Proponents of the victims of the infected blood scandal have been “angry, upset and frustrated” by comments from former Prime Minister Sir John Major, who said those affected were “incredibly unlucky”.
In the mouths of those present at the infected blood investigation in London, Major suggested that no amount of money could have offered real compensation for what happened.
Infecting up to 30,000 people with HIV or hepatitis C from contaminated blood has been called the biggest treatment disaster in NHS history. Thousands of people died after contaminated blood products were imported from the United States in the 1970s and 1980s, often from prisoners, sex workers, and drug addicts who were paid to donate their blood.
Major described the effects of the scandal on the victims as “horror”. He said, “There’s no amount of compensation I can give that can really compensate for what had happened to them. What had happened to them was incredible, horrible bad luck, and it wasn’t something no one had. sympathy “.
Victims have long believed that the scope of the pollution scandal was hidden. In an example of evidence suggesting that the government was aware of the risks, a 1983 letter to the Department of Health from the London Communicable Disease Surveillance Center called for the removal of blood products from the United States for links to HIV. which had to be examined correctly.
Former Occupational Health Secretary Andy Burnham has described the scandal as a “criminal cover-up.”
Jason Evans, the founder of the Factor 8 campaign group, which advocates on behalf of the victims of the scandal and their families, said: “I don’t think John Major has been particularly open in his evidence and I suspect that the families they will have many things.more questions.
“His comments on bad luck only face all the evidence, expert evidence, that we’ve heard. I think it just shows how little education there is in this issue. There are people in the room, families and victims, that they are very angry, upset and frustrated with what was said ”.
Denise Turton, whose 10-year-old son died after contracting HIV through contaminated blood products, said: “I’m very angry. To say it’s bad luck is horrible to feel, especially after what happened. my son.He lost his life, many others too, and all he says is bad luck.
“I can’t say what I really mean. The only thing that has bad luck is that the government has ignored them. They talked about the products and didn’t listen to them; that’s bad luck, not what happened to me. son and so many others “.
Clive Smith, President of the Hemophilia Society, said: “Sir John Major’s current evidence that the suffering and death of more than 3,000 people with haemophilia and other bleeding disorders as a result of NHS contaminated treatment is” bad luck “is offensive and complacent.. Its evidence is a reminder that successive governments for the past 30 years have refused to accept responsibility for this treatment disaster, and the denial continues.”