The taintedblood Timeline  -  what really happened...

BBC Radio - On Tuesday, 30 January, 2001, BBC Radio reported on the devastating concern of CJD for people with haemophilia.

Lord Morris: "The Government say that the risk of infection with vCJD is hypothetical. All I can say is that I'm quite certain that senior health officials would not want that theory to put to the test on themselves..."

On 23rd April, 2009, Lord Morris of Manchester states that he was told on the authority of the Chief Medical Officer that the risk of infection in such cases was purely "hypothetical":

"In response to Parliamentary Questions about the growing number of haemophilia patients known by the Department of Health to have been treated with blood from donors who have since died of variant CJD, I was told on the authority of the Chief Medical Officer that the risk of infection in such cases was purely "hypothetical"."

"Today that demonstrably is no longer true, a recent post-mortem on a hepatitis C-infected patient having found vCJD in his spleen. Thus an urgent updating of ministerial statements made to Parliament on the vCJD threat is called for. Specifically we need to know the department's current figures for the number of patients treated with blood from vCJD-infected donors. We need also to know what action Ministers have taken since the post-mortem on the implications of its findings."

Background: In January 2001, the Government stated that the risk of infection with vCJD was merely hypothetical. At the time, Lord Morris stated in response to this that all he could say was that he was "quite certain that senior health officials would not want that theory to [be] put to the test on themselves..." (see Find Related Entries link below)