Matt Hancock said he feared that the warning systems designed to spot potential problems with the Covid vaccine were “shonky”, The Telegraph can disclose.
WhatsApp messages sent during the pandemic show the former health secretary told one of the Government’s most senior scientific advisers that he was worried its “pharmacovigilance” – schemes for recording adverse reactions and whether medicines and medical products are working properly – were inadequate.
The exchange between Mr Hancock and Sir Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer, occurred on Jan 9, 2021, a month after the vaccine rollout began.
Mr Hancock asked Sir Chris: “How strong is our pharmocovigilence system to check events post-rollout? I was told we were doing it but I worry that the details will be shonky.”
Sir Chris replied: “Reasonable but needs to get better. There will be cases.”
The UK has a medicines regulator, which runs a system to monitor side-effects of all medicines and medical devices, including Covid vaccines.
Medics and patients who suspect someone has suffered an adverse reaction can make a “yellow card” report to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA), with experts then analysing the information to see whether action needs to be taken.
Scientific studies also monitored whether the jabs were effective.
The disclosure of Mr Hancock’s comments comes after the Telegraph revealed that the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine has been branded “defective” in a multi-million pound landmark legal action that will suggest claims over its efficacy were “vastly overstated”.
Independent studies, including work by Airfinity, show the AstraZeneca vaccine was incredibly effective in tackling the pandemic, saving more than six million lives globally in the first year of the rollout.
Last year, the World Health Organisation said the vaccine was “safe and effective for all individuals aged 18 and above” and that the adverse effect that has prompted the legal action was “very rare”.
> Last year, the World Health Organisation said the vaccine was “safe and effective for all individuals aged 18 and above” and that the adverse effect that has prompted the legal action was “very rare”.
If we’ve learned anything in recent years, it’s that extremely rare stuff that happens once in a blue moon to a handful of people is worthy of constant non-stop news coverage, and at least 4 dedicated subreddits.
Dozens of countries have each done several rounds of tests. all of them without concertation and all with good results. We know some people will suffer from side effects. We might still be lockdown without the vaccines.
This is getting ridiculous and I honestly fear that we won’t learn anything from the whole enquiry because we will spend all our time on pathetic attempts to dig up dirt or justify agendas
The relevant minister challenges a civil servant to assure him that the systems will be adequate. The civil servant responds that they are adequate may need some improving
This shit must happen all the time. Its literally their job roles to do this. How is this news?
I find it bizarre that government communications about important topics are conducted so informally. Would you WhatsApp message your colleague saying “How are our lifesaving precautions? I think they’re a bit shonky”
what the fuck is shonky? is it some sort of mix between shit and wonky?
I have posts on my Twitter back in 2021 stating how the vaccine efficacy was nowhere near 90%, using UK government data, which was already being heavily influenced towards pushing the vaccine narrative. If I recall, it was somewhat closer statistically to 65%.
I’ll say now what I said then. If you have health issues, old or obese. You should probably take the vaccine. For everyone else. I don’t think it was necessary.
You go to school, study hard, crush your A levels. You go to Oxford, earn a masters in public health at johns hopkins, then back to the UK for a Medical degree-PhD combo. You spend your life standing watch for the species. You track flu, avian flu, swine flu, ebola, zika. Hiv. You read morbidity reports, consuming data direct like lines of code in the matrix. You seek that next threat. Your mission is to save lives. You are a physician, epidemiologist, virologist. You are a professional nerd. Not a hero, not famous. An expert in her field
Then you find yourself answering to this politician who lacks the depth of experience, and the education, to understand your answer. You must work to simplify it.
For you kind snoo’s of reddit however, here is a good study of what we got out of the first ever mRNA vaccine.
This peer reviewed model says we saved 14 million lives the first year of covid vaccines.
There were thousands of us, in Britain, France, Belgium, America, Germany. We were badly frightened. I could see a billion people dying from this virus.
Most viral vaccines that we had pre-covid? Grown in eggs. Guess which virus cannot be grown in eggs? Coronavirus. I was frightened. Our vaccine infrastructure was not good for this enemy.
A very nice lady named katalin kariko had an idea, a new way to create an immune response.
She and a man, Drew Weissman, saved 14 million lives at least.
They won the nobel prize.
This lad was worried the public health warning infrastucture was shonky. Same man who was kissing a woman in his office during quarantine.
Katalin would prefer a biscuit and a thank you. She would get red in the fave and embarassed. Shes a rather kind and unassuming woman, and she saved millions.
Just felt like sharing,
Seems like a non story. Dumbarse politician who had at least enough brain cells to realise it was his arse on the line seeks reassurance.
9 comments
***From The Telegraph’s Investigations team:***
Matt Hancock said he feared that the warning systems designed to spot potential problems with the Covid vaccine were “shonky”, The Telegraph can disclose.
WhatsApp messages sent during the pandemic show the former health secretary told one of the Government’s most senior scientific advisers that he was worried its “pharmacovigilance” – schemes for recording adverse reactions and whether medicines and medical products are working properly – were inadequate.
The exchange between Mr Hancock and Sir Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer, occurred on Jan 9, 2021, a month after the vaccine rollout began.
Mr Hancock asked Sir Chris: “How strong is our pharmocovigilence system to check events post-rollout? I was told we were doing it but I worry that the details will be shonky.”
Sir Chris replied: “Reasonable but needs to get better. There will be cases.”
The UK has a medicines regulator, which runs a system to monitor side-effects of all medicines and medical devices, including Covid vaccines.
Medics and patients who suspect someone has suffered an adverse reaction can make a “yellow card” report to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA), with experts then analysing the information to see whether action needs to be taken.
Scientific studies also monitored whether the jabs were effective.
The disclosure of Mr Hancock’s comments comes after the Telegraph revealed that the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine has been branded “defective” in a multi-million pound landmark legal action that will suggest claims over its efficacy were “vastly overstated”.
Independent studies, including work by Airfinity, show the AstraZeneca vaccine was incredibly effective in tackling the pandemic, saving more than six million lives globally in the first year of the rollout.
Last year, the World Health Organisation said the vaccine was “safe and effective for all individuals aged 18 and above” and that the adverse effect that has prompted the legal action was “very rare”.
**Read more here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/09/matt-hancock-feared-covid-vaccine-warning-systems-shonky/**
> Last year, the World Health Organisation said the vaccine was “safe and effective for all individuals aged 18 and above” and that the adverse effect that has prompted the legal action was “very rare”.
If we’ve learned anything in recent years, it’s that extremely rare stuff that happens once in a blue moon to a handful of people is worthy of constant non-stop news coverage, and at least 4 dedicated subreddits.
Dozens of countries have each done several rounds of tests. all of them without concertation and all with good results. We know some people will suffer from side effects. We might still be lockdown without the vaccines.
This is getting ridiculous and I honestly fear that we won’t learn anything from the whole enquiry because we will spend all our time on pathetic attempts to dig up dirt or justify agendas
The relevant minister challenges a civil servant to assure him that the systems will be adequate. The civil servant responds that they are adequate may need some improving
This shit must happen all the time. Its literally their job roles to do this. How is this news?
I find it bizarre that government communications about important topics are conducted so informally. Would you WhatsApp message your colleague saying “How are our lifesaving precautions? I think they’re a bit shonky”
what the fuck is shonky? is it some sort of mix between shit and wonky?
I have posts on my Twitter back in 2021 stating how the vaccine efficacy was nowhere near 90%, using UK government data, which was already being heavily influenced towards pushing the vaccine narrative. If I recall, it was somewhat closer statistically to 65%.
I’ll say now what I said then. If you have health issues, old or obese. You should probably take the vaccine. For everyone else. I don’t think it was necessary.
You go to school, study hard, crush your A levels. You go to Oxford, earn a masters in public health at johns hopkins, then back to the UK for a Medical degree-PhD combo. You spend your life standing watch for the species. You track flu, avian flu, swine flu, ebola, zika. Hiv. You read morbidity reports, consuming data direct like lines of code in the matrix. You seek that next threat. Your mission is to save lives. You are a physician, epidemiologist, virologist. You are a professional nerd. Not a hero, not famous. An expert in her field
Then you find yourself answering to this politician who lacks the depth of experience, and the education, to understand your answer. You must work to simplify it.
For you kind snoo’s of reddit however, here is a good study of what we got out of the first ever mRNA vaccine.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(22)00320-6/fulltext
This peer reviewed model says we saved 14 million lives the first year of covid vaccines.
There were thousands of us, in Britain, France, Belgium, America, Germany. We were badly frightened. I could see a billion people dying from this virus.
Most viral vaccines that we had pre-covid? Grown in eggs. Guess which virus cannot be grown in eggs? Coronavirus. I was frightened. Our vaccine infrastructure was not good for this enemy.
A very nice lady named katalin kariko had an idea, a new way to create an immune response.
She and a man, Drew Weissman, saved 14 million lives at least.
They won the nobel prize.
This lad was worried the public health warning infrastucture was shonky. Same man who was kissing a woman in his office during quarantine.
Katalin would prefer a biscuit and a thank you. She would get red in the fave and embarassed. Shes a rather kind and unassuming woman, and she saved millions.
Just felt like sharing,
Seems like a non story. Dumbarse politician who had at least enough brain cells to realise it was his arse on the line seeks reassurance.