allowing their children to pass through the fire, in religious antiquity.

For how is it not cultist child sacrifice if you're ready to expose your child to a virus that kills when there are some means even if imperfect to protect them just on ideological grounds?

How many of the children of any situation, community, city, state, or country have to die before politicians let go of the atrociously irresponsible for basic science and public health to matter?

I'm just dumbfounded, how many more child sacrifices before the god of obstinacy and ignorant ideology would be told, no more?

('Moloch' has been figuratively used in reference to a person or a thing which demands or requires a very costly sacrifice.) [Wikipedia: Moloch] It is my view that protesting the wearing of masks by children in school where it could protect them and prevent them contracting the Coronavirus is demanding a very costly sacrifice, the sacrifice of the children. That must be unacceptable in any healthy society.

The UK: On easing the lockdown, we're being taken for fools again

Defined by incompetence

The unforgivable inability to anticipate and act dogs the government of Boris Johnson that its rank incompetence cannot fail to show itself. In the handling of the Coronavirus pandemic there is one statistic that cannot be ignored, the fact that the UK, despite its success in the rollout of the vaccine still remains ahead of all European countries in the death toll, mostly acquired into early this year. Then fifth behind the United States, Brazil, India, and Mexico in that order. [WorldMeters: Coronavirus]

In my view, someone needs to be held responsible and accountable for that failure, the successful vaccination campaign cannot subsume the critical analysis of what went wrong and for some justice regarding the unfortunate martyrdom of the innocent, especially frontline workers, an independent inquiry with far-reaching scope to interrogate, indict, and publish cannot begin soon enough.

We could have avoided it

Having set out a roadmap for the unlocking of the England and broadly the UK, with an end date of the June the 21^st to all restrictions, Boris Johnson appeared to inform us that the Indian variant of the Coronavirus might stymie those plans. We hope it is just a scare, but they have form.

That situation was completely avoidable, it was obvious that in places where leadership was populist and caught napping variants would emerge, yet, our borders were left porous for people bearing the virus to arrive with minimal checks and so introduce community spreading that would definitely begin to alarm any public health official. [BBC News: Covid: Indian variant could disrupt 21 June easing, PM says]

It was a gamble, not a plan

As I have said before, the successful vaccination campaign was a gamble that paid off, for we were the first to grant emergency usage of a CoVID-19 vaccine and administer it to the broader public, and against manufacturer notice extended the timeframe between vaccine doses to capture a broader cohort of those taking the first dose. If this vaccination programme had not been under the management of the NHS, it would have gone the way of the exorbitant and corrupt PPE procurement scheme and the ineffective but outrageously costly testing, tracking, and tracing programme.

The gamble paid off, but the incompetence of the government cannot seem to find total concealment behind that success for the failure to act promptly, check border entry, institute stringent protocols against variants long before they became of concern, makes it the third time of lethargy and inertia that is about to put the UK nations at risk of another avoidable Coronavirus wave. The utter carelessness of which has been unbelievably rewarded at the polls.

Green list to nowhere

Then when you look at the 12 Green List countries, never has a confidence trick been performed so brilliantly on the public as this group of shysters have thus attempted. New Zealand, Australia, and Singapore are not receiving visitors from the UK, Portugal, Israel and Gibraltar have local restrictions as to who can visit from abroad, The Faroe Islands you can visit, but no airline comforts like food and beverages, the in-flight magazine, then blankets and pillows must be removed from the flights. [Faroe Islands] [BBC News: Green list countries: New rules for England revealed]

The vaccinated or recovered can visit Iceland, and at least if, from a high-risk country, you can have a hotel quarantine at no extra charge. [Iceland]

Brunei; how to get there or Falkland Islands; maybe idyllic, then South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands are apparently remote and literally inhospitable in the South Atlantic, also in that region, a volcanic outpost that spots the place of exile and the death of Napoleon Bonaparte is St Helena, Tristan de Cunha, and Ascension Island, places that might well be exotic but you probably cannot reach without traversing one of the amber or red list countries, or get to directly at great cost. Gosh! We really have been taken for fools.

Lighting up the next Pfizer

For the second Pfizer

9 weeks and a day ago, I got my first jab of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine and the expected timeframe for my second shot was to be within 12 weeks. In the last few weeks, I have clicked on the old link that suggested I wait for notification from my GP and another booking website I was given by a friend indicated I could not use the service.

Yesterday evening, I received an SMS Text Message from my GP asking that I register for my second shot. There were 7 vaccination centres listed but only one of them with available slots. My GP surgery not there for the taking. I will be returning to the centre when I got my first vaccine, one of the two listed then, but the only one with a slot to book.

The promise of great times

The earliest I could get was next Thursday with three time slots and I chose the one after working hours. The hope is once I get my second jab, I will be fully vaccinated, though there is a possibility I might need a booster shot in the autumn.

We have Katalin Karikó, the Hungarian-born biochemist to thank for her 4 decades-long research on RNA mediated mechanisms on which the Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are based. The activity has been long-running and the application at this time is the culmination of amazing skill and expertise. I would hope she will be the consideration for a Nobel Prize in one of the sciences.

Reference

COVID-19 Vaccines

A year of pandemic lockdown

A year of pandemic lockdown

It’s been a really long year,
And we are thankfully still here,
We’ll however be going nowhere,
For we had a government that didn’t care.

You ask if I’ve had the vaccine,
O yes indeed, I have been,
It was the Pfizer in my skin,
Don’t know when the second will be seen.

I surely must clearly profess,
The vaccination is a success,
But can you get Boris to confess?
Everything else they did was a mess.

Trying hard daily not to mope,
In the lockdowns, we learnt to cope,
Holding on to every little hope,
That to Cape Town I can soon elope.

This boy is on Pfizer

Preparations for the jab

I was a bit apprehensive about going for my vaccine just soon after work. I had prepared in more ways than one, gone online to find out about the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, what drug interactions it might have with my medication and if there were things I needed to be concerned about as someone in the vulnerable cohort. [SPS-NHS: Interactions information for Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine]

Then, I changed from a long-sleeve vest and shirt to ones with short sleeves, took leaflets of my current medication, and my passport for identification. As I was unfamiliar with the location of the vaccination centre, I called an Uber cab and was on my way. The driver knew the centre, apparently, he had received his own first vaccination there last Thursday, he had nice things to say about the staff.

Formalities in questions

On arrival, I was ushered in after answering two questions about whether I had any symptoms or had tested positive with the Coronavirus in the past 28 days. Having answered in the negative to the questions, she squirted sanitiser in my hands and gestured towards the line for registration.

At the desk, I was asked for my name and time of appointment before she confirmed my date of birth and affixed an identity label to my COVID-19 immunisation card and then told to wait to be called up for my vaccination.

Soon, I was called to a vaccination pod where I was asked a series of questions about what medication I was on, if I suffered severe allergic reactions, or if I had taken any other vaccine in the last 7 days and whether I had participated in a Covid-19 vaccine trial before.

Only Pfizer will do

Satisfied with my responses, I asked if I was getting the Prizer/BioNTech vaccine and explained why I was particularly keen on it as a frequent traveller to South Africa. Volunteering my understanding that the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine was said to be less than efficacious on the South African variant of the Covid-19 vaccine.

I believe they had been briefed to shutdown any misgivings about the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, even an officiously looking lady came round and said the study was poorly set up and that I should stop reading conspiratorial ideas. Now, for South Africa to abandon that vaccine with their wealth of expertise, that is not something I would ignore. [BBC News: Covid: South Africa halts AstraZeneca vaccine rollout over new variant] [The New York Times: AstraZeneca’s Vaccine Does Not Work Well Against Virus Variant in South Africa]

Putting aside argument

There apparently is little confidence in the same vaccine across Europe. I am not here to wave a jingoistic flag for British technology when it comes to my health, I would not have taken the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine if it were offered today as I had the choice of getting it elsewhere. I did not have to face that battle. [iNews: Europe’s reluctance to use the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine slows roll-out, and isn’t backed up by data]

That put by the side, the nurse drew a dose of the vaccine from a vial and I was given the jab on my left arm, then advised to wait in an observation area for at least 15 minutes before leaving. The overseer of the observation area took my name and recorded it on a clipboard whilst adding 15 minutes to the time as when to ask if I was feeling fine before I could leave.

On exiting the centre, I decided to walk back and did feel a bit of tingling in my fingers. I stopped by the supermarket to get analgesics just in case. even jam doughnuts that I had shied away from for about two years and returned home to rest.

Rather the vaccine than COVID-19

Come for a jab

I received a text message on Monday from my General Practitioner’s surgery inviting me to book my first COVID-19 vaccination with a URL link to a website. I have been invited because I am in Phase 6 of the priority groups, all individuals aged 16 years to 64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality, else, I would have had to wait for my age group in Phase 8. [GOV.UK: Vaccine priority groups]

Whilst I might have had misgivings about being vaccinated, this is one area where I do not have enough knowledge or expertise to make quality decisions about my health and safety in the middle of a pandemic. Accepting that the timeframe of virus discovery to widespread vaccination has taken less than a year, we are in different times and we must account for advances in knowledge and knowhow in virology and immunology to expect that solutions might be acquired at unusual speed.

The safety in numbers

Besides, over 173 million vaccine doses have been given in at least 93 locations globally, the reports indicating the various vaccines are safe and where they have not been that efficacious, alternatives have been sought as improvements are being made to the vaccines to account for the variants and mutations. Humanity is equipped for this, our ingenuity in seeking solutions to problems should be commended. [FT.com: Covid-19 vaccine tracker]

We are still way off the billion-person mark and only 4 locations have exceeded the 50% of their population, we have ways to go. What I know is the older people who got vaccinated from December 2020 onwards seems to be doing fine. We know those with severe allergies will have to wait, and the South African variant does not respond to the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine that it was abandoned there.

Rather the vaccine than COVID

To an extent, I am trusting that necessity is the mother of invention as urgency is the driver of initiative. What no one can afford if they have never had COVID-19 is never to contract it. The experience from survivor stories indicates that the end of the obvious symptoms does not spell the end of the ordeal. The vaccine, apart from trigger an immune response also prevents the onset of debilitating disease and that is a good thing.

I do not know what vaccine will be on offer when I attend the vaccination centre next Wednesday evening. The first jab is not the protection until the second which will provide inoculation. Fundamentally, I am not against vaccination, I have had jabs from childhood and do take my annual flu jab in November apart from the pneumonia one every 3 years. The only jabs I cannot take are ones with live or attenuated viruses like the Yellow fever jab.

There is a new normal ahead of us and somehow, we might have to sacrifice some individual preferences and misgivings for the common good. I hope we are all persuaded of the common good.

Nigeria: A case for jail threats against those refusing vaccination

Protecting our shared community

I would hate to be in a society where vaccination is forced on people, but we need to understand the responsibility to be vaccinated if we are to participate healthily in our shared commonwealth, society and community.

The news is that 120 parents or guardians were arrested and threatened with jail terms if they continued to refuse to allow their wards be vaccinated. [Punch]

Polio or infantile paralysis, is an acute, viral, infectious disease spread from person to person, primarily via the faecal-oral route. [Wikipedia]

Herd immunity

It is preventable by immunisation or vaccination and recipients of this preventative measure block person-to-person transmission of wild poliovirus, thereby protecting both individual vaccine recipients and the wider community (so-called herd immunity).

The operative phrase here being herd immunity, the threshold in percentage terms a community population has to reach in vaccination numbers against preventable diseases to avoid an outbreak leading to a possible epidemic. [Wikipedia]

Source: Herd Immunity - Wikipedia

The chart above with regards to vaccinations against Diphtheria, Measles, Mumps, Pertussis (Whooping Cough), Polio, Rubella and Smallpox with the attendant modes of transmission implicitly confers a societal responsibility on everyone, first by not being a vector for transmission and avoiding that by being vaccinated.

With thresholds ranging from 80% of the population for Polio to 92% for Pertussis and Measles, it would be considered irresponsible for certain members of the public to shift the responsibility unto others by hoping the coverage of herd immunity when they interact with society assures their immunity if they have not yet been vaccinated.

Preventable means taking responsibility

More pertinently is the fact that in 2008, the WHO estimated that there were 1.5 million deaths amongst children under 5 due to preventable diseases. Preventable and avoidable possibly if those children had been vaccinated. [WHO]

Now, where there are no vaccines or a community has not had the opportunity to avail themselves of this life-saving activity, one’s sorrow and sympathy flows unabated as one also advocates for more vaccination drives to the unreached or deprived ends of the world.

Dread and death

However, where religious ignorance and rabble-rousing rhetoric of stupefying controversy as happened in Nigeria has bewitched the people into thinking the vaccination drive is to sterilise the population, then one wonders about the choices between needless childhood mortality or preserving maternal fertility creating a perpetual cycle of birth and death, joy and sorrow until indifference sets in.

That is not to say there is no cause for concern, vaccines are not perfect and as in the case of the Pfizer experiment in Northern Nigeria; what they did was unforgivable, the unethical conduct was reprehensible, and it set back the global vaccination drive that has left Nigeria as one of the only countries in the world with a polio problem, however, we cannot because of it stop the need to vaccinate and avoid preventable childhood deaths. [Wikipedia]

Just one and it spreads

Back to my premise for this blog, just because certain parents refused to take the MMR jab, in 2013, there was a measles outbreak in Wales, which affected 1,455 persons, 664 of those in Swansea and there was one reported death, in August 2013, there was a measles outbreak that found patient-zero in an evangelical mega-church in America.

The whole point I am trying to make is this, it is your prerogative not to get vaccinated, however, if you intend to share the same space as others, breathe the same air they breathe and interact with others as another social being, then that prerogative has to be subsumed to a greater good – you taking responsibility as much as others to be immunised or vaccinated and prevent unnecessary hardship, avoidable sorrow and needless deaths.

The choice is clear

It is in view of this that I support the jail threats made to the people arrested in Niger State of Nigeria, whilst it might be read as an encroachment on their rights, the wider responsibility is to society, with the desire to interact with the community comes a responsibility to help keep that community healthy and safe by attending to the smart obligation of being vaccinated.

Obviously, you can completely isolate yourself from civilisation, but then, hopefully you are too far away from any community to pose any risk at all, else, get vaccinated at the earliest opportunity.

Nigeria: The Yellow Fever Spat with South Africa

Nigerians humiliated

It was just about 27 months ago when two sitting senators and an ex-envoy to South Africa were roughed up or somewhat humiliated by the South African immigration authorities.

I wrote then [1] that I would have very much wanted to protest the effrontery and disrespect to Nigeria, the country of my heritage by reason of my parents but after much thought I felt there was an underlying problem with Nigeria’s image that presaged that event and with high-level politicians suffering such humiliation their experience will inform the need to change elements of our national psyche to earn respect from countries like South Africa.

Happened again after warnings

That must have been a pipe-dream because South Africa having persistently complained [2] to the Nigerian government about the use of fake yellow fever vaccination cards by Nigerians precipitated a diplomatic row by turning back 125 Nigerians at their borders for apparently possessing fake yellow fever vaccination cards.

Politicians and Nigerians on social media forums rose up with righteous indignation, taking offence at the insensitivity and domineering influence of South Africa which they considered a slight on the supposed “Giant of Africa” – a very debatable concept but we are allowed our delusions and opinions.

In time, South Africans were getting deported, immigration checks enforced more stringently, envoys were summoned, politicians fulminating and in the process even Nigerians with legitimate cause [3] and valid documents began to bear the brunt of this fallout.

The rule is clear

The entry requirements to South Africa include this particular stipulation culled from the CDC [4]:

Effective October 1, 2011, proof of yellow fever vaccination is required for all travelers ≥ 1 year of age if traveling from or transiting through a country with risk of YFV transmission regardless of the amount of time spent at the airport. This requirement also applies to the following countries with low potential for exposure to YFV: São Tomé and Principe, Somalia, Tanzania, Zambia, and Eritrea (as of January 1, 2012).

Travelers not meeting this requirement can be refused entry to South Africa or be quarantined for up to 6 days. Unvaccinated travelers with a valid medical waiver will be allowed entry.

(Updated February 7, 2012)

Probably quite necessary for action

On this occasion, the immigration authorities chose to be heavy-handed rather than sympathetic, so rather than putting the Nigerians in quarantine for 6 days, they were deported. One of the passengers on that flight was a sitting senator and Nigeria would have preferred that this situation were handled to avoid embarrassment but a greater principle was at stake – forcing Nigeria to act and having such a high-level politician involved was just the opportunity.

South Africa has since apologised [5] “following this regrettable incident which the South African government believes could have been handled better.”

An apology does not necessarily mean an admission of guilt because that would include restitution and compensation which has not been evident in the statements, it is a state of detente with the hope that a very important point has been made to Nigeria to put their house in order.

The issues remain

Much as one is encouraged with the idea of more bilateral cooperation between Nigeria and South Africa some issues still need to be attended to and addressed in Nigeria.

The corrupt enterprise of selling Yellow Fever Vaccination cards at the airports must stop and we need to establish reputable travel centres that deal with travel health requirements to countries that demand certain steps be taken, ensuring travellers are observant of those requirements and are not circumventing due process.

The idea that travellers to South Africa without proof of yellow fever vaccination will be vaccinated at the point of entry into South Africa should be terrifying for all sorts of reasons one should leave to the imagination. More importantly, it is better to be vaccinated with a good knowledge of your medical condition than be turnstiled and syringed through the system just to end up the worse for it.

Do NOT use Yellow Fever Vaccine [6] if:

• You are allergic to any ingredient in Yellow Fever Vaccine or latex rubber
• You are allergic to eggs, egg products, or chicken protein
• You have a weakened immune system due to HIV or cancer or are receiving radiation treatment or chemotherapy (e.g., alkylating drugs, corticosteroids)

Read more at http://www.drugs.com/cdi/yellow-fever-vaccine.html#p7Cvd2lhYBC4uACR.99

Candidate Patient Zero

Besides, the Yellow Fever Vaccine only offers full protection 10 days after taking the vaccine, so taking the vaccine at the airport and entering South Africa without having developed the antibodies most likely sets the person up as first vulnerable to infection and then a vector for the disease either in South Africa or when they return home where it might already have been eradicated – the person then takes on the ignominious title of Patient Zero – the concept and proposed solution is just wrong.

Like I opined in 2008, the problem is initially and primarily in Nigeria where we have to deal with sharp and corrupt practices with regards to preparing for international travel but once again like was the case with James Ibori with the United Kingdom convicting our criminals, it has taken the action of an external party to force an issue we should have managed better at home – the hope is the greater lesson is learnt by the so offended Nigeria and Nigerians once we have been sated with the words of the apology.

There is work to be done; Nigeria put your house in order.

Sources

[1] Nigeria: Image allows immigration humiliation | Akinblog.nl

[2] We won’t apologise to Nigeria, says S-Africa | Vanguard Nigeria

[3] SA deports Nigerian journalist | Daily Times Nigeria

[4] Health Information for Travelers to South Africa - Travelers' Health - CDC

[5] Department of International Relations and Cooperation of the Republic of South Africa - South Africa and Nigeria commit to strengthen bilateral relations

[6] Yellow Fever Vaccine Facts and Comparisons at Drugs.com

The Pfizer Drug Trial

A leaked report

There is a need to follow-up on the blog I wrote about Humanitarian Pfizer before a number of points I raised are misconstrued and misinterpreted.

Nowhere was I commending Kano State for refusing to have children vaccinated, rather, I was highlighting the fact that their refusal must have been as a result of the experience they had with Pfizer and the supposed unapproved and illegal drug trials that took place.

Apparently, there was a report completed five years ago which is still confidential and under wraps that details to a greater extent how papers were forged granting access to this demographic and the possibility that no drugs were tested on some the children presumably affected.

The problem here is that the report has not been released to public scrutiny and what we know of it is due to some unauthorised leakages and no official has necessarily corroborated what has been relayed from that report, however, we now have names and titles of the Nigerian personnel who believe they were first cajoled and then kept in the dark about what Pfizer was up to.

Panel Faults Pfizer in '96 Clinical Trial In Nigeria - washingtonpost.com - Thanks to Snazzy for the link.

Hence what we really have to go on in the public domain is the detail covered by the news in terms of the new court case filed a few days ago where the numbers and the events seem to be at variance with the yet confidential report - the truth will out.

The bane of intellectual blind-sidedness

I also refuse to be challenged from the emotive perspective that if I had children, I would not have refused their testing for polio and the consequent necessary vaccination.

The commentator speaks from the comfort of an educated pedestal without appreciating the composition of the said demographic not having been deceived into offering children for trialling an unproven and untried drug in the midst of a seeming pandemic; all in the guise that they were being helped and this was approved by both the government and supported by the WHO.

The people affected in Kano State were attended to in a field hospital and probably not knowledgeable or literate enough to appreciate what was being done or attempted on their children and after The Washington Post blew this rotten exercise wide open in 2000; 4 years after the said events, it was only an expected human reaction to resist any Western medicine offers for mass immunisation in the light of such previous cajoling, deception and betrayal of trust.

Pfizer in the courts

Pfizer would contend that they obtained verbal consent of the parents when they should have only gone ahead with informed consent, a higher standard of ethical probity as required in the West.

It would appear Pfizer once had a statement about the drug tests in Nigeria, but that article can no more be found on Pfizer's site. In all, 4 court cases have been through the US courts and they have mainly been dismissed on grounds of forum non conveniens, basically, issues of jurisdiction rather than substantive misgivings on the merits of the case.

At least, Pfizer has waived possible statute of limitation problems, which means this case might run for years till some sort of resolution is reached.

Hopefully, there would be a judge ready to hear this case and get to the heart of the matter, it might also require lobbying Congress to come down heavily on rich drug companies that take advantage of helpless, poor and illiterate people to attempt dangerous drug trials outside the purvey of their government and judicial processes.

You only have to do a search on Google for Drug Trials Africa to see how much we in Africa have become a continent of guinea pigs for Big Pharma.

So, once again, in the circumstances, I can understand why the Muslim North in Nigeria were against vaccination, though it was ill-judged and wrong; they definitely were not going to be guinea pigs in another macabre drugs trial - the government had to institute serious confidence re-building measures to get the people to acquiesce to hopefully an honest activity of really saving life with drugs that really do work.

Drug Trial links

Kano Trovafloxacin trial litigation - 4 cases brought in the States since 2001

Nigerians in drug trial take their case to US court - Raufu 326 (7395): 899 -- BMJ

Nigeria: 1996 Drug Trial - Kano State Sues Pfizer for $2.7bn

Good Clinical Practice

London Drug Trial Catastrophe - Collapse of Science and Ethics

Drug Trials

The Constant Gardener

Nigeria's drug trial fears

Researcher received undisclosed payments of 300,000 dollars from Pfizer - unrelated but relevant

Humantarian Pfizer fed Nigerian kids poison drug - allegedly

The devil's work in Africa

The sensationalism of the headlines made us want to cover our heads in shame as we tried to defend what was indefensible.

The Muslim North in Nigeria had refused to allow their children to be vaccinated against polio which in many ways delayed the eradication of polio in Sub-Saharan Africa, in some cases; places that were once clear became vulnerable too.

Anyone who read the by-line in the Scotsman - "Polio vaccination dismissed as devil's work across Africa" would have sniggered; the ignorant savages do not know what is good for them.

With hindsight, there is much to reckon with this refusal, Kano State in Nigeria has just sued Pfizer for a $2.75 billion compensation for using 200 of their children as guinea pigs to test an unapproved drug - Trovan Floxacin - under the guise of humanitarian aid.

Help from the devil

There was an outbreak of measles, cholera and meningitis in 1996; the World Health Organisation and Pfizer offered to help the government with this problem but it transpired that these children were given drugs that lead to complications, deformities and even death.

It would appear some independent research also found some batches of medication to be contaminated, allegedly.

What is quite disturbing about this case if it does get to court and suffer proper judicial scrutiny is that fellow Nigerians might have been party to this rotten exercise whilst the gravitas of the WHO might have given legitimacy to an activity that is completely unethical and utterly beneath contempt.

The might of Big Pharma that Pfizer represents might have hoped to exploit rife corruption in Nigeria so that this almost "eugenics" exercise would not be exposed, someone must have been paid off being privy to what was about to happen to helpless, innocent, frail and trusting little children and their seemingly gullible parents.

Low-level hysteria

Once this rotten activity was discovered, it was no surprise that low-level hysteria was employed by the religious leaders and government to prevent vaccinations from taking place a few years on.

Who was to say another Big Pharma firm would not use the large demographic of deprived Africa to test some drug for the benefit of the more privileged West.

There are many including the rich shareholders of Pfizer who would wish this suit was both frivolous and calumnious, but I would contend that some legal advice must have seen serious merit in this case.

This reeks of the infamous Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male which ran from 1932 to 1972 in America where poor illiterate black males were denied treatment for syphilis. There are stringent laws guiding medical trials in the West, but with the oaf of Professor Eyitayo Lambo sitting in the Ministry of Health in Nigeria, it is unlikely that he would have been agitated at all by this rotten exercise, though it happened long before he became a minister.

He could not be bothered about the prevalence of sub-standard drugs in Nigerian Teaching Hospitals because the case was not presented directly to him as it was to his predecessor.

Too small a price to pay

$2.75 billion sounds like a high price to pay but no price can be high enough a penalty for subjecting helpless innocent children to deafness, paralysis, brain damage and blindness with drugs that cause such immeasurable misery.

Let us see, with revenue of over $48 billion in 2006 if the price on the head of an African child is worth anything compared to if this exercise had been conducted in the West.

The deception in the guise of humanitarian aid in a very vulnerable situation is just unforgivable, I am all too livid with rage as I now understand the reticence of the people to take on new vaccinations, they were duped, robbed, betrayed and literally killed off for possible block-buster drug success - not only should Kano State be suing Pfizer, Nigeria and Africa as a whole should be scrutinising what other gifts we have been made to ingest in the guise of prophylaxis or therapy when in fact we were guinea pigs in an unconscionably malevolent trial.

Time to dump your Viagra pills down the drain and make sure they are properly flushed away before your toilet bowl thinks it is dysfunctional too.

Addendum:

Read the last paragraph as a metaphor, a reader left this comment - Actually, it is probably a bad idea to dump much Viagra in a toilet. Hormones and psychoactive drugs are starting to show up in the blood of aquatic organisms as well as in many bodies of fresh water in the United States and other industrialized countries. - I would agree, the prospect of seeing marine life cured of erectile dysfunction would be too horrific to countenance. Thanks Don.