Revealed: Thousands of Irish orphans were used as ‘vaccine guinea pigs’ for pharmaceutical firms.

Revealed: Thousands of Irish orphans were used as ’vaccine guinea pigs'  for pharmaceutical firms.(DM).

Scientists secretly vaccinated more than 2,000 children in religious-run homes in suspected illegal drug trials, it emerged today.

Old medical records show that 2,051 children and babies in Irish care homes were given a one-shot diphtheria vaccine for international drugs giant Burroughs Wellcome between 1930 and 1936.

There is no evidence that consent was ever sought, nor any records of how many may have died or suffered debilitating side-effects as a result.

The scandal was revealed as Irish premier, Enda Kenny, ordered ministers to see whether there are more mass baby graves after the discovery that 800 infants may be buried in a septic tank outside a former mother and baby home in Tuam, Co. Galway.

The Taioseach intervened from the United States yesterday to say that he had ordered his officials to 'see what the scale is, what's involved here, and whether this is isolated or if there are others around the country that need to be looked at.' Michael Dwyer, of Cork University’s School of History, found the child vaccination data by trawling through tens of thousands of medical journal articles and archive files.

He discovered that the trials were carried out before the vaccine was made available for commercial use in the UK. Homes where children were secretly tested included Bessborough, in Co. Cork and Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea, Co. Tipperary, both of which are at the centre of the mass baby graves scandal.

Other institutions where children may also have been vaccinated include Cork orphanages St Joseph’s Industrial School for Boys, run by the Presentation Brothers, and St Finbarr’s Industrial School for Girls, run by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. In Dublin, it is believed that children for the trials came from St Vincent’s Industrial School, Goldenbridge, St Joseph’s School for Deaf Boys, Cabra, and St Saviours’s Dominican Orphanage.

But Mr Dwyer said: 'What I have found is just the tip of a very large and submerged iceberg. '

The fact that no record of these trials can be found in the files relating to the Department of Local Government and Public Health, the Municipal Health Reports relating to Cork and Dublin, or the Wellcome Archives in London, suggests that vaccine trials would not have been acceptable to government, municipal authorities, or the general public.

'However, the fact that reports of these trials were published in the most prestigious medical journals suggests that this type of human experimentation was largely accepted by medical practitioners and facilitated by authorities in charge of children’s residential institutions.'

Following the discovery and reports of medical tests, Irish Premier Enda Kenny ordered ministers to search for further mass baby graves.

The archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, has called for an investigation in Tuan independent of the Catholic Church since “mother and baby homes” mostly operated in Ireland from the 1920s to 1960s, when Catholic policy and control of social services reached their zenith.

“We have to look at the whole culture of mother and baby homes; they’re talking about medical experiments there,” he told RTE Radio at the weekend.

“They’re very complicated and very sensitive issues, but the only way we will come out of this particular period of our history is when the truth comes out.”Read the full story here.

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