UKMFA FOI to MHRA re COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Surveillance and Monitoring Criteria

31/10/22 UPDATED 27/11/23

Following the unsatisfactory response to our previous FOI to the MHRA on a possible link between Scottish Mortality data and Cardiac Deaths and the Covid vaccine rollout, we have sent a further FOI request asking for further data relating to:

Specific criteria set re COVID-19 vaccine safety monitoring which would trigger either a formal epidemiological study or, re deaths reported to Yellow Card, would prompt them to call a halt to the COVID-19 rollout.
Documents/discussions referring to rapid cycle analysis or targeted active monitoring in the context of COVID-19 safety monitoring.
Documents/discussions relied upon to decide how many reported fatal outcomes were caused by a COVID-19 vaccine.

Download PDF

UKMFA Formal Complaint to Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) re MHRA

07/04/23

Despite repeatedly chasing up the MHRA, there was no response to our second FOI so we wrote to the ICO to ask them to investigate.

Download PDF

ICO Decision Notice

18/05/23

The ICO upheld our complaint, ruling that the MHRA had breached section 10(1) of the FOIA by failing to provide a valid response to the request within the statutory time frame of 20 working days. The Commissioner instructed MHRA to provide a substantive response to our FOI request within 35 calendar days and warned them that failure to comply may be dealt with as a contempt of court.

Download PDF

MHRA FOI Response

16/06/23

The MHRA admitted to holding some of the information requested but claimed an exemption due to cost involved. They did admit that they had NO set criteria to trigger an epidemiological study regarding a safety concern. They also disclosed that they do not ascribe causality to individual reported deaths; do not make decisions on vaccination policy; and wanted us to note that "most people receive vaccinations without having any serious side-effects".

Download PDF

UKMFA Requests an MHRA Internal Review of their FOI response

09/07/23

UKMFA responded to MHRA by email, requesting an internal review on the grounds that "we have received no documentation relating to any of our questions - emails, minutes of meetings etc - that we requested... We also wish to challenge your use of the Section 12 FOIA exemption... We take no comfort in your glib, but entirely unsubstantiated claim that 'It is important to note that most people receive vaccinations without having any serious side effects', especially given your previous admission that 'we do not assign causality (i.e. whether the patient’s death was caused by the vaccine) at the level of individual reports'... [so] the MHRA appears to have no system of active safety monitoring in place that would even identify a safety signal, let alone to then act on it to protect the public."

Download PDF

MHRA Internal Review Response

04/08/23

Download PDF

UKMFA Complaint to ICO

03/11/23

We were unhappy with the result of the MHRA internal review, so again we asked the ICO to investigate our concerns that the MHRA had not only failed to respond to our FOI request in any meaningful way but also failed to reassure that they carry out their assigned task of COVID-19 vaccine safety monitoring in a reliable and responsible manner..

Download PDF

ICO Closes the Case

14/11/23

The ICO informed us that due to "undue delay" of more than 6 weeks in submitting our complaint following the MHRA internal review notification, they were closing the case and that we would need to submit a new FOI to MHRA. This we have done!

Download PDF