British MP Calls Scale of COVID-19 Vaccine Damage a ‘Nightmare’

Undated file photo of the UK's Houses of Parliament in London. Stefan Rousseau/PA

A veteran MP believes that tens of thousands have been severely adversely affected by COVID-19 vaccines in the UK and is calling on the government for more support.

“The public is going to catch on in the end,” Sir Christopher Chope told The Epoch Times.

“All the harms that have been caused and the fact that there are a whole lot of people out there who did the right thing and now, contrary to their expectation, are not receiving the help from the government that they believed they were to receive. That’s where I am in this,” he said.

The Conservative MP believes that tens of thousands have been adversely affected by vaccines. He said that the debate is not about all those who have benefited from vaccination, he firmly believes in them. But it’s about those who were vaccinated but then, as a result, suffered death, serious injury, or other life-changing adverse consequences.

‘Responses From All Around the Country’

“It all started because I read last summer suggested that people were having adverse reactions to the vaccines and that they were finding it difficult to get access to the compensation (VPDS) so I then introduced, a private members bill, (COVID-19 Vaccine Damage Bill) a piece of legislation to try and explore this issue further. My bill was debated for 20 mins in September and that debate then generated a whole lot of email responses from all around the country,” he said.

Chope said he has presented a dossier of some of the cases to the government, but that he has been greeted with relative silence.

“We are engaged in almost in a war of attrition. I am not going to give up because every time I speak up about this, I get calls and emails about the problems that have been caused,” he said.

Last week in Parliament, Chope said the scale of this “vaccine nightmare is now such that the number of vaccine damage cases exceeds all cases arising from previous vaccine programmes.”

The 1979 vaccine damage payment (VPDS) scheme was extended to cover COVID-19 vaccinations in recognition of the potential importance of this issue. If one can prove severe disability or death as a result of vaccination, a one-off tax-free payment of £120,000 ($160,000) is on offer. Currently, 920 have made a claim, though no sum has yet been paid out yet.

Looking for Causal Links

Chope added that he is calling upon the government to be more proactive in bringing people’s attention to the VPDS, especially those who have uploaded results onto the Yellow Card system, the UK’s official method for collecting information on suspected adverse drug reactions to vaccine and medicines.

In response in Parliament, Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care) MP Maria Caulfield said that the MHRA is going through the notes of affected patients to gather that evidence and look for causal links. MHRA is the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

“We estimate that the process will take on average six months. It requires gaining access to people’s medical notes and their previous medical history, because, while someone may have had a reaction on the day, we cannot say for sure until we have looked at all the evidence that that is a causal link between the vaccine and the adverse event, even though there may be a strong suggestion that it is. It is therefore important to follow that process correctly,” she said.

Amongst the victims cited, Chope said that Julian Gooddy from Henley contacted him after he was hospitalized after developing Bell’s palsy, Guillain-Barré syndrome as well as other severe health issues.

‘Lack of Any Acceptance’

Gooddy told The Epoch Times that he started to suffer two weeks after taking the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

He said that his symptoms were so bad that he told his hospital that he would not leave until a specialist saw him. When he did manage to convince one, within one hour he was given urgent treatment and spent five days in the hospital on an intravenous drip.

“It has been frustrating because of the lack of any acceptance that there is a causal link between the vaccine I had and the Guillain-Barré syndrome,” said Gooddy.

The European Union’s drug regulator listed the rare nerve disorder known as Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) as a possible AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine side effect last September.

The MHRA is currently analysing all reports of GBS following COVID-19 vaccination and this information will be shared when it becomes available. A causal link between COVID-19 vaccination and GBS has not been proven for the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.

“I am not an anti-vaxer in any way shape or form because it’s been a lifesaver for many, but in my case, it was the biggest mistake of my life but I was not to know that before I took it. In the rare cases where this happens, there has to be some better mechanism or some form of support as it’s not there. It’s not fit for purpose,” said Gooddy.