"Blood Money" TV programmes about US blood companies not to be viewed in public

RTE NEWS ^ | Friday, July 7 2000 | Staff

[adanaC]

http://www.rte.ie/news/2000/0707/lindsay.html TV programmes about US blood companies not to be viewed in public

Friday, July 07 2000

Judge Alison Lindsay ruled against a public viewing of programmes There has been a ruling at the Lindsay Tribunal not to allow three World In Action programmes, which made serious allegations against US blood companies, to be viewed in public. Judge Alison Lindsay ruled that the programmes were records of allegations rather than fact, that interviewees could not be cross-examined and that they could blur the issues she must consider. John Trainor, Senior Counsel for the Haemophilia Society, had made the application for the programmes to be viewed stating that they were "clearly relevant". He said that the Blood Transfusion Services committed an act of "irresponsible madness" when it continued to deal with the US company Travenol without having investigated the allegations after broadcast. Mr Trainor charged that it was "grossly irresponsible" that the Board of the BTS did not reconsider distributing the Travenol concentrated clotting agent. He said that the programmes had brought into the focus the need for Ireland to be self-sufficient in the production of blood supplies and accused the Board of "unforgivable" inactivity. Mr Trainor stated that the Haemophilia Society's ability to participate in the Tribunal would be "greatly hindered" if the programmes were not admitted in evidence. The application for a public viewing was opposed by Senior Counsel for the Tribunal, Mr Finlay. In her ruling, Judge Lindsay stated that she had viewed the programmes and considered the arguments, but decided against a public viewing. However, she ordered that transcripts of the programme be made available and said that the allegations could then be put to any witness. The World in Action programmes, two of which were transmitted as part of a series in 1975, investigated US blood companies, how they screed blood donors who were being paid for donations and the risk of blood products being infected with Hepatitis. Related Stories Heated exchanges take place at Lindsay Tribunal Blood Transfusion Service records shredded on orders of Chief Technical Officer Lindsay Tribunal hears how BTS records were destroyed in bulk Lindsay Tribunal hears evidence on clotting agent deal

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http://www.rte.ie/news/2000/0714/lindsay.html

Haemophiliac probably infected with HIV from clotting agent

Friday, July 14 2000

Dr Emer Lawlor said clotting agent was most likely the source of haemophiliac's infection A haemophiliac probably became infected with HIV from a clotting agent given at St James hospital, which the Blood Transfusion Service had already returned to the manufacturer. The disclosure was made at the Lindsay Tribunal during the final day of the cross-examination of Dr Emer Lawlor, BTS Deputy Medical Director, by the Haemophilia Society. Dr Lawlor stated that she believed a clotting agent made by the firm 'Armour' and given to the haemophiliac at St James in Feb 1986 was most likely the source of his infection. She told the Tribunal that the BTS had earlier returned all of its Armour products to the company because Irish made concentrates, which were considered to be safer, were coming on stream. However Armour re-issued the product to St James' hospital and, in the view of Dr Lawlor, it was 'most likely' to have been the source of the HIV infection. Dr Lawlor agreed with John Trainor, Senior Counsel for the Irish Haemophilia Society that the destruction of 20 years of BTS dispatch records had made it more difficult to establish where the Armour batch had gone to. The Tribunal also heard extracts from two World In Action programmes, broadcast in 1975, which made serious allegations about a US blood firm and how it collected plasma to make blood products. The programmes which were entitled 'Blood Money' alleged to show how a division of the Baxter group did not apply its own donor screening procedures and increased the risks of hepatitis. Dr Lawlor stated that the risks of infection were known by the BTS, treating doctors and users but the benefits to haemophiliacs outweighed those considerations. She told the Tribunal that she would have put her own child on concentrates despite the known risks, because of what she termed 'the horror of untreated bleeds'. Dr Lawlor will return to the stand on Monday when she will be cross-examined by another party. Budge's Links to the Tainted Arkansas Prison Blood Story Page One Page Two Page Three Page Four Latest 100 'Blood Trail' Posts on the Free Republic BLOOD TRAIL -- Clinton  BLOOD TRAIL -- Timeline  BLOOD TRAIL - Who, What, Where …  FOR THOSE WHO BELIEVE OUR GOVERNMENTS DIDN'T KNOW!!!

 

1976 Blood Money: What Canadian Red Cross donors didn’t know (1976)

1978 HEPATITIS AGENT: They've named it for what it isn't

(Early 70s) Poisoned blood left thousands to suffer unaided
with transcripts from an embargoed Canadian 1976 fifth Estate TV show "Bad Blood".

RCMP will not lay charges against government bureaucrats who destroyed crucial evidence

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!

[backhoe]

I first heard of this in 1997 or '98... and I'm still waiting for the media to give it some coverage.

[T'wit]

We believe the reports you cite are correct. However, the tainted blood scheme was far more extensive than covered here. For instance,

> Yet, in two states, Arkansas and Louisiana, prison plasma programs persisted throughout the 1980s.

There were HMA collections at other prisons or, brokered, from the disreputable paid donations in slums and border towns. We have reason to believe that HMA operations spread rapidly through the dozen or so states where such plasma draws were legal.

All this was possible for one reason only: the plasma was in heavy demand. Prices stayed high. Panic over AIDS dried up old sources of blood in Haiti and Africa. New ones had to be found. Cummins Prison Farm alone produced a truckful of plasma every week -- up to a reputed 8,000 units. Angola Prison later did the same or a bit more. Inmates were bribed and bullied into donating plasma to the point of literally being bled white -- sometimes four units a week! (They were also cross-contaminated by dirty needles until they had a 100% hepatitis C rate and something near that for AIDS. Few of them are still alive.)

Who bought all this plasma at high prices? There's the $64 million question :-) It is known that some of it went to Connaught in Canada. But Connaught, the only Canadian processing facility, was old, creaky, inefficient and not very big. The U.S. had four processors, all of them newer and larger. They were prohibited by law from using prison blood. But SOMEBODY was buying all that plasma. Hmmm!

[T'wit]

> into the term of his successor, Jim Guy Tucker.

Jim Guy is a mean bleeper and a convicted criminal, but let's give him a break on this one. When Bubba left for Washington, D.C. (taking most of the Dixie Mafia with him), his crooked pals sold the Cummins blood concession to an out-of-state company. It ran two more years but we have no particular reason to think the new company did anything wrong. The market for prison plasma was almost dry by then anyway.

[mafree]

bump

[crazykatz]

And, YET another reason to despise klintoon!!

[B4Ranch]

Join in with the United Nations in deciding whether contaminated blood is as bad as 'the people think it is!

"In order to stabilize world population, it is necessary to eliminate 350,000 people a day. It is a horrible thing to say, but it's just as bad not to say it."

- Oceanographer Jaques Cousteau
Published in the Courier, a publication of 
the United Nations Educational, Scientific 
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

[thinden]

the main supply of the book was remaindered.

great book! as good as anything by john grisham. would love to see the movie.

[T'wit]

> would love to see the movie.

Me too, and I know the author is! It would make a terrific movie, so maybe the day will come.

[Great Dane]

Whatever happened to free speech.

[Great Dane]

Bourque still has all of it on site.

[Great Dane]

great book! as good as anything by john grisham. would love to see the movie.

Got the book, thanks to t'wit

[T'wit]

Under what heading, please? I just took a look and came up empty. I did find my old ScanDoodles still listed but the web page is gone. {sigh}

[Great Dane]

Right side, almost at the bottom, don't remember the heading.

[Great Dane]

Just checked Bourque, right hand column,under Misc......Arkansas- Canada Blood Scandal.

[thinden]

maybe they could "tweak" the screen play?

change locale to, say, mittittippi or oklahoma?

call the former gov/pres "big guy" instead of bubba?

[thinden]

Got the book, thanks to t'wit.

me too. mine's autographed! (by the author...not T'wit).

[Budge]

The seark site is still up. Computer problems were with my own. New computer now, trying to reconstruct e-mail list and whatnot. I still have almost all posts saved. I haven't been able to update the site yet though. I hope to get that done fairly soon, when all is set up on this computer.

[Budge]

great book! as good as anything by john grisham. would love to see the movie.

Those of us who have read it know it used fictional people instead of actual names. Some of us know the hell the author has gone through besides what is public knowledge.

Can you imagine what his life would have been like had he not used fictional names?

A movie would be top-notch!

[Great Dane]

Can you imagine what his life would have been like had he not used fictional names?

He might now be in a place where he wouldn't have to worry about it.