Last September infants in Bhutan were immunized using new life saving ‘5 in 1’ vaccine named ‘Pentavalent’. Gross of children succumbed to the vaccine and others suffered from acute side effects. The samples of vaccines were sent to advance laboratories for test. The result took unexpectedly long time to come out. In the mean time, the health minister who introduced the killer vaccine was conferred a distinguished award for the same. The health ministry received a dozen ambulances in gift. The parents who lost children are neither compensated, nor consoled. The entire episode was explained by the government as a “mere coincidence”. If people have digest it casually, the word “ethics” should get a new definition.
GAVI
Global alliance for vaccines and immunization (GAVI), an alliance of government, UN agencies, vaccine makers and charities was formed in 2000 AD with a globally appreciated altruistic motive. The motive was to provide life saving vaccines at subsidized cost to people in poor countries. Three prong approaches were adopted to fulfill the noble mission. Firstly, it was to raise awareness among people in the poor countries to make them seek the vaccines and increase the demands. Secondly, it was to encourage more vaccine makers to get into competition. Lastly and subsequently, it was to reduce the cost of vaccines.
The public private partnership, GAVI, based in Geneva was set up with a seed fund of US$ 750 million from Bill and Milinda Gates Foundation. When it began in 2000, there was only one company producing Pentavalent. Today there are at least four companies reaping profits from the alliance. The price has come down from $3.65 to $ 3.0 per dose, and profit swollen to 10 digits.
Two Indian vaccines makers, Shantha Biotechnics Ltd acquired by French drug maker Sonofi Aventis SA, and Panacae Biotech limited joined the competition in 2008. Two more Indian companies, Serum Institute of India Ltd and Bharat Biotech International Ltd are knocking at the door of World Health Organization (WHO) for pre-qualification approval. Unicef buys drugs from companies which have pre-qualification approval from WHO. Unicef then gives to GAVI, which in turn supplies to member countries at subsidized rates. The vaccine is supplied to 72 countries chosen on the basis of their low economic standards.
Children sacrifice
Without a pilot test or with no means to test, immunization using GAVI’s subsidized vaccine Pentavalent was started nationwide in Bhutan on September 1, 2009. Within a month 8 children were reported killed by the vaccine. The parents of all these children are highly educated, who could track the cause. The actual deaths within this period are yet to be known. An unpublished draft mentions that the ministry of health has registered at least 31 cases of deaths and hundreds of children immunized during this period sick.
Bhutan government responded very fast to the deaths, suspended the vaccines and resorted to previous doses. It ensured total collection of the unused and used veils to prevent possible test by private groups. Though fast, Bhutan is not the first country to suspend the immunization using Pentavalent. Sri Lanka and Pakistan had stopped, too. However, despite reports of deaths in their countries, Afganinthan, Bangladesh, Nepal and many more countries are continuing with it.
Even if all the Pentavalent immunized children did not succumb to injection, they are not out of other dangers. The actual antigens used in the vaccines are unknown and protected by patents. The vaccine comes in a solution with aluminium thimerosal, a mercury based compound, and formaldehyde as preservatives. These cause inflammation of brain, cancer, encephalitis, etc. Either when a child is in poor health condition or when the amount of these preservatives crosses a certain threshold level, the chemicals show their effect.
Pentavalent is an untested vaccine hypothetically meant to protect children against five killer diseases, Haemophilus influenza type B(Hib) disease, DPT( diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus) and Hipatitis B. Pentavalent replaces the separate use of DPT, Hib and Hepatities B. But the numbers of time parents need to visit clinic remain the same as Pentavalent is given thrice; after 6, 10 and 14 weeks. This is independent of BCG and measles vaccines.
Child sacrifice brings awards to ministers
During the third week of November, GAVI partners’ forum awarded health ministers from the GAVI recipient countries. They were conferred various awards and titles. The Bhutan’s minister for health Professor Zangley Drukpa was recognized for obtaining over 95 percent immunization in four years. While statistics (95 percent) is fiction based, the minister was in this job for a little more than a year. This was a month after the killer vaccine was suspended from use in Bhutan. The award ceremony in Hanoi, Vietnam on November 19, 2009 was grander than any of the past Oscar film award ceremonies. The event was moderated by singer Yvonne Chaka Chaka from South Africa. The purpose was to make the event more of entertainment than of purpose. In the grand program no mention was made regarding the children who lost their life to the vaccines and no prayers were offered. No leader raised a word on the compensation to the grieved parents. The ministers retuned with heavy medals.
The Pentavalent recipient countries have no access or techniques to verify the constituent and quality of the vaccines. The recipients accept them on the trust and mercy of the donors, makers and the governments. While it was introduced in many countries Bhutan was a fore runner to suspend and withdraw the use and go for a cross check. There are many chances for Bhutan’s health minister to fall under the influence of the drug dealers.
Health minister of Bhutan
Academically, Professor Zanglay Drukpa comes from education management background. Beside a few interactions with his family physicians, he had hardly any time and opportunity to know anything related to health and medicine, until he became health minister a year ago. He was convinced to save state’s budget when vaccines costing $ 3.65 per dose were given to him at $ 0. 23 per dose. He accepted without a second thought. A dose of Pentavalent vaccine costs US$3.65 to Unicef when it buys from companies. Through GAVI initiative Bhutan received at a subsidized rate of $0.23 per dose. The huge difference adds to the suspicion that the vaccines are being used for test. Research companies bribe influential people for favors. Economically Professor Zanglay lives with a silver spoon in his mouth. However, chances that he walked an extra mile to rescue his debt ridden party from bankruptcy, cannot be ruled out. If so, it is not just the health minister who is acknowledgeable, the entire cabinet and the DPT’s top members are aware, informed and under influence.
Ethics in biomedical research
Biomedical tests or test of drugs and vaccines on humans are highly sensitive protocols often provoking human right issues. Drugs are tested for their effects and side effects starting from small animals like bacteria, nematodes, mice, rabbits, etc. When they pass all these stages they are tested in primates like monkeys and chimpanzees, which are closer to humans. However, their actual effects cannot be specified without testing in humans. There are various protocols to be followed to test any drugs in humans. The human must be a volunteer, fully informed of the test and consequences, and free from expectations of any forms of rewards and benefits. Legally, bio medical test on humans is next to impossible. Moreover, Pentavalent is meant for the infants, their tests and report of tests in informed volunteer adults give no meaning. Thus somehow or the other, illegally or Para-legally they are tested through the influence of authorities. The common practice is that the drugs are tested on prisoners, refugees, soldiers, street dwellers, beggars and ignorant people. For the test either authorities, where absolute authorities exist like in army, or politicians who influence large masses are taken into confidence through various means.
For the test, drugs or vaccines with different combinations of constituents are mixed and the samples are identified using codes. The code of the Penatvalent used in Bhutan was ‘EasyFive’ a trade name used by Panacae Biotec, India. Each vial of vaccine has an identifier encoded in the barcode. Since different combinations are used, some of which are placebo, different receipient get different symptoms. Some are not given any treatment. When the dose is completed in an area, epidemic is spread. After the epidemic like the recent H1N1 swine flue epidemic, recipients susceptible to disease are noted and compared against the dose they received. After the tests are successfully carried out, the drugs with best results are replicated and sold in developed countries, which have reliable techniques to test and verify drugs. These selected drugs are usually a bit expensive.
Vial in file
Bhutan government took a bold step by sending the collected samples to test to different undisclosed laboratories. If the result from the test prove the vaccines faulty, it shall be the worlds’ first most notorious scandal of the 21st century. To resist it Bhutanese people have to tighten their belt.
However as the symptoms show, the government is ready to subside the issue proclaiming that the killer vaccine and death from the injection were coincidental. The government cannot hide the mal practice so easily; the people of Bhutan know exactly when the iron is hot. Delay in releasing the laboratory reports is an unexpected event taking place. Any good laboratory can analyze chemical composition of vaccines in a day. However, it takes long time to study the effects, which is not expected from them. It has been a month already that the samples were dispatched for test. The reports are still in the file.
Gift diplomacy
Easy five, the Pentavalent received by Bhutan was the product of Panacea Biotech Ltd in New Delhi. The company must not be waiting with fingers crossed for the lab results. The government seems seriously evaluating the pros and cons of the report and its release. When the lab result is still in the file and peoples’ eyes are focused on it, there was a distraction. Bhutan received a dozen ultra sophisticated ambulances from New Delhi as gift with promises of some more such gifts soon.
The addition of ambulances will certainly ease the people’s trouble, and save many who would otherwise breath their last, untimely, on the way to hospitals. But it cannot bring the children sacrificed to illegal vaccines back to life.
Mission ahead
GAVI’s noble mission to keep the future population healthy should continue. They should see that their altruism adds, not subtract, health and life to the children. They should buy only those drugs and vaccines that are accepted in developed countries.
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have spent billions of dollars in charities to improve health and agriculture. They should ensure that their charities are used for the just cause and not to siphon dollars into billionaires eyeing to take up Bill Gates position in Forbex index.
Not every government can follow Bhutan, Sri Lanka or Pakistan to act fast to save lives, but they should not be tempted by low prices, rewards and gifts.
Unicef, WHO, PAHO, etc. are globally trusted, international organizations to which people and governments resort to at times of need and controversies. All the people working in these organizations may not be immunized against corruption and unethical partnership with drug makers and testers.
The government of Bhutan must be confident that people will support them if they stand with the actual result of the test even if it mean losing cost subsidized vaccines, ambulances and awards, and will not support the fabrication for a vein glory.
The civil societies must be bold enough to ensure that all the parents who lost their children get proper compensation and other children who survived the killer vaccine get medical supervision for good.
Kyoto, Japan
govindarizal@gmail.com
How much hard you can try to tarnish the image of Bhutan, it is not going to happen. The international community is not even interested in reading such a biased news. All your readers are heading to the west and they will never have time to read your dumbass writing because they will have more important things to do, including finding a job to support their families. America or any other country who resettled them do not want them to live on handouts, as they used to be in the camps.
Japanese will soon kick you out of their country because you have now shown the true color of Rizals…keep my word!
There are more good people than bad ones; even the bad ones are not as bad as Rizals,,,
I am not agree with Thakur. All people heading towards the western countries are ignoring Bhutan. More people are interested towards Bhutan than before.Govinda Rizal is showing the fact of Bhutan. Those people who are interested towards Bhutan read article not necessarily those who are not interested. It is not a dumbass writing. How can Thakur claims that the Rizal are bad? Govinda is raising the genuine issue not a simple one.
Dear Thakur,
You have read the article of Govinda, you should have scolded Govinda, that might bring some Medal even to you from Zanglay. In the IT world media news are read by all in any part of the world. You might influence some one in Japan, but 192 countries have seen Bhutan’s image in Geneva last months. Better call Kinzang Dorji the team leader or Maina kharga the pseudo southern face in the team and Thakur too know the detail.
You must develop your vision in democratic way, in democracy same title have no value, so long the person is different. Are jimge Thinlay stupid/ smart like that of Bhutan who broke peace of Bhutan through Decentralization, by pulling 17 army officer in Dzongkag administration 1981. Now he is running with Gross National happiness and is going to sell out the country itself. Poor Royals and support like you Thakur will know about it later and will scold Thinlay in Grave yard.
What you have seen in Geneva is through your horny eyes. There were only seven people demonstrating and they are all who claim to be refugees. I did not see anyone join them. Too bad for them. As a citizen, I saw Bhutan had presented well; it did its duty as a nation. We have taken suggestions and ignored the critism. We are an independent nation and we have independent laws. We do not necessarily have to match to their way of ruling the country.
I do not buy your convulated reasoning that Bhutan faced criticism in Geneva. No government is perfect, not even in the most advanced nations like America or the largest democracy like India. Some of our laws are better than America’s. But because ours is better, we cannot aske them to incorporate into their law or vice versa.
And Parsu, we know you very well. You are one of the opportunists who deserves to be punish by God. You are a traitor who cheated the government of scholarship money. You can try hard to appear as one of the refugee leaders but they (refugees) will never follow a bad guy.They know you are one of the bad guys.
Dear Commentators,
It is not the matter of tarnishing the image of a country, but it is the matter of life and death of the innocent children. It is heartbreaking to read the article “Children sacrifice for Bio-Medical Research” by Govinda. I feel pinch at my heart when I learnt that the company made Bhutan as the testing ground for the vaccines.
This is the curse to live in the poor country. I am not angry at this point of time for Bhutan but, I feel awfully sorry to accept the vaccine for the test. If Bhutan was like US or any other western countries, i mean the influential one, the company would have not even dear to think to send such a monstrous vaccine even for free.
This is the tragedy; the powerful ones will always try to suppress the weaker ones. The same thing happened to Bhutan. RGoB, please, don’t play with the life of the children; they are the future of Bhutan. If you undermine the welfare of the children now, how can you hope the better future for the country in the days to come?
This is not the time to lag pulling or criticize each other but, it is time, to mend the already tarnish image of Bhutan, let us acknowledged that this is difficult time for Bhutan and it is undergoing tumultuous time, let us join our hands together to make the nation better, stronger and honorable so that no one can raise the finger at us, be it Human Rights issues, Democracy, Ethnic cleansing or the testing of vaccines on our children.
Thank you
DB Adhikari
US
What an absurd thing to point out when we are talking about vaccines. That Rizals or Parsu dai, is on the wrong boat. No matter how small, no matter how many people in the West who think about Bhutan, it is none of your business Mr. Thakur and annonymous. Our concern like your concern is the children who dies due to vaccination and you care to call it CRITICISM.
Why?
Because the prime reason is that, from Gross National Happiness….to denials at the Geneva …of Refugees…to vaccines…….. principles after principles, it is easy to deduce how shameless the Royal government is. It doesn’t follow its own principles and tries to preach us ….refugees, that we SHOULD forget about Bhutan. The West is not just about working, work is to make money. And listen, everyone will not end up with manual work as you guys in the Ministries usually ponder and assume. There is a fairly large educated mass.
Thats why its possible for you guys to come to Bhutanese new websites and leave some criticisms. There are many…of such forums by the way…
And because there is going to be even more hardship…..there will be even more communal protection and belongingness….togetherness. You think individualism is going to pervade the Evicted Bhutanese’s life. Its going to be a social life that you don’t even think about. But only know how to underestimate.
You see with social change comes social development. It is almost certain that Bhutanese communities all around the world will
there is freedom to criticize and write in forums
I am 20 years old Mr. Thakur.
And there are thousands of twenty year olds who think of Bhutan everyday. The apocalypse you showered on us, stealing the development of our generation will be paid by you for a price. ….
Your Return to the position of Humans from Animals. Killing babies and calling them errors ….and then telling us… its not worthy of our criticism….because you can’t be perfect…
What if any of the children of the Ministers had died? Or what if your child had died Mr. Thakur. Will that be criticism still…..not worthy of a review?
or shall it be HUMAN LOSS, your loss, a society’s loss, succumbed to the intrusion and control over populations by drug companies. I prefer to call them DRUG LORDS….because they aren’t different from the actual heroin mega-dealers who put drugs into societies to kill and make profit.
Bhutan of today has impoverished with no ethics and morality. The Geneva demo was taken seriously by almost all countries of the world. Except Bhutan…..
And you suggest no one took it seriously. Shame on you Mr. Thakur.
Isn’t it time to learn from errors or say ….
naah….we can’t be perfect. Well Bhutan should say it made a mistake and never repeat inhumanity.
But will not stop saying…….naaah…we are the best, we are good, we are grossly happy, ….but again ….we are not perfect.
And say….oh refugees they are victims, Japan, USA,and others would kick your ass. tata bye bye. What league of logical and intellectual human spirit Bhutanese inside Bhutan have developed is self-evident.
Nothing more…
This GovindaR is seeking a device to gain popularity amongst the leading elite. But he has put up his justification merely on all factual details just by sitting in front of Computer. His 90% of his writings are Shit. You better complete your PHd in Genes, Genomes and get Nobel prize. That would be best for you . Don’t try to be popular by writing what is not at all true. You will mislead all readers by falsifying the facts. Man u suck…
Education Minister’s address at the first principals’ workshop on educating for GNH
27 January 2010
Here is this place we have grown to call school. In the beginning, it was all space – bare and plain – a part of this good earth. We animated sand and stone, brought brick and mortar and saw our temple of learning rise before us. We etched the impressions of our hands on the walls and the floors and the corridors. We wrote our dreams here. Today, we call it our school.
This nation cared and it dared. It set its eyes on the light – the light of learning. This school is the living, flowing breath of that light and that care and that love. Today, we inherit that light and that love by right and by responsibility. The future will show what we make of this inheritance. This is the moment to decide.
Children are already here. The bell has gone. It is Assembly time. As the flag rises and the anthem rings, we merge with a vaster realm. The school transforms. We are uplifted. The vision of our flag connects us with a bigger reality. The rhythm of our national anthem links us to a wider consciousness. All distances dissolve and all differences disappear. The East and the West and the North and the South become one.
It is the charge of the sacred and the solemn. At this supreme moment, my individuality merges with the collectivity that is the nation. I am a part of the whole and the whole is part of my being. I partake of all that goes to the making of my nation and of all that is dear to her being and her sovereign self. I embrace the very person of my nation as I pray for our king and our people and for all the sentient beings. I obtain a glimpse of her very soul. Bhutan comes together. We build our nation.
The assembly is a moment of solemn reflection and dedication. It is the time for the big theme of the day, for the galvanizing message to the surging mass. This moment is meant to capture the mood, enlarge the mind and expand the heart. It invokes the destiny of the institute and the destination of its scholars.
This moment is bigger than the individuals, higher than the subjects and larger than the many activities that will define the day. The person who stands in front of the multitude is called upon to measure up and to inspire. Truly, the life of the institute is shaped by what happens during this precious moment.
It has been my good fortune to share a common space and a common passion with you as teachers. Today, I would like to pay my tribute to all of you, my fellow-educators, for your courage to take up the most difficult job there is in the world – teach. At that moment of truth, when you told yourself that of all the things that you could do, you would rather share your life and learning with children, you set yourself on a mission like no other. A glowing testimony to your ability and success, you are today called upon to lead and to guide the destiny of your school.
At school, it is leadership of a special kind. You are face to face with real people, flesh and blood individuals. You do not have the luxury of space and distance that provide some respite, however brief, as in some other occupations. Right here is the child, your scholar, your charge, who is a pupil and more than a pupil. Here is a bundle of dreams, of hope, and of possibility. How do you organize your school to support and advance the myriad dreams and hopes and possibilities that children come with?
And, here are the teachers – looking up to you to lead and to inspire. You are called upon to set the priorities and lay the ground rules for the school. Teachers are an amazing community – they hold the key to the success of our children. Your leadership has the power to ignite the fire of their imagination and achieve excellence in student performance.
Curriculum and community have their own share of claims on your time and attention. The curriculum, as a treasure-chest of a nation’s aspirations for human excellence, is the reason for the school being there. The community looks up to, and is expected to look up to, the school in much the same way as the ancient mariners looked up at the North Star for direction.
And then there is the general presentation and ambience that sets the school apart from a utility facility. Every object speaks here. The entrance gate, the play-fields, the gardens, the streams, the plants, the corridors, the hallways, the classrooms, the staffrooms, the library, the laboratories, service facilities, the surroundings, nooks and corners – all make their own statements and convey powerful messages. Whether these objects and spaces inspire the love of life and of learning depends upon how imaginatively and creatively they are engaged.
At the end of the day, being at the helm of affairs, you ask yourself, “What empire of ideas do I preside over? What is important for my school? What is it that defines the inner and the outer life of my school? What shapes the intellectual and moral life of this seat of learning? What is a GNH school?” And more!
We have much to be grateful for. With all its imperfections, we have an education system that is up and running. Our leaders are leading and the led are learning. I believe that despite many challenges and, often, unkind criticisms, our teachers are doing a commendable job. I feel too that our children are learning their mathematics and science and languages and some are doing exceptionally well. It is thanks to your hard-work and sacrifices that Bhutan is more educated and enlightened today than ever before.
Given the demands of our national vision and the needs of changing times, what has been good hitherto will no longer be good enough henceforth. We have often risen to high levels of excellence in our roles. Now, we need to reconnect our role with its soul. This is the moment of truth.
Educating for Gross National Happiness is essentially an invitation to Education, to all of us educators, to look for and to discover the soul behind our role. We are returning to the original and the authentic purpose of education – a process that gently draws the human mind to look for and to love what is true and good and beautiful and useful – values inherent in the goal of education. We are, in effect, returning to the root of education – educare – meaning to draw out.
We need to draw out the core principle, the primary purpose, the soul, if you will, of our role. Educating for Gross National Happiness is, therefore, not a new fad or a call for a paradigm shift. There are no immediate plans to develop a new GNH curriculum or to bring about a revolution in education as some people might like to assume.
We already have the basic material in our curriculum sufficient to support a GNH way of thinking and living. What is required is a creative reorientation of attitude and approach in the way we look at ourselves and perceive our relationship with our field of work.
All education is normative and therefore allied to the spirit of GNH in essence. Through our academic disciplines, we would like not only to gather information and knowledge from the different topics and chapters prescribed in the syllabus, but to gain insight into the nature of phenomena that make our universe. The initiative underway is a reminder that somewhere along the way, education came off its normative orbit and lost its original course. It is a call to regain lost ground, a nation reflecting on what is important for it, after all.
Ultimately, education is but a process of finding relationships. We begin in the infancy of learning with nursery rhymes which aim to build bridges between the familiar and the unfamiliar thus empowering the child to see the world as a sensible and meaningful place. It is the soul behind the sound that is crucial here as the child’s universe unfolds and expands with every little experience.
As the learner grows and matures, science becomes the narrative of patterns and of relations in nature as in life; mathematics a celebration of signs and symbols with loaded significance and power; history is the march of ideas that move minds and nations; literature is the song of life and living, as language is the festival of sounds and of word-relations; philosophy being the empire of the eternal and the immutable.
We want our children to learn that culture is the cultivation of sweetness and light, and that environment is an extension of our own self. When we talk of governance, we would like to begin from self-governance to governance in the family, in the class, in school, in organizations, in societies, at the national level and link it to world- governance. In the socio-economic areas, issues of standard of life and the standard of living and their ramifications on the wider natural, social, and political spheres need to be highlighted.
Could the principal please show up! I mean the principle behind the principal, or the principal-principle or the principal principle! If I have been a principal for twenty years, for instance, I might be tempted to ask myself: When was the last time the principal in me truly showed up? In other words, how often do the role and soul meet?
As I see it, the biggest crisis in education today is not so much the shortage of resources or of planning and management skills, but of a mistaken source of motivation. We look to the superficial and the ephemeral for inspiration instead of discovering the gold in our own field of engagement.
I love the idea of mutual illumination. Work shines through the worker as the worker shines through work. The principal has found a school, for instance, but has the school found a principal? Likewise, the teacher has found a subject to teach, but has the subject found a teacher to express its promise? We could and should ask the same questions to every other post and post-holder!
You are the medium through which the finest ideas about education speak. By the same token, education is the medium through which your most passionate and deeply-held beliefs find their expression. Your role finds its life and nourishment in the soul of your mission. Left to itself, the role diminishes and dies over time. Fed by the soul, it receives vital nutrient and sustenance to bloom and to flourish. You illuminate each other and bless each other.
Education systems receive the big ideas of human aspirations and achievements over time and space, and affirm the claims of a nation’s dreams for ever higher levels of excellence and success.
GNH as the sublime goal for our country provides an ideal vision for Education to give it meaning and purpose. Let us hitch our wagon to the sun.
We have this special privilege of sharing our life and our dreams with children. We have this historic responsibility to make them part of the splendour of this nation. That is the way education will succeed for this nation to succeed. There is no other way of looking at our work.
I know that you will rise, my fellow-educators, to match the need of the hour and release the light in you to honour the claims of this nation on its education system. The journey has begun. You are the light on the way.
May you lead the children to the sunnier side of the street!
Tashi Delek.
No wonder, Our education minister is truly a scholar. May education system flourish to the heights of excellence . The only Minister with wisdom, clear conscience , honesty and integrity is honorable Edu. Minister.
His everybody word and statement have a pulsating effect on human minds like the impact of 1000kn load energy .
A wonderful article on health concerns from the adverse effects of vaccine. It would be appreciated if you could cites the references and the sources from which you got the information so that somebody else who is interested in studying the adverse effects of vaccines in pediatric population will be benefitted.Also, it would be of immense help in evaluating the appropriateness and truthfullness of your article.
Thank you for your help, posted this to twitter!
It would appear that research chemicals have become a part of the weekend for our children. As soon as one is unavilable a brand new type is avilable. What is the solution for this?
Best you should edit the post name title Children sacrifice for Bio-medical research to more specific for your content you create. I liked the post withal.