A local councillor is taking a landmark legal case against pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, the Church and the State over the inclusion of children from mother and baby homes in vaccine trials.
Councillor Francis Timmons, who filed the Plenary Summons last week, said the three parties named in the summons all have questions to answer.
‘’Coleman Legal services have brought a case on my behalf in regard to the Vaccine Trials,” Cllr Simmons told Southside People.
“It’s a landmark case, I was used as a pincushion and as a human guinea pig as a baby.”
‘’The State, the Church and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) have questions to answer, and they include as to why they allowed this on innocent babies, the issue of consent and the issues around any long-term effects etc from the Trials.”
“At the age of Just 18 days old I was placed in the care of the Religious sisters of charity in February 1971 as confirmed to me by the sisters of charity in a response to me in 2017; while in their care in Madonna House in 1973 I was 1 in 19 that was used in the DTP vaccine trial and 1 in 30 in the plain new as part of the Trivax study vaccine trial, and this was confirmed to me in June 2017 by GSK.”
“I was alone and extremely vulnerable without my family and I was used in two trials with no consent given by my mother- the time is now for answers,” he said.
“My mother visited and observed I was in poor condition with scabs on my arm, and she was concerned about my general health, and I was later boarded out to a family where I was sexually abused as a child.’’
Timmons says he feels “let down” by both the Church and the State while he was supposed to be in care.
“The records show that my Mammy Mary visited me on May 28, 1973- less than a month later, I was included in my first vaccine trial at age 18 months and I was made part of my second trial when I was 24 months old.”
“There is no evidence that my mother gave her permission for me to be included in the trials, so like others, I was used as a human guinea pig.”
“Where was the care for us? Where was our safe place?”
“In August 1973 Mammy Mary had complained that I was being neglected and that my body was covered in scabs, particularly on both arms.
“She was very upset and said I was not being looked after in Madonna House,” he recalled, saying it happened after he participated in the vaccine trials.
Records show that Timmons’ temperature went up to 103.2°F following the injection to his left upper arm on June 12, 1973 and then, on July 24, 1973 he was injected again – this time in his right upper arm.
‘’I feel I was let down by the Church and State and deserve to get a formal apology that my human rights where breached while I was supposed to be in care,” he says.
“There can be no more brushing it under the carpet, now is the time for truth and justice.’’