Ken McClure - White death

Steven and Macmillan remained impassive.

‘All the intelligence that we have been getting recently has suggested that a terrorist biological weapon attack is imminent,’ continued Coates.

‘Forty-five minutes to an anthrax attack,’ said Steven, attracting hostile stares.

Coates ignored him. ‘If we are to have any chance at all of countering such an act, we desperately need new vaccines so we’ve been encouraging the best biological brains to design them.’

‘I don’t think I understand,’ said Macmillan. ‘You’ve just told us that the pharmaceutical companies wouldn’t cooperate.’

‘We went to the smaller ones, the biotech companies that were set up at the height of the new technology boom. We offered them incentives in terms of prizes, accelerated-tracking through the licensing process, long-term contracts with the NHS for success.’

‘What exactly does “accelerated-tracking through the licensing process” mean?’ asked Macmillan, dissecting the real information from what Coates was saying.

‘The decision-making process would be speeded up, delays cut to a minimum, fewer referral bodies, that sort of thing. There just isn’t time to put new vaccines through what has become the normal schedule of trials and safety evaluation,’ said Coates. ‘There’s a chance we could all be dead before anyone was vaccinated.’

‘So you tried out a vaccine on a hundred and eight children without their knowledge or consent or that of their parents?’ said Macmillan.

Many in the room thought it an opportune moment to look down at the table surface and say nothing.

‘I hope I can assure you that wasn’t the case,’ said Coates solemnly. He paused for a moment to make eye contact with both Steven and Macmillan. ‘Knowing that HMG were keen on cutting bureaucracy to a minimum where new vaccines were concerned, a number of junior people in the Department of Health hatched a plan they imagined might, in the long run, endear them to their superiors. They colluded with the biotechnology company St Clair Genomics in setting up field trials for the company’s new vaccine against tuberculosis, the Nichol vaccine. The people at St Clair convinced them that obtaining the necessary paperwork for the trial would be little more than a time-consuming formality: all preliminary tests had been carried out and passed with flying colours so many months could be saved by simply going ahead. The children at Pinetops comprised a perfect cohort. After vaccination, the plan was to monitor them so that their antibody levels could be checked.’

‘The green sticker children,’ said Macmillan.

‘Yes. The anticipated good levels would be used as the basis for bringing the vaccine into regular use.’

‘And protesting after the event would be useless,’ murmured Macmillan with a shake of the head.

‘I can’t stress how much we need a new vaccine against TB. BCG is well past its sell-by date and the disease is making a big comeback. If we don’t do something soon about protecting our young people, we could be facing a return to the dark days of the early twentieth century where death through “consumption” was a regular visitor to homes across the land.’

‘But instead, the company came up with something that’s put the lives of over a hundred children at risk?’ said Steven.

‘I think that’s going too far,’ said Coates. ‘Although we are, of course, aware that there is a problem…’

‘You’re aware there is a problem?’ exclaimed Macmillan as if he couldn’t believe his ears.

‘Let me explain,’ said Coates, appealing for calm with the palms of his hands. ‘There is actually nothing wrong with the vaccine per se.’

Macmillan looked as if he was preparing for another outburst but Coates used his hands again to calm him. ‘The Nichol vaccine passed all its lab tests and was tried out very successfully on animals. I assure you, no short cuts were taken at any stage. By any criterion, it is an extremely good vaccine and much superior to BCG in giving protection against the tubercle bacillus.’

‘But?’ asked Steven.

Coates nodded. ‘And I admit it is a very big but, something went dreadfully wrong when the vaccine was handed over to the company who were contracted to prepare the injection vials.’

‘What kind of something?’

‘Somewhere along the line in the production process the vials were contaminated with a toxic agent, a poison that attacks human tissue cells. It’s that that’s been causing the trouble in a few cases. We believe that there were only traces of it present but obviously enough to cause illness in some of the children.’

‘So the children were poisoned, not infected?’ said Steven.

‘Yes.’

‘Where did this toxin come from?’ asked Macmillan.

‘We understand that Redmond Medical, the company tasked with preparing the vials, had been contracted to bottle several new compounds for another company who were looking for new anti-cancer agents. It seems likely that traces of one of these compounds found its way into the vials used for the Nichol vaccine which was the next job on their production schedule. The company still aren’t sure how it happened. They thought their cleaning and sterilisation procedures were foolproof. Needless to say, work at the plant has been suspended and vaccine production has been transferred to another company.’

‘One of the children who was given the vaccine was immunocompromised,’ said Steven. ‘He had a bone marrow transplant a year ago.’

At this, another man stood up and introduced himself as Dr John Leyton, the doctor who had administered the vaccine supplied by St Clair. ‘I’m aware of that,’ he confessed. ‘But as the Nichol vaccine is a non-live vaccine, there was no danger to the child. He may not have produced antibodies in response to the vaccine but there was no chance of him being infected by it.’

‘But he’s dead,’ said Steven.

‘Not because of the vaccine.’

‘It’s something we all regret, I’m sure,’ said the Home Secretary, a view echoed solemnly by the others.

‘But why should this child have been more susceptible to a poison than the others?’ asked Steven.

Leyton shrugged and said, ‘I’m afraid you have me there. Maybe just normal human variation. We all have different levels of susceptibility to a lot of things. It could be the same for toxins.’

‘Was it a case of corners being cut in the manufacturing process?’ asked Macmillan point blank. ‘Sloppy procedures?’

‘Absolutely not,’ countered Coates. ‘We’ve been over the firm’s practices with a fine-tooth comb. They couldn’t be faulted.’

‘But a poison still ended up in the vials,’ said Steven. ‘A poison that’s killed one child and looks like killing another soon.’

‘I’m afraid so,’ said Leyton. ‘And we all deeply regret that.’

‘I take it you’re still investigating what exactly happened?’ asked Macmillan.

‘We’re currently examining all the equipment used in the vial manufacturing process.’

‘So where does this leave us?’ said the Home Secretary. ‘Sci-Med has caught us — and by “us” I mean Her Majesty’s Government — in flagrante delicto, for this is something for which we must take collective responsibility. Although it was the fault of a few over-zealous individuals and a misunderstanding perhaps over how flexible the rules might be in the current climate, we are responsible for administering a new vaccine to one hundred and eight of our school children and, it has to be said, unwittingly putting their lives at risk. You don’t have to be a tabloid editor to see where this is going to end up should it become public knowledge.

‘Just in case there is any doubt,’ the Home Secretary continued, ‘the government will fall, the children’s parents will launch criminal and civil actions, the vaccines programme will grind to a halt and we will be left defenceless against anything the terrorists care to throw at us. They will be free to launch plague after plague until we succumb totally and our green and pleasant land becomes a barren desert.