The MHRA papers - an Introduction

In our Christmas easy, easy quiz

The culture of secrecy at the MHRA Tom Jefferson and Carl Heneghan · Dec 15 Read full story

We made a (nearly) light-hearted reference to the minutes of the MHRA’s ​​Commission On Human Medicines (CHM) COVID-19 Vaccines Benefit Risk Expert Working Group meetings between 25 August 2020 and 25 May 2021.

Festive lights were on, Carl was playing golf round the clock, Tom was digging his way to Australia, and everyone was making merry.

However, we did warn, “TTE readers should be aware that we are reviewing 45 PDFs related to secret squirrelling and will report on them.”

We have been through all the available minutes, which appeared on the UK Government website thanks to a FOI request. Their content is very serious in parts, including the secret squirrel bits we made fun of. While Tom was looking at the US Congress review of the pandemic, Carl got to work on extracting the MHRA papers. He then very kindly passed the parcel to Tom, saying, “You write them up. I am going golfing.”

After Christmas, we will serialise the bits we think are important, hyperlinking them to the originals so you can check our work and the EWG’s originals. If these have magically disappeared, don’t worry—we have downloaded them all.

The format will be as follows: First, we will report on the meeting date; depending on the content, there may be one post for each meeting or more.

Then, we will cut and paste what, in our view, are the critical sentences. We will then make short comments (most do not need more than that) and provide an explanation if necessary. Always remember that all these transactions on our skins were done in secret.

Our extractions, as usual, will be available on a spreadsheet.

We will then lighten up the mood (if possible) with our trademark old geezer ending.

This post was written by two old geezers who can confirm that they have not been exposed to live chickens, have not been to a wet chicken market, and do not keep chickens in their gardens or under their beds. The old geezers do not have a pangolin or bats in the large bat cave out the back, and a non-existent bat in the old geezers’ gardens did not kiss a pangolin that the old geezers don’t keep. 

Merry Christmas to you all. We will meet again in a few days.