A councillor leaves the Municipal Council and DéFI
Sandra Ferretti, municipal councillor in Watermael-Boitsfort for the DéFI group, has been very active in defending fundamental freedoms, transparency and ethics in our institutions. Feeling constrained within her party, and as the Covid crisis was revealing numerous dysfunctions, she decided to found BAM! with friends.
Despite deep disagreements with the other members of her party, she remained in DéFI in the hope of changing minds from within. After more than two years of incomprehension in the face of a dogmatic position in total contradiction with the humanist principles DéFI nonetheless claims to uphold, she has decided to slam the door on the municipal council and the party.
We reproduce her resignation letter here.
30-09-2022
For the attention of Laura Squartini – President of the DéFI Watermael-Boitsfort section
For the attention of François De Smet – President of DéFI
Watermael-Boitsfort, 30/09/2022
Dear President, Dear Laura,
Dear President, Dear François,
During the preparatory meeting for the last Watermael-Boitsfort municipal council, we had agreed that our group leader Alexandre Dermine would not speak on the citizens' question regarding the consequences of the law on mandatory vaccination of healthcare staff. I had expressed the wish to speak in a personal capacity, which was entirely possible provided our group leader did not speak. This principle was recalled by the President of the Municipal Council before the group leaders or representatives spoke. However, our group leader saw fit to speak, taking away any possibility for me to give my opinion in this debate, thereby breaking the commitment made during the council's preparatory meeting.
Whether clumsiness or deliberate action, I can only note the lack of mutual trust that this event has created, already eroded by differences of opinion regarding respect for our fundamental rights during this covid period.
May I remind you in this respect that I was the first municipal councillor to question the council about the disastrous effects of compulsory mask-wearing in class for children, and that I was the only DéFI councillor to vote against tracing and the abusive retention of our personal data (which the Constitutional Court has just ruled unconstitutional on several points [1]). I was the only one to protest against the introduction of the CST in the municipal council, even before the decision had been voted on by the councillors.
As regards mandatory vaccination of healthcare staff, I can only deplore DéFI's position, which owes more to health dogmatism than to scientific common sense and basic ethical principles. Indeed, this position ignores not only the scientific literature of Pfizer's initial study, which confirmed that there was no data on this vaccination and transmission [2] (we now know from the figures – I invite you to read Sciensano's weekly reports – that vaccinated people often transmit MORE than unvaccinated people, and are sometimes even more likely to be hospitalised in certain age groups [3], not to mention the medium- and long-term side effects [4]), but also the fundamental principle of the Declaration of Helsinki [5] on free and informed consent, especially in the case of a clinical study. Stubbornly calling for mandatory vaccination of healthcare staff therefore stems more from dogmatism than from a pragmatic solution aimed at patients' well-being.
If I once joined DéFI, it was because I believed that this party, outside left/right ideologies, put basic democratic principles at the heart of its action: freedom of movement, protection of minorities, non-discrimination on the basis of beliefs, physical integrity, the right to work, respect for human dignity. I would also remind you that the “I” in DéFI referred to independence from any lobby or pressure group, as well as to the ethical principle of the absence of conflicts of interest. Yet the independence of the television studio experts, who were the same ones making recommendations to our parliamentarians without providing any scientific study (as admitted by our own president François De Smet), was NEVER questioned by any of you. And these problems are not new, since several experts had already been singled out during the H1N1 fiasco [6].
On the other hand, the people who tried to alert the media, politicians and the population were met with contempt, insults and censorship, ruling out any public debate from the outset and playing into the hands of extremists and conspiracy theorists of all kinds.
Finally, I would remind you that this vaccine is still not definitively approved (“conditional authorisation”); it will probably be in December 2023 [7]. It is therefore still in the experimental phase (Phase III of a clinical study [8]), whatever people may say. For the time being, this means that responsibility for compensating side effects lies not with the manufacturers but with the Member States. It is therefore our government that is responsible both for reporting the serious side effects of these vaccines via the FAMHP, and that same government that is responsible for compensating [9] people suffering from side effects. This is a first, I believe, in the history of vaccines! Don't you see a tiny conflict of interest there?... Why keep the liability on the States if this vaccine is as safe as we hear all day long? The figures for reported side effects of these covid vaccines, for anyone willing to look into and analyse them, are extremely alarming [10] compared with the side effects of conventional vaccines. Please take the trouble to inform yourselves independently, with serious and unbiased studies; that is the last piece of advice I can give you.
Science is certainly a source of progress; however, failure to respect the most elementary ethical rules can only lead to a loss of citizens' trust in, and of the credibility of, our institutions... I think the political class was afraid, and was somewhat taken in by certain unscrupulous modellers and “scientists”, following the recommendations of bodies that are certainly “international”, but under the influence of private interests and colossal lobbies. One day, therefore, a serious post-mortem will have to be carried out to prevent such a scandal from happening again. I am convinced that the truth will come out, even if it takes time. It is your duty as politicians to seek it, without compromise.
It has therefore become unbearable for me to sit for a party that has become a mere shadow of itself by flouting its basic principles, through dogmatic positions that run counter to citizens' fundamental rights. For all these reasons, it is with a light heart and a clear conscience that today I leave municipal politics, in which I have been involved for more than 10 years, as well as DéFI.
Yours sincerely,
Sandra Ferretti
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of BAM!
The standfirst is by the BAM! editorial team.
[1] 2022-110f (const-court.be)
[2] Comirnaty, INN-COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine (nucleoside-modified) (europa.eu) p.97: “(…) statistically certain conclusion cannot be drawn. It is presently not known if the vaccine protects against asymptomatic infection, or its impact on viral transmission. The duration of protection is not known.”
[3] COVID-19_Weekly_report_FR.pdf (sciensano.be) p.65-69.
[4] Comirnaty, INN-COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine (nucleoside-modified) (europa.eu) P.133: “3.5. Uncertainties and limitations about unfavourable effects – Long-term safety data is not available at this stage (…)”
[5] WMA Declaration of Helsinki – Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects – WMA – The World Medical Association
[6] H1N1: des experts belges sous influence - La Libre
[7] Comirnaty, INN-COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine (nucleoside-modified) (europa.eu) p.144.
[8] Covid-19 : les essais de phase 3 des vaccins sont-ils terminés “depuis des mois”, comme l’affirme Olivier Véran ? (lemonde.fr)
[9] Special report 19/2022: EU COVID-19 vaccine procurement (europa.eu) p.32
[10] For example: Bericht über Verdachtsfälle von Nebenwirkungen und Impfkomplikationen nach Impfung zum Schutz vor COVID-19 (Berichtszeitraum 27.12.2020 bis 31.03.2022), Point de situation sur la surveillance des vaccins contre la Covid-19 - Période du 24/05/2022 au 16/06/2022, COVID-19 Vaccine Boosters for Young Adults: A Risk-Benefit Assessment and Five Ethical Arguments against Mandates at Universities
Watermael-Boitsfort: Municipal Council of 20 September 2022
https://www.watermael-boitsfort.be/fr/
Photo source:
© BAM!
