The UK’s medical watchdog failed to raise the alarm in time about side effects and injuries linked to the covid vaccine and should be investigated, according to a group of British MPs.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is responsible for approving medicines and devices and monitoring the side effects of various medical treatments. But according to the Parliamentary Group on Pandemic Response and Recovery, the agency has “fallen far short of protecting patients” and has been operating in a way that “exposes them to serious risks”.
Some 25 MEPs from four parties have written to the health committee calling for an urgent inquiry. In response, Steve Brine, chairman of the health committee, said an inquiry into patient safety was “highly likely”.
In a letter to Brine, the parliamentary group said there was reason to believe that the MHRA was aware of heart and clotting problems following the vaccination as early as February 2021, but ignored the warnings and chose not to highlight the problems for months.
Denmark and several other European countries suspended the Astra Zeneca vaccine as early as March 2021 due to fears of serious vaccine damage, but the MHRA did not issue a safety advisory until April 7, by which time 24 million people had already been vaccinated.
“Extensive and in-depth review”
There were also reports linking the vaccine to the heart problems myocarditis and pericarditis as early as February 2021, but warnings about these risks were not issued until June.
“In effect, the MHRA licences medical products as safe knowing it lacks the processes to properly monitor adverse events. We cannot allow it to continue. That’s why we have written to the health select committee calling for an urgent investigation into the MHRA”, the politicians wrote.
“Historically trust and confidence in vaccines and vaccine safety has been high in the UK, but it seems that the experience of the Covid-19 vaccines has undermined this and by association trust in the regulator and the pharmaceutical industry. Now more than ever a wide-reaching and in-depth review is needed”, it continues.
It also warns that the MHRA’s reporting system, which is supposed to encourage patients and doctors to report vaccine-related adverse events, is deeply dysfunctional and captures only a fraction of all vaccine injuries.
“In the case of Covid-19 vaccines, given the comparatively novel technology and record manufacturing speed, could the MHRA have even properly scrutinised the licensing data or known the short term safety?” it asks.
– The MHRA oversees a failed system that is slow to act, harms patients and is riddled with conflicts of interest, said Graham Stinger MEP.
