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(None of these letters were answered by Government)
Rt. Hon. Tony Blair PM 10 Downing St., London
SW1A OAA
26/3/2001
Dear Mr Blair
OPEN LETTER 1: HALTING THE SPREAD OF FOOT &
MOUTH DISEASE
Thank you for taking personal control of the
response to the foot and mouth crisis.
Please order your officials to apply immediately
to the European Commission for permission to begin a programme of
emergency ring vaccination around points of known disease.
I am aware of the reservations held by MAFF
officials to vaccination. They do not make their case, as the annex
to this letter demonstrates. If we accept for the sake of argument
that their objections had some validity, the EC application should
still go ahead, for this reason: it will take a number of days for
this permission to come through. With every day of delay, the
problem increases. If you wait until your advisors decide that
things are bad enough to implement an emergency vaccination
programme, the delay at the European Commission will add to the
problem. The delay is far too long as things stand. Get the
permission in, so that vaccination can be started as soon as the
decision is taken in London.
Thank you for giving your personal attention to
this letter.
Yours sincerely
R H Lawson MB. BS., MRCPsych.
Dr Richard Lawson
The Old School
House
Station Road
Congresbury
BS49 5DX
Tel: 01934
835140 Fax: 01934 834165 e-mail : rlawson@gn.apc.org
Rt. Hon. Tony Blair PM
10 Downing
St.,
London SW1A OAA
28/3/200
Dear Mr Blair
OPEN LETTER 2: HALTING THE SPREAD OF FOOT &
MOUTH DISEASE
Thank you for ordering your officials to apply to
Europe for permission to cull. We hope that there will be no delay
in starting the vaccination programme, and that it will be carried
out efficiently. The early signs are that your officials want to use
it on a minimal basis, so we will keep the pressure up.
I enclose a copy of the letter I sent on Monday.
It rapidly attracted signatories. This campaign began 1 day ago, and
had only one outlet. It will grow. We intend to use this method of
amplifying and focusing public concern. In a straw poll, there was
near unanimous support for vaccination.
When vaccination is in place, and working
effectively, we will be writing in about the use of pyres and
reducing delay between diagnosis and slaughter.
Thank you again for ordering emergency
vaccination, a positive action, albeit much overdue.
Yours sincerely
Dr Richard Lawson
Dr Richard Lawson
The Old School
House
Station Road
Congresbury
BS49 5DX
Tel: 01934
835140 Fax: 01934 834165 e-mail : rlawson@gn.apc.org
Rt. Hon. Tony Blair PM
10 Downing
St.,
London SW1A OAA
28/3/200
Dear Mr Blair
OPEN LETTER 2: HALTING THE SPREAD OF FOOT &
MOUTH DISEASE
Thank you for ordering your officials to apply to
Europe for permission to cull. We hope that there will be no delay
in starting the vaccination programme, and that it will be carried
out efficiently. The early signs are that your officials want to use
it on a minimal basis, so we will keep the pressure up.
I enclose a copy of the letter I sent on Monday.
It rapidly attracted signatories. This campaign began 1 day ago, and
had only one outlet. It will grow. We intend to use this method of
amplifying and focusing public concern. In a straw poll, there was
near unanimous support for vaccination.
When vaccination is in place, and working
effectively, we will be writing in about the use of pyres and
reducing delay between diagnosis and slaughter.
Thank you again for ordering emergency
vaccination, a positive action, albeit much overdue.
Yours sincerely
Dr Richard Lawson
2/3/2001
Rt. Hon. Tony Blair PM
10 Downing
St.,
London SW1A OAA
Dear Mr Blair
OPEN LETTER 4: HALTING THE SPREAD OF FOOT &
MOUTH DISEASE
I am writing in a spirit of co-operation, in
common interest of the British people. The whole country wants to
see a speedy end to the appalling spectacle created by the disease
and the attempts of MAFF to control it.
My intent is to be non-partisan and constructive.
It is certain that a Conservative Government would not have done any
better in its handling of this affair. I believe the fault lies with
the conservative mindset within the MAFF, which failed to take
account of new circumstances. It seems to those of us outside the
system that no lessons have been learned from the BSE error, and
that Nick Brown made the same error that any other Minister would
have made - he failed to cross-check the expert advice coming from
within the Ministry against advice from outside. Particularly from
"dissenting" voices within the scientific community.
This is what this dissenting voice sees as the
best pathway out of this FMD quagmire.
I write in haste as the
availability of your fax number will be withdrawn soon.
1. Order your officials to consult with Dr Haresh
Nareng and address his concerns that if an attenuated vaccine is
given, it may become pathogenic when excreted by the vaccinated
animal. He wishes for the vaccine to be inactivated by heat
treatment or formaldehyde before delivery - a simple process. If in
doubt - do not delay, order the inactivation anyway on the
precautionary principle.
2. Order your officials to vaccinate any rare
breed and pedigree herds within a 100km radius of any outbreak.
3. Order your officials to begin emergency ring
vaccination around points of disease outbreaks, starting as far away
as possible (10 km) and moving inwards towards the point of
infection.
4. Order that no carcasses shall be taken from an
infected zone to an uninfected zone for disposal.
5. Order your officials to stop using pyres as
they spread carcinogens, particulates, BSE and probably FMD
picornavirus. Order independent (non-MAFF) scientists to carry out
sampling of the smoke from the pyres, (NSCA will advise), and have
them tested virologically to determine whether viable FMD virus
particles are present. In the meantime, order no new pyres to be
built. Burial causes pollution of water (surface and ground), but is
the lesser of the two evils. Both disposal methods pollute. That is
another reason why mass slaughter most stop.
6. Order your officials to stop the slaughter of
healthy animals.
7. Order that all vaccinated animals should not
move from their farm.
8. Order that blood tests should be carried out on
these vaccinated and potentially exposed herds to differentiate
between carriers and virus free. Order the slaughter of animals with
evidence of infection, to be buried on site. Order that animals
without infection should not move from the farm until slaughter.
9. Purchase or hire mobile abattoirs to go round
the farms as soon as circumstances allow to slaughter, butcher and
sterilise (by heat or acidity) the meat, and so bringing it safely
back into the food chain.
10. Order a radical reformation of the UK
agriculture system, beginning with the dismantling of MAFF.
These are the salient points as they appear to one
politically active GP with an interest in public health who has been
thinking, debating and communicating about these matters intensively
for the last four weeks. There is much more to be said, especially
on point 10, but time is short. I can give my formal qualifications
to address these matters in a separate letter if you request it.
I write on behalf of all those people throughout
the country who will stop what they are doing for one minute at 12
noon every Tuesday until the policy of mass slaughter of healthy
animals is abandoned.
With best wishes for a speedy end to this national
tragedy
Yours sincerely
Dr. Richard Lawson MB BS, MRCPsych
Green Party
(England and Wales) Foot & Mouth Disease Campaign
Co-ordinator
Dr Richard Lawson
The Old School
House
Station Road
Congresbury
BS49 5DX
Tel: 01934
835140 Fax: 01934 834165 e-mail : rlawson@gn.apc.org
5/4/01
Rt. Hon. Tony Blair PM
10 Downing
St.,
London SW1A OAA
Dear Mr Blair
OPEN LETTER 5 : HALTING THE SPREAD OF FOOT &
MOUTH DISEASE
Professor David King has advised you that the
number of new cases of Foot & Mouth Disease will slow to a
trickle in June.
Much depends on the accuracy of his prediction. It
has given comfort to the forces of conservatism within MAFF, with
their insistence on a policy that traumatises, pollutes, and costs.
It has strengthened their irrational reluctance to use vaccination,
the gentler, complementary approach to disease control.
If he is right, and you continue to use culling
alone, the nightmare scenario that we are experiencing at the moment
will continue for a number of months. If he is wrong, it will simply
get worse, and you will then bring in vaccination "as a last
resort".
This "vaccination is the last resort" argument is
deeply irrational. Your advisers are like surgeons who advise the
amputation of the leg as the only possible treatment for cellulitis
of the foot. Treatment should always be medical first, surgical as a
last resort. In this case, vaccination is the medicine, culling is
the surgery.
You can test the firmness of David King's
conviction in this way: ask him: "Is he prepared to put his job
where his mouth is, and resign if his predictions are not borne out
by events?"
If he is not so certain as to lay his job on the
line, you should order emergency vaccination to be brought in to the
field immediately .
If he remains certain, you should consider whether
he may yet be wrong, just as the Government advisers who assured
that there was no danger of the BSE prion causing disease in
humans.
You should know that vaccination is advised as the prior
option in the UNs "Emergency Prevention System for Trans Boundary
Animal Diseases (EMPRES).
In Open Letter no. 4 I set down the brief
headlines of the necessary actions that you should take to bring
this crisis under control. I repeat them here, updated in the light
of the emerging situation and emerging knowledge. I draw your
attention particularly to points 5, 6,and 7.
1. Order your officials to consult with Dr
Haresh Nareng and address his concerns that if an attenuated vaccine
is given, it may become pathogenic when excreted by the vaccinated
animal. He wishes for the vaccine to be inactivated by heat
treatment or formaldehyde before delivery - a simple process. If in
doubt - do not delay, order the inactivation anyway on the
precautionary principle.
2. Order your officials to vaccinate any rare
breed and pedigree herds within a 100km radius of any outbreak.
3. Order your officials to begin emergency ring
vaccination around points of disease outbreaks, starting as far away
as possible (say 10 km) and moving inwards towards the point of
infection.
4. Order that no carcasses shall be taken from an
infected zone to an uninfected zone for disposal. The transport of
infected, or potentially infected carcasses across the country is
deeply irrational, and makes a mockery of the advice to users of the
countryside to avoid spreading the infection.
5. Order your officials to stop using pyres as
they spread carcinogens, particulates, and almost certainly FMD
virus. There is also reason to believe that pastures and fields that
have been polluted with smoke form pyres on which BSE have been
burned will be contaminated with the BSE prion, threatening a new
outbreak.
6. Order that anyone who is obliged to go near a
pyre should wear a respirator capable of trapping BSE prions.
7. Order that householders affected by significant
amounts of smoke be evacuated, and those affected to a lesser extent
be advised to stay indoors with the window shut.
8. Order independent (non-MAFF) scientists to
carry out sampling of the smoke from the pyres, and have them tested
to determine (a) whether viable FMD virus particles are present and
(b) whether BSE prions are present. In the meantime, order no new
pyres to be built. Burial causes pollution of water (surface and
ground), but is the lesser of the two evils. Make sure that the
disinfectants used are non toxic when released into the water
9. All routes of disposal are causes of severe
pollution. That is another reason why mass slaughter most stop.
10. Order your officials to stop the slaughter of
healthy animals.
11. Order that blood tests should be carried out
on these vaccinated and potentially exposed herds to differentiate
between carriers and virus free. Order the slaughter of animals with
evidence of infection, to be buried on site. Order that animals
without infection should not move from the farm until slaughter.
12. Purchase or hire mobile abattoirs to go round
farms which have been vaccinated, and from which the sub-clinically
infected and the carriers have been stamped out. As soon as
circumstances allow to slaughter, butcher and sterilise (by cooking)
the meat, and so bring it safely back into the food chain.
13. When the crisis over, order a radical
reformation of the UK agriculture system, beginning with the
dismantling of MAFF.
I write on behalf of the vast majority of the
people of this country and throughout the world who are aghast at
the sight the carnage that MAFF is causing in its clumsy,
inefficient and outmoded policy of stamp out alone. I write
especially on behalf of those throughout the country who will stop
what they are doing for one minute at 12 noon every Tuesday until
the policy of mass slaughter of healthy animals is abandoned.
With best wishes for a speedy end to this national
tragedy
Yours sincerely
Dr. Richard Lawson MB BS, MRCPsych
Green Party
(England and Wales) Foot & Mouth Disease Campaign
Co-ordinator
12/4/01
Rt. Hon. Tony Blair PM
10 Downing St.,
London SW1A OAA
Dear Mr Blair
OPEN LETTER 6 : HALTING THE SPREAD OF FOOT &
MOUTH DISEASE
I write to request a measure in order to reduce
the number of cases of new variant Creutzfeld-Jacob disease (vCJD)
which will occur in 15-20 years time as a result of MAFF’s mass
slaughter policy for containing Foot & Mouth Disease.
Please order your officials to ensure that cattle
are arranged on the pyres in such a way that the fatal wound in
their forehead is at all times pointing downwards into the centre of
the fire, and not to the side of the pyre or in any other
attitude.
The reason for this request is as follows:
The animals have been killed by a bolt to the
forehead, which leaves a single wound in the forehead. The
management of shot animals with double entry/exit wounds is more
complex and can be addressed in a later paper.
As the fire
reaches the head, the fluids in and around the brain will come to
boiling point.
Steam will form, causing an increase in pressure
in the cranial space.
The steam will vent through the fatal hole
in the skull, entraining with it a jet or fountain of brain tissue,
which will in some cases contain BSE/vCJD agent.
If the death
wound is oriented downwards, more of the vented tissue will be
destroyed by the fire. If the wound is oriented upwards or outwards,
some of the tissue so vented will be caught up in the plume of smoke
arising from the pyre, to fall out on pasture land and residential
areas in due course.
When the land is grazed again, there will
be a fresh outbreak of BSE in the animals that graze.
Such
infective particles as are inhaled or ingested by humans will cause
vCJD.
We can calculate from figures provided by SEAC that
statistically, when 100 beef cattle are burned, between 6 and 30
fully infective doses of vCJD will be released.
Although the
individual risk is low, vCJD is a deeply unpleasant way to die,
traumatic for the family and community of the sufferer.
History
will not thank you if in 20 years time, it is clear that the cull
and burn policy has caused even one case of vCJD.
If you wish to
know more accurately how many cases might result from MAFF’s policy,
standard environmental modelling techniques applied to the fallout
plume of the pyres can provide a reasonable answer.
The plume
should be sampled for BSE infective agent. One technique could give
an indicative answer in a few days; the definitive answer would take
over 300 days, but this is not a valid reason not to do the
sampling.
The Precautionary Principle indicates that you should
take action immediately to minimise the risk of contaminating
society and environment with BSE infective agent.
Your expert
advisers may try to block immediate action, and will wish to
temporise. I urge you not to listen to them. They or their
predecessors gave bad advice when BSE first emerged. In their paper
"Assessment of Risk due to BSE Infectivity from Burning Cattle" they
have miscalculated the risk of getting BSE and vCJD from pyre smoke
through an elementary invalid assumption.
Do not let them blind
you with science. You should understand that five simple factors
govern the size of the dose of BSE/vCJD that will be given to the
population from the mass slaughter and burning:
the kind of
cattle burnt (dairy cattle, who will probably get infected by FMD
when they are turned out to grass at the end of the month, are 4
times more likely to carry BSE agent than beef cattle)
number of
cattle burnt
the age of the cattle burnt (the older the animal,
the more BSE agent present. There is no magic cut-off after 30
months or 5 years: infectivity simply rises in proportion to age.)
the heat of the fire
the disposition of the animal’s
head.
Of these factors, 15 e) is the one that you can
affect today, by simply giving an order.
If your officials claim that they have already
thought of this, and it is being done, then please send in local
Environmental Health Officers to check that it is so. I assure you
that on the ground things are not as neat and tidy as the reports
that land on your desk would appear to suggest.
There are many other matters associated with this
FMD outbreak which I (and indeed the vast majority of the
population) would wish to see handled better, but this letter is
focused solely on the matter of the jet of BSE infective tissue from
boiling brains in order to make sure that it is fully understood and
acted upon.
You do not need me to remind you of your duty to
the people of this country as Prime Minister and as a Christian to
save a number of families from enduring the heartbreaking and
intolerable suffering associated with Creutzfeld-Jacob disease.
Yours sincerely
Dr. Richard Lawson MB BS, MRCPsych
Green Party (England and Wales) Foot & Mouth
Disease Campaign Co-ordinator
Dr Richard Lawson
The Old School
House
Station Road
Congresbury
BS49 5DX
Tel: 01934
835140 Fax: 01934 834165 e-mail : rlawson@gn.apc.org
23/4/01
Rt. Hon. Tony Blair PM
10 Downing
St.,
London SW1A OAA
Dear Mr Blair
OPEN LETTER 7 : HEALTH IMPACT OF FOOT & MOUTH
DISEASE
Having received no reply to my letter of 12/4/01
on reducing the risk of creating new cases of vCJD from pyre smoke,
I can only assume that views of medical professionals outside of
Government are of no interest to your office, even when they address
serious public heath concerns. If it emerges that the warnings that
you have received as to the public health impact of carcass disposal
are correct, and that your office is wrong to ignore them, just as
the Conservative Government was wrong to ignore the warnings of Dr
Harash Narang and Prof. Lacey over the transmissibility of BSE, who
will accept responsibility?
We are looking in the present case at congenital
abnormalities, cancers, heart disease, respiratory disease, and
cases of vCJD, in the main.
· Will you accept responsibility yourself, and in
10 or 20 years time, when the health impacts have been sifted,
assessed, and agreed by the medical community, will you stand up and
apologise unreservedly to the people who have lost their health as a
result of MAFF's policy of slaughter and disposal?
· Will you
transfer responsibility to the officials in your office who open
your mail, and decide what you do and do not need to view?
· Will
you pass responsibility back to the experts who advise you on these
matters?
· Or will you simply evade the question?
I would be grateful for the courtesy of a
reply.
Yours sincerely
Dr. Richard Lawson MB BS, MRCPsych
Green Party
(England and Wales) Foot & Mouth Disease Campaign
Co-ordinator
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