Coalition ‘to blame for swine f lu deaths’
Ministers ‘complacent’ over outbreak that killed 474
HUNDREDS may have died needlessly from swine flu because of government complacency, according to a devastating report.
It attacks the ‘laissez-faire’ response of ministers to the 2010/2011 outbreak, which was supposed to be mild yet claimed 474 lives.
The authors criticise the Government’s decision to ditch a multi-million-pound advertising campaign urging the public to go for vaccinations.
The outbreak was one of the worst in recent decades and at its peak, hospital A&e and intensive care units were stretched to breaking point.
The death toll was 30 per cent higher than the previous winter’s outbreak, which claimed 361 lives, even though 2009/2010 was the winter that Britain was supposedly in the grip of a swine flu pandemic.
One of the report’s authors is Sir Liam Donaldson, who was chief medical officer during the swine flu pandemic of 2009. he has since been accused of overreacting to the pandemic and exaggerating the likely death toll, causing millions to be spent on unneeded vaccines.
Sources point out that Sir Liam will be keen to show that the response to swine flu the following year was inadequate.
Nonetheless Sir Liam and fellow researchers from Oxford University and Imperial College London argue that in the winter of 2010/2011 the public were wrongly led to believe the flu season would be mild.
They say patients did not think they needed to seek vaccination and if they did show symptoms were less inclined to see their GP.
Dr Paul Rutter, of Imperial College London, who worked on the review, said: ‘It’s always very difficult to pin down exactly what caused it. But the message is clear that in a developed country it’s very sad to see thousands of people admitted to hospital and intensive care and hundreds dying. There is effective vaccine available.’
The report, published in the euro surveillance journal, describes the attitude towards flu of the health Department under Secretary of State Andrew Lansley as ‘laissez-faire’ or ‘let’s just wait and see’.
It was very different in the 2009/2010 pandemic, when a national helpline was launched, extra quantities of vaccine ordered in and schools closed to
‘Wilfully ignores expert advice’
prevent its spread. The following winter, the Government decided to ditch its annual flu advertising campaign for the first time in 15 years.
Dr George Kassianos, GP and head of immunisation at the Royal College of General Practitioners, said this reinforced the message of a ‘mild’ flu. But he told GP Newspaper: ‘Influenza has never been “mild”. It makes peo- ple ill, can cause severe complications and ultimately it can kill.’
Labour health spokesman Andy Burnham said: ‘expert warnings do not come any more high-level and serious than this review from a former chief medical officer.
‘ Labour and public health experts repeatedly warned Andrew Lansley that axing the flu awareness campaign would have severe consequences. Now patients may have paid the highest price for his inability to listen.
‘This health Secretary wilfully ignores medical evidence and expert advice. This arrogance is why he has permanently lost the trust of NHS staff and patients.’
Professor David Salisbury, the Government’s head of immunisation, said: ‘We disagree with some of the conclusions, which are based on inappropriate comparisons.
‘But we know flu is an unpredictable virus that can kill so we take it seriously every year.
‘Vaccine uptake rates in 2010, when there was no national media advertising campaign, were very similar to previous years.’