Royal College of GPs Secretly Profited from Children’s COVID Vaccines

The Royal College of GPs secretly profited from the deadly children’s Covid vaccines while heavily promoting them during the pandemic.

In September 2021, the UK’s chief medical officers (CMOs) ordered parents to vaccinate their children to keep schools open and “reduce educational disruption”.

Telegraph.co.uk reports:The advice was issued despite the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) having decided not to recommend the mass vaccination of 12- to 15-year-olds. It concluded the jab would provide only a marginal benefit to that cohort, which was at low risk from the virus.

The CMOs held a series of crunch meetings in the run-up to their announcement, including one with the leading medical royal colleges just days before.

The aim was for the CMOs to obtain advice from public health experts as well as the leaders of the relevant Royal Colleges, according to the official record of the meeting.

GPs had strong consensus, meeting told

The minutes of the meeting, seen by The Telegraph, were obtained under freedom of information laws by the children’s campaign group UsForThem.

The document reveals that Prof Martin Marshall, the then chair of the Royal College of GPs, spoke in favour of rolling out the children’s Covid vaccine, saying there was “strong consensus” among doctors for this.

“The Royal College of General Practitioners have consulted widely across GPs, and there is a strong consensus in favour of vaccinating 12-15s,” the minutes say.

“Again, they emphasised the importance of how the communication is done. They are very concerned about inequalities – which works in both ways – if we don’t vaccinate then inequalities will be exacerbated, if we do and there is differential uptake then this will also exacerbate.”

All those present at the meeting were asked to “state any conflicts of interests before any intervention”.

However, Prof Marshall failed to declare that the Royal College had previously received payments from Pfizer, the only pharmaceutical company at the time with a Covid vaccine authorised for use in children.

During 2021, it received more than £100,000 from Pfizer, according to the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI).

Their register shows that during that calendar year, £102,820 was given for “donations and grants” as well as “benefits in kind”.

This was more than double what the organisation received the previous year from Pfizer  – £49,324 – and up from £4,309 in 2019 for event sponsorship, donations, grants and benefits in kind.

Molly Kingsley,the founder of UsForThem, said: “The CMO decision to proceed with the vaccination of children despite the fact that the JCVI had previously declined to authorise a mass rollout was one of – if not the – single most ethically contentious decisions of the entire pandemic.

“In that context, surely one has to question not only what looks to be a material conflict of interest that was not declared, but also why an apparently conflicted party was in the meeting in the first place.”

Representatives from the Faculty for Public Health, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health were also at the meeting.

It took place on Sept 7 2021, six days before the CMO announcement on children’s vaccines.

Prof Sir Chris Whitty, the CMO for England, said on Sept 13 that the plan was to give a single dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech jab to 12- to 15-year-olds, with letters due to be sent out to parents about it.

College ‘had no decision-making role’

About three million pupils would be offered the jab, with the first vaccinations for this group expected to take place the following week.

A spokesman for the Royal College of GPs, said: “As the organisation representing 54,000 GPs on the frontline of the Covid-19 pandemic, the College took part in many meetings relating to the care of patients during the outbreak and finding solutions to the health emergency. This particular meeting was purely advisory in nature, and the College had no decision-making role.

“The College follows a strict sponsorship policy when working with partners, including those in the pharmaceutical sector, developed in consultation with our GP members. This includes that any partnership arrangements should comply with the ABPI Code of Practice – and that all content produced as a result of sponsorship is done so independently, and editorial control and copyright sits with the RCGP and is not meant for any product promotion, in line with ABPI guidelines.

“The College’s income from Pfizer for the year ending March 31 2022 was related to educational resources on migraine and arthritis, amounting to 0.26 per cent of total RCGP income, and had no bearing on discussions related to the pandemic.”

A spokesman for Pfizer said that all its payments to the Royal College of GPs have been disclosed “publicly and transparently, as per our industry requirements”.

They added: “Legitimate and transparent payments made by Pfizer to a healthcare organisation are in no way related to, or contingent on, the organisation or individuals affiliated with the organisation prescribing or recommending the use of Pfizer’s medicines or vaccines. This is made clear in all our contractual agreements with healthcare  organisations.”