Contaminated Blood: Plagiarists, fake news and scammers….. have some so called “campaigners” forfeited their right to compensation?
The Newcastle Journal ran an honest and genuine campaign for truth and justice awarded for its impact which was supported by Lord David Owen (former health minister) and Lord Alf Morris of Manchester (World’s first minister for disabled person.)
(Image via the Journal)
The decades long fight for truth and justice is at the heart of the now high profile Contaminated Blood scandal campaign…. at least for GENUINE campaigners.
Haemophiliacs born with an inherited bleeding disorder became infected with HIV and hepatitis viruses during the 1970s and 80s from factor concentrate products injected into veins to help their blood clot. Much of this treatment was imported from the US and manufactured from the plasma of “high-risk” donors such as prisoners, homosexuals, sex workers and “skid-row” donors paid to donate.
During the 1980s when haemophiliacs first became aware of their HIV infection and began to litigate, many of those infected and affected were not public due to terrible stigma and discrimination. It was left to a few brave individuals to put their head above the parapet to try to change attitudes, call for a public inquiry and for much needed compensation as haemophiliacs and sometimes their infected partners became too ill to work and many were dying of AIDS. This left behind many bereaved partners, often now ill themselves that had given up good jobs and careers to care for their loved ones until their death. Some partners lost their homes after suddenly being plunged into poverty.
The early to mid 1990s was a time when haemophiliacs first began to learn that they had also been tested for hepatitis C (often without their informed consent as this author Carol Anne Grayson and her husband Peter revealed) and became aware for the first time that they had positive test results in their medical records. Around 99% of those haemophiliacs with HIV were also infected with hepatitis C and many in addition had been infected with hepatitis B.
During the early 1990s, the groups campaiging for justice for the haemophilia community were as follows, Birchgrove, Haemophilia Action UK, Manor House Group and Colette Wintle (Independent). It wasn’t until years later that they were joined by new groups, Tainted Blood, Contaminated Blood Campaign and Positive Women. Finally they were joined by Factor 8 Group in 2018 and several other newly formed offshoots.
Although many haemophilia campaigners are hard working, genuine and devote huge amounts of precious time and energy working to achieve their campaign goals, since the Infected Blood Inquiry was set up in 2018, it has become apparent another kind of campaigner has emerged to muddy the waters and whose actions have come under serious question. Both the national Haemophilia Society and some lawyers representing their clients at the Inquiry have also discussed their awareness of this fact. Sadly those dedicated to truth and justice have noticed the arrival of “the scammer”, “the exaggerator”, “the pathological liar” and “the plagiarist”. In addition, there are also some “magpies” circling for financial gain that are unlikely to meet the criteria to join a compensation scheme. This is not so unusual as it was seen in other campaigns too such as Grenfell, see below,
The fraudsters who took advantage of Grenfell
https://news.sky.com/story/the-fraudsters-who-took-advantage-of-grenfell-11559444
and
Separating fakes from 9/11 victims
and
It spiralled out of control{ The fantasists who pretended to be 9/11 survivors
The magpies can be dealt with quite quickly by tightening up the application process for new registrants and having a baseline criteria of evidence that is required to apply to a compensation scheme. The process must not be complicated and should be straight forward but at the same time too much of a “light touch” is an insult to those infected and affected that have had to go through previous application processes which in some cases were quite detailed and required a certain level of documentation. There will no doubt be delays for new registrants as they gather the necessary evidence required but that shouldn’t also delay those that are ALREADY registered on the schemes, in some cases for over 30 years.
Those that have fought for over 3 decades often express that it sometimes feels as though the world and his dog have suddenly arrived to claim compensation…and the directly infected and their infected and affected partners are now being forgotten. Another lament is clear, had these new arrivals taken the time to join or at least support long standing campaigners earlier instead of finally appearing on the scene just when money is on the table, the campaign could have built more pressure on government to compensate a lot earlier. Also it would have relieved the pressure on those that had endured long and gruelling time periods of activism that had added to their physical and psychological suffering.
All legitimate claimants/family members must of course be compensated including parents and children however as the focus is moved ever further away from those actually infected and their infected/affected interdependent partners, the need for proportionality arises. Claimants that are not infected, have never been long term carers to an infected person, are fit to work and have many years ahead of them are in a very different position to those at the latter part of their lives infected and affected that are in poor health and have been unable to work for many years.
Then there is what to do with the liars and the plagiarists, the malicious mischief makers seemingly willing to throw haemophiliacs’ long standing campaign for truth and justice under the carpet? Firstly, its important to value, respect and acknowledge the actions and achievements of GENUINE haemophilia campaigners. These dedicated groups and individuals have made significant personal sacrifices over very long time periods and often invested their own money to keep the Contaminated Blood campaign going. They have given up their anonymity to share harrowing stories in the press and spent years in libraries and dusty archives researching their history and securing key evidence in order to help the whole haemophilia community. This was a lot harder and without doubt more costly before the arrival of the internet, special phone rates and online websites were set up giving access to historical and current documents.
Tragically now however we are also seeing the rise of “the opportunist” and the “career campaigner” who claim to fight for truth and justice but the reality couldn’t be further from the truth. These are so called campaigners that have abandoned their ethics if they ever had any. They lie, steal the work of others without referencing, cancel out long standing campaigners, claim “exclusive” media stories that have in reality been published in some cases 2 decades earlier. Some of the followers of these false messiahs will also make bold declarations that “it doesn’t matter who does what and when as long as there is a positive result”. It does matter very much for without truth there is no justice.
The idiots who proclaim this, don’t realize for example that giving fake timelines of discovery of when evidence was FIRST discovered and placed in the public domain could allow those that harmed haemophiliacs off the hook. For example if a prominant politician was given key documents 20 years ago and failed to act on them, it doesn’t help if a scammer then claims they just found the same documents in 2017. The very least we need is some accountability for people to own up to their actions and mistakes and say they are sorry for ruined lives.
Lying to vulnerable persons infected and affected can be catastrophic risking the trust of those that have already been deceived and let down so many times. It is neither productive nor ethical and stifled truths often emerge when least expected.
This “couldn’t care a less” attitude is in conflict with what the Cabinet Office has confirmed to this Grayson and that is that correct timelines, dates of discovery of documents are very important and discussions on this are ongoing.
A well know Lord has revealed to Grayson he is very angry at the “Johnny Come Latelies” that are far too often sabotaging the haemophilia campaign for truth and justice aided by unscrupulous media with too close ties to those linked to the harm and cover-up.
Since 2018, the start of the Infected Blood Inquiry, there has been a huge number of fake stories and falsification of timelines in the media promoting known plagiarists. There are clearly disinformation campaigns running in the media. Long standing campaigners are calling for an investigaton into how so much of the media, digital, print, TV and audio could have contributed and promoted such false narratives on Contaminated Blood.Whilst some is down to ignorance and misinformation, there are very propaganda campaigns running that would have given Geobbels a run for his money as well as deeply questionable books. There are 2 new books in particular that have been published that are inaccurate, cancel out huge swathes of important evidence and time periods and fail to reference correctly. The editors are now being contacted to address these issues. Documentaries have also been made and awarded that do little else but rehash the work of others and sell long held evidence as “newly discovered” with no context or respect for the original writers and researchers.
At the start of the Inquiry, Grayson and her campaign colleague Colette Wintle made representation to Sir Brian Langstaff, via their lawyers and were granted the right to representation from a separate legal firm Milners that wasn’t one of the four firms initially appointed. This was due to 2 main points, firsly, the importance of upholding the “Special Status” of haemophiliacs on which the 1991 HIV “ex-gratia” payment was made and whose criteria also fits haemophiliacs infected with hepatitis C. Secondly, a “conflict of interest” related to claims of excessive plagiarisation of awarded research and rehashing of old stories in the media without context or reference. Again we have seen fakery and false narratives used to disrupt and divert other campaigns such as Hilldborough as follows,
How the Sun’s ‘truth’ about Hillsborough unravelled
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/apr/26/how-the-suns-truth-about-hillsborough-unravelled
and
‘The Truth’, Hillsborough, the betrayal of a nation and the catalyst for letting the powerful off the hook
I note the following also, “Fabricated stories in the Sun blaming Liverpool fans for the Hillsborough stadium disaster are among examples that will be used in a parliamentary initiative to teach MPs to recognise misinformation and disinformation.”
The Sun’s Hillsborough stories used to teach MPs how to recognise fake news
This should also be extended to some Contaminated Blood media and Grayson will be discussing this with hovernment and contacting the relevant unit to discuss this as a matter of urgency.
Long standing haemophilia campaigners have suffered a multitude of fake stories on Contaminated Blood paerticularly since 2018 which has now equalled or perhaps surpassed those of Hillborough. However whereas the false Hillsborough stories came mainly from one publication, the Sun, the nature of media and reporting has changed so much that long standing haemophilia campaigners are dealing with multiple media outlets producing disinformation on an almost daily basis.
Then there is the cancelling out of the longest standing campaigners. Grayson was threatened before the Infected Blood Inquiry began that she would be cancelled out of her own awarded research and mainstream media as “punishment” for the years spent campaigning on Palestinian rights and criticising the apartheid atate of Israel. In fact key members of Labour Friends of Israel hijacked the Contaminated Blood campaign some years back attempting to deny Grayson and her campaign colleague Colette Wintle a voice. Grayson notes there are now many calls to proscribe Labour Friends of Israel due to its close links to an apartheid state allegedly carrying out acts of terrorism in Gaza and the West Bank and genocide in Gaza. The disinformation stories and misrepresentation of the true facts and timelines of Contaminated Blood history have been so frequent and profuse, it has been akin to the Israeli propaganda machine Hasbara on speed. Well known Zionist “smearers” promote the newly published books on Contaminated Blood and plagiarists are championed, awarded and funded.
Campaigners have been unable to make official complaints to the Independent Press Standards Organization (IPSO) regarding the rehashed press articles during the Inquiry as they were advised this could tie up their documents possibly for months whilst any investigation took place and they needed to file evidence into the Inquiry as their first priority. Now the work of official complaints must begin and it is yet more work for exhausted infected haemophiliacs and infected/affected partners which causes further retraumatisation.
It is worth noting that US haemophiliacs made Grayson aware of “infiltrators” within their own “bad blood” campaign with certain activists receiving funds from controversial organizations again with a “conflict of interest”. This was determined to be damaging and detrimental to the pursuit of truth and justice and caused distress and psychological harm to genuine campaigners.
It is also observed that certain campaigners have taken up with some very dubious journalists with “too close links” to political parties especially a certain faction of the Labour Party. These campaigners are more focused on promoting their own ego, furthering their career, than helping create honest media content that would strengthen the Contaminated Blood campaign. Do they not understand also that by falsifying dates and timelines they risk any Group Litigation Order that might be initiated being scuppered as High Court judges must work from accurate dates of discovery not those that are imagined.
Such actions from certain elements are abusive and threaten to jeopardize legitimate campaign work and undermines genuine campaigners. This is devastating to those that have devoted their lives in the pursuit of truth and justice. It could be argued that the campaign “fakers” and mischief makers have by their unethical and brutally cruel behaviour, not caring if they throw a campaign or hurt their fellow activists have forfeited their right to compensation. The Cabinet Office should carefully consider this and what action should be taken against such persons as they are now fully aware of the problem and the harm this is causing.
Carol Anne Grayson is an independent writer/researcher on global health/human rights/WOT and is Executive Producer of the Oscar nominated, Incident in New Baghdad. She was a Registered Mental Nurse with a Masters in Gender Culture and Development. Carol was awarded the ESRC, Michael Young Prize for Research 2009, and the COTT ‘Action = Life’ Human Rights Award’ for “upholding truth and justice”. She is also a survivor of US “collateral damage”.
