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United Kingdom Government Medicine

Britain Covered Up Tainted Blood Scandal That Killed Thousands, Report Finds (upi.com) 78

UPI reports that the British government covered up "a multi-decade tainted blood scandal, leading to thousands of related deaths, a report published Monday found." Britain's National Health Service allowed blood tainted with HIV and Hepatitis to be used on patients without their knowledge, leading to 3,000 deaths and more than 30,000 infections, according to the 2,527-page final report by Justice Brian Justice Langstaff, a former judge on the High Court of England and Wales. Langstaff oversaw a five-year investigation into the use of tainted blood and blood products in Britain's healthcare system between 1970 and 1991. The report blames multiple administrations over the time period for knowingly exposing victims to unacceptable risks...

In several cases, health officials lied about the risks to patients... The NHS also gave patients false reassurances, an attempt to "save face," failing victims "not once but repeatedly...." The situation could "largely, though not entirely, have been avoided," Langstaff found...

The British government on Monday began operating a support phone line for people and their families affected by the tainted blood scandal.

The article notes that Langstaff described the coverup as "subtle" but "pervasive" and "chilling in its implications...

"To save face and to save expense, there has been a hiding of much of the truth."

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 for sharing the article.
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Britain Covered Up Tainted Blood Scandal That Killed Thousands, Report Finds

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  • Phew (Score:5, Informative)

    by systemd-anonymousd ( 6652324 ) on Saturday May 25, 2024 @03:05PM (#64498631)

    I'm glad that's over with, and now we can trust governments to not purposefully poison and kill us. Now shut up and do what they tell you, because all that crazy stuff is in the past and everything is fixed now.

    • Donâ(TM)t forget also having an environmental agency not responding to FOI requests, because they were embarrassed. So after all the finger pointing towards the EU, they have come to realise the smell was coming from their own underwear.

    • Not only UK (Score:4, Informative)

      by flyingfsck ( 986395 ) on Sunday May 26, 2024 @04:33AM (#64499805)
      The US was the source of the tainted blood products and it affected many countries; Canada of course and all over Europe - the difference being that others admitted the problem and dealt with it many years ago already.
    • Ford decided not to recall the Ford Pinto to replace an $11 part because they decided it was cheaper than settling burn and wrongful death claims and hid the cause and effect until the government stepped in. I guess we should never buy a car.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 25, 2024 @03:09PM (#64498633)

    Once I ran to you
    Now, I'll run from you
    This tainted blood you've given
    I give you all a boy could give
    Take my tears and that's not nearly all
    Oh, tainted blood
    Tainted Blood

  • They tried that here in Canada, too, but our courts took care of it in 1997. You know, after years of the Red Cross buying blood from American prisons and giving us Aids and Hep C because they didn't think testing was worth it. But I guess in the UK they're better and cover-ups.

    Now we have 'Canadian Blood Services' but it's the new regulation that makes it safer (one hopes) since an awful lot of the original Red Cross staff were migrated to the work under the new name.

    • by Anonymous Coward
      A Canadian relative of mine once received a letter stating they might have gotten AIDS from a botched transfusion and to get checked for AIDS asap. Thankfully nothing bad happened but I can't imagine living with that fear even for a day.
      • Yup, I got a âMay be infected with Hep Bâ(TM) letter. Went to a doc and she said that if I got infected that long ago, then I would be extremely sick and probably dead already; I sure would not be standing there talking to her, but she did a test anyway.
    • Canada health care demanding a service below cost and then surprised that corners get cutâ¦

  • "Thank U NHS" (Score:2, Insightful)

    by ncc74656 ( 45571 ) *

    https://www.kimdutoit.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/nr1202-11-1.jpg [kimdutoit.com]

    This, folks, is why you don't let your government run your health-care system.

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      So you get things like the opioid catastrophe, i.e. intentional evil instead of just incompetent evil?

    • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      As if private healthcare doesn't have even more scandals. Profit motive is far worse than what happened here, which is essentially that nobody wanted to be the one who said the blood was bad so just kept repeating the original assurances they had been given by someone else. There was no great conspiracy, just a systemic lack of responsibility and willingness to correct mistakes.

  • BAYER Rat Of The Week video:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

  • If I just act like nothing is happening, then it will just go away. Governments are made of people, and people are stupid, therefore governments are not to be trusted.
  • Did it before... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by SuperDre ( 982372 )
    Back at the start of 2000 there was a show called Judge John Deed, it had some episodes about a case about vaccination and it killing children (which was based on actual events), it was only broadcast one time, and BBC was ordered not to show these episodes ever again, not even on dvd. Now any time this show is available it still is missing those episodes.
    • Too many morons can't comprehend statistics - every time that episode airs, it's likely creating more anti-vaxxers and eventually new outbreaks and deaths.

  • ...about how awesome nationalized health services are, how they're so much better than that awful American one.

The only perfect science is hind-sight.

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