Proposition 52K2386

Projet de loi portant confirmation des arrêtés royaux pris en application des articles 2 et 3 de la loi du 16 octobre 2009 accordant des pouvoirs au Roi en cas d'épidémie ou de pandémie de grippe.

General information ¶

Submitted by

CD&V Leterme Ⅱ

Submission date

Jan. 27, 2010

Official page

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Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

delegation of power epidemic infectious disease public health disease prevention

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

CD&V Vooruit LE PS | SP Open Vld N-VA LDD MR

Abstained from voting

Groen Ecolo FN VB

Party dissidents ¶

• Luc Sevenhans (VB) voted to adopt.

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Discussion ¶

March 4, 2010 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

Mr. Speaker, since the debate was very short, about a minute, holding on a question asked by the President herself, I refer to my written report.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker.

Since the rapporteur did not read his report, I will remind, for the information of all, that it is about validating the royal decrees that were taken in execution of the special law, passed in October 2009, which gave special powers to the King to manage the flu pandemic.

It is therefore a matter of approving the royal decrees taken in October, November 2009 on the transmission of databases, on the modalities of prescribing medicines and on the number of admissible blood donations annually to increase the possibilities of donation.

Our group will abstain from this vote because we want to remain consistent with our previous abstinence. I remind you that we were the only ones who abstained when voting for this law giving special powers to the King. You will remember, at the time, we considered that the arrangement was disproportionate. We were not excessive in our words. We agreed on the need to provide measures to control the pandemic and protect the population, but since we already knew that this disease was not very serious ‑ a benign influenza even though very contagious ‑ we had estimated that the device you wanted to put in place was exaggerated.

On behalf of my group, I wanted to make the point again. This also allows to know what was said in the Health Commission on the management of this pandemic. I think it is important that there is a return on the subject.

Thankfully, you have negotiated a reduction in the number of vaccines provided by the company.

We did not give in to an excessive dramatization in the vaccination campaign, it remained voluntary and we are there for something to have put the holà, in order to avoid dramatization. But we have all been pressured: your services, the Influenza group, all have been pressured to dramatize this pandemic. One might wonder who gave this pandemic such gravity. When one sees the link with the immense gains of the pharmaceutical industry in the sale of vaccines, one is entitled to raise doubts about the independence of certain experts from the WHO, the European Union and even at the Belgian level from the pressures that could have been exercised and about the lack of waterproofness between the pharmaceutical circles and public health institutions. I am not advocating here to delegitimate these institutions but on the contrary to be sure that they retain their legitimacy.

We have asked for an independent investigation; others have also asked for it. Parliamentary members of the Council of Europe have obtained it. It will take place, you confirmed to us, at the WHO and European Union level. We request – as you promised – a final assessment in Belgium of the device that has been implemented, its effectiveness and the quality of its management. However, today we find ourselves with five million unused and paid vaccine doses, which will likely be unusable in so far as the virus, if it returns, may have muted. You say that the adjuvants last five years but you told us about a next seasonal flu vaccine that would already include the A/H1N1 virus. Are we moving toward ordering new vaccines? It may be inevitable.

All this leaves us with a bitter taste. We donate 1.2 million doses of vaccines to developing countries. I would like to know if there is a real need in these countries and if it meets essential public health challenges for them. We also have 1.5 million people vaccinated but their immunization is very short-lived while many people who have been in contact with the virus are probably immune for life.

To learn from the management of the pandemic, I would like to briefly emphasize three points.

First, we can already conclude that governance rules need to be implemented that ensure waterproof between public health institutions and the pharmaceutical industries.

Second, we need to provide withdrawal clauses in vaccine purchase contracts.

Finally, and our group holds a lot of it, it is worth thinking about public health without always being obscured by the hypermedicalization of the disease. When it is benign, we must strengthen the resistance of the body, and not increase its dependence on drugs. However, we have seen, in recent days, how much the Belgian has become dependent on medicines. Expenditures in this area are increasingly difficult to be covered by social security and households. We must go to the end of this reflection.

I will not answer you on this issue, because we have discussed it extensively in the committee. The report testifies to this.

Simply, you said in a committee that the WHO is likely to announce the post-pandemic. I went to the World Health Organization on another debate last Wednesday. The International Committee of Experts has just taken place. They decided not to declare post-pandemic because the pandemic continued. Many countries in Southeast Asia are still experiencing difficulties in this regard.

In addition, these experts express some fears, because in some countries such as Egypt the A/H1N1 and A/H5N1 viruses coexist. They wanted to remain vigilant about this.

This is the precision that I wanted to bring, and which complements what I said in commission.