An MEP breaks the omertà on the side effects of anti-covid vaccines

29/10/2021 · Hughes Belin

French MEP Virginie Joron ^[1]^, of the Identity & Democracy political group (from the Rassemblement National party, of whose National Council she is a member), tabled on 28 October 2021 a motion for a European Parliament resolution ^[2] on “la création d’un Fonds européen d’indemnisation des victimes des vaccins contre la COVID-19”.

The motion for a resolution is based on figures from the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which “already lists around one million cases of adverse effects following the injection of COVID-19 vaccines”. It stresses that “these adverse effects are sometimes severe”. Thus, “around 75,000 people are said to have suffered serious neurological effects after the Pfizer vaccine”.

More than 5,000 deaths reported

It then details the official figures, in particular more than 5,000 deaths reported to European pharmacovigilance: 4,198 for Comirnaty (Pfizer, BioNTech), 1,053 for Vaxzevria (AstraZeneca), 392 for Spikevax (Moderna) and 138 for the Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine.

The motion for a resolution thus calls on the Commission to create a compensation fund for the victims of anti-covid vaccines, given that it was the European Commission that negotiated the purchase contracts for the anti-covid vaccines “and that it did not want the pharmaceutical laboratories to bear liability” ^.

A taboo subject

This motion for a resolution is legally based on Rule 143 of the European Parliament's Rules of Procedure ^, and must still be submitted to the President of the European Parliament, who checks whether it meets the applicable criteria. If he declares the motion admissible, he forwards it to the competent parliamentary committee, which decides on the procedure to be followed. For it to go all the way, this motion for a resolution must therefore first clear the hurdle of the goodwill of the President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, who will judge whether it is admissible. At a time when the European Parliament is setting up a very strict procedure to ensure that staff and MEPs have a valid health pass ^[7], this is far from a foregone conclusion.

For the time being, in France, the legislator has provided for nothing other than leaving it to the victim to prove that the damage suffered was indeed directly caused by vaccination ^[8], which seems to be behind a request to create a European fund in this area.

By Hughes Belin, editor-in-chief of BAM!

[1]https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/fr/197627/VIRGINIE_JORON/home#detailedcardmep

[2] https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/B-9-2021-0475_FR.html

[3] covid-19-vaccine-safety-update-comirnaty-11-august-2021_en.pdf
covid-19-vaccine-safety-update-vaxzevria-previously-covid-19-vaccine-astrazeneca-11-august-2021_en.pdf
covid-19-vaccine-safety-update-spikevax-previously-covid-19-vaccine-moderna-11-august-2021_en.pdf
covid-19-vaccine-safety-update-covid-19-vaccine-janssen-8-september-2021_en.pdf (Figures as at 29 July 2021)

https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/human-regulatory/research-development/pharmacovigilance/eudravigilance (Figures as at 18 September 2021)

[5] questions-and-answers-covid-19-vaccination-eu_fr
see the tab “Procédure d’autorisation des vaccins contre la COVID-19”, point 4: “Member States are required (…) to ensure that the civil or administrative liability of the manufacturer (…) cannot be incurred”

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/RULES-9-2021-09-13-RULE-143_FR.html