‘I KNOW how important petitions can be in getting our voices heard in the Senedd,’ says Carolyn Thomas, Chair of the Senedd (Welsh Parliament) Petitions Committee in her video on their webpage.
Monday January 20 was Alison Butler’s big chance to get her voice heard, following her life-changing covid vaccine injury almost four years ago. Alison’s petition was on the committee’s agenda for discussion. I wrote about this brave, determined woman in October and was so touched by her plight that I decided to assist Alison in collecting enough signatures for a potential debate. After being censored on Facebook, Alison needed all the help she could get. Prior to TCW’s involvement the petition had 1,098 signatures and only six weeks left to run.
Many signatures were collected from customers at my father’s small retail business in the Rhondda Valley, where many eagerly signed and added that they ‘wouldn’t be having any more vaccines’. I’ve long maintained that all politicians ought to spend a few hours behind the counter of a shop if they are genuinely interested in gauging public opinion on any subject.
One afternoon in November, three friends joined me in the nearby town of Haverfordwest, where we collected over 160 signatures in an hour. We remained impartial in our approach, yet many who agreed to sign came forth with some very telling comments and anecdotes (I’m sharing just four of these):
- An elderly woman told me she stopped at her fifth jab as it put her ‘in hospital unconscious’;
- A woman told me that her daughter aged 29 had a neurological reaction to her AstraZeneca jab, later suffering a blood clot and a stroke;
- A young post office counter clerk told me her sister had developed a heart condition following her AZ jab;
- A garden centre employee told of a ‘super-fit’ friend in his 60s who ‘went down like a sack of spuds’ on the golf course with a massive stroke, and is now linking it to the AZ. ‘I won’t be having any more’, she added.
Together with organisations and individuals on X, including Cath Evans of the Freedom Alliance who kindly approached us wanting to help, Alison’s petition reached a total of 10,898 signatures.
It was a huge boost to Alison’s campaign. Having joined the UKCV Family, a charity advocating for those injured and bereaved by Covid vaccination, she was keen for others to have their voices heard.
The Senedd Petitions Committee consists of five members from different party groups. Prior to the meeting, Alison received a feeble letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care in Wales Jeremy Miles via the Petitions Committee, describing the MHRA as ‘independent’ and ending with the statement, ‘We remain committed to continuing to support people with and recovering from the long-term effects of Covid-19.’ Interestingly, Miles’s letter did contain the line, ‘I understand researchers are working to understand if there is any potential connection between the Covid 19 vaccination and what is being referred to as Long Vax’.
Alison had only seven days to put forward her response to the committee, yet she sent four A4 pages of detailed correspondence in support of her petition.
Frankly, it makes their research brief and the whole Welsh Government response look absolutely pathetic. Predictably, Welsh Government quotes the World Health Organization’s assertion that Covid-19 vaccines are ‘safe and effective’ and that adverse events are ‘rare’. It states that the MHRA are ‘continuously analysing data to ensure ongoing safety’. Clearly, someone needs to brief the Senedd members and civil servants on the increasing concerns regarding this organisation.
Welsh Government’s response to the petition is thus: ‘If anyone is experiencing symptoms similar to those experienced by people with Long Covid, regardless of what may have caused them, I would encourage them to use the integrated community rehabilitation services established in all health boards via the Adferiad (Recovery) programme.’
The meeting on Monday had a number of petitions on the agenda. I had been advised by the petitions clerk that each petition usually takes around five minutes to discuss. Alison’s took around three minutes.
Rhys ab Owen, an independent regional Senedd member, stressed that a ‘small number out of the 100million vaccinated’ may experience adverse effects. He added that because Module Four of the Covid 19 Inquiry has begun to look at adverse reactions and also a ‘Senedd Committee’ is considering this, ‘at this point it is not appropriate to have a debate’ and reiterated what the Committee Chair had previously mentioned that ‘only a quarter of those who signed the petition were based in Wales’.
This is surely a case of double standards – using a UK-wide figure for vaccine uptake in an attempt to emphasise ‘safety’, yet discounting the number of people signing outside Wales who would have likely been affected or known someone affected by adverse reactions and death!
Admittedly Rhys ab Owen stated that perhaps it is better that this is discussed in other forums first and ‘maybe then debated in the Senedd’ but this is clearly a platitude which is highly likely to be forgotten by the committee.
As I have previously written, Welsh Government is keen to be a nation of ‘firsts’, yet it doesn’t want to be the first to debate this emotive and vital topic.
Perhaps one of the biggest ironies was that Monday’s meeting was attended by Vaughan Gething, former First Minister for Wales, who in 2021 said he would be ‘entirely open’ to introducing an official register of lobbyists if his party was elected.
Meanwhile, Alison feels angry and betrayed, not only by a health system that should have protected her, but by a so-called democratic process that failed to listen to her. Perhaps the sponsorship of the annual National Immunisation conference in Wales might play a part in this failure?
While the vaccine injured and bereaved in Wales continue to be ignored and gaslighted, one can only continue to speculate.
