Mother and baby home survivors demand vaccine trial records
Department of Children is not proactively informing hundreds of mother and baby home survivors they were part of controversial vaccine trials as children – despite being required to under EU law
Mari Steed: The State has a duty of care to inform its citizens of information it may hold with regard to our medical health, full stop. Picture: Arthur Carron/Collins
Fri, 23 Apr, 2021 - 17:30
Conall Ó Fátharta
The Department of Children is not proactively informing hundreds of mother and baby home survivors that they were part of controversial vaccine trials as children – despite being required to under EU law.
Follow RT on Survivors of Ireland’s infamous mother-and-baby homes have accused the government of failing to properly investigate vaccine trials that they unwittingly participated in as infants.
The Irish government formally apologized on Wednesday for the now-defunct institutions, noting
“an appalling level of infant mortality” at the 18 homes. During their 76 years of operation, an estimated 9,000 children died at the shelters, which were often the last resort of unwed pregnant women ostracized by society. The institutions were not shuttered until 1998.
It is believed the trials took place between 1930 and 1973, and all involved either the Wellcome Foundation or Glaxo Laboratories, which later became GlaxoSmithKline.
Children in mother and baby homes were repeatedly used as guinea pigs in vaccine trials during which ethical and regulatory guidelines were flouted.
The Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation identified seven vaccine trials which took place at institutions between 1934 and 1973.
These included trials for a measles vaccine and a four-in-one “Quadrivax” for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and polio.
According to the Commission, the trials all involved either the Wellcome Foundation or Glaxo Laboratories. These companies are today both part of GlaxoSmithKline.
The Commission said it was clear from its investigations that relevant regulatory and ethical standards of the time were not complied with.