Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, a key U.K. pandemic response figure, has joined vaccine maker Moderna, re-opening the debate about Government officials transitioning to the private sector roles and the potential misuse of privileged information. The Independent has the story.
Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, who became a prominent figure in the U.K. Government’s pandemic response, has taken a role as Senior Medical Consultant at Covid vaccine maker Moderna.
The U.K.’s former Deputy Chief Medical Officer, who gained celebrity status among the British public during the pandemic and was affectionately known as ‘JVT’, took up the role as part-time adviser to Moderna in May, according to official filings.
As part of his duties during the pandemic, Van-Tam was a member of the Vaccine Taskforce, which the Government said made decisions on “all vaccine supply contracts and major investments in manufacturing and clinical opportunities”. He stepped down from his Government role in March 2022.
Widely praised for his communication skills, Van-Tam often deployed elaborate sporting analogies to portray various stages of the pandemic. Describing the vaccine rollout in December 2020, he said: “It’s clear in the first half, the away team gave us an absolute battering… In the 70th minute we’ve now got an equaliser. Okay, we’ve got to hold our nerve now, see if we can get another goal and nick it.”
Van-Tam’s move follows controversy over previous ‘revolving door’ moves between Government and business.
In 2020 there was an outcry after former U.K. Chancellor Sajid Javid took a high-paying role at JPMorgan. A scandal erupted the following year when it emerged that former Prime Minister David Cameron lobbied members of the Government on behalf of Greensill Capital.
Nearly a third of all new jobs taken by former ministers and senior officials had a significant overlap with their previous brief, according to research conducted earlier this year by civil society group Transparency International.
Rose Whiffen, Senior Research Officer at Transparency International U.K., said the Government should prohibit ex-senior civil servants and ministers from taking up positions where they have had substantial responsibility for policy that is relevant to the hiring company.
“Currently, there are only threadbare safeguards against abuse of the revolving door between the public and private sector,” she said, adding this created a “risk of privileged information being misused for commercial benefit”.
A Government spokesperson said: “Professor Jonathan Van-Tam worked tirelessly to serve patients and the public through the pandemic” and added that there were “robust rules in place for senior civil servants moving from Government to other roles”.
Moderna said the appointment was in accordance with the Health Department’s rules for officials who take up jobs in industry. Paul Burton, Moderna’s Chief Medical Officer, said the professor’s “significant experience and expertise as a specialist in influenza” will be a “vital asset” to the company. The part-time consulting role is for the whole global business, not focused on the U.K.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: UsForThem have produced a template letter that you can send to the Health Secretary and the Shadow Health Secretary to express your concern about JVT’s new job.
— UsForThemUK
CALL TO ACTION
Jonathan Van Tam, the UK’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer during the pandemic, has accepted a senior role in Moderna, which reported revenues of USD 18.5 BILLION in 2021, predominantly due to the supply of its Covid vaccine to countries including the UK.
If,…(@UsforThemUK) August 18, 2023
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Of course.
The revolving door shows how big pharma controls government, mandating vaxxes, dictate policy.
There ought to be a law against this, at least a 5 year cooling off between high office and private sector.
Part of the cooling off process might be to avoid buying products from companies that do that.
How about we just shrink the bureaucracy? That way we don’t have to add more rules the already giant mountain of rules and regulations.
I’m going to go out on a limb here but my prediction is that if we didn’t have a Chief Medical Officer we would be absolutely fine. I’d go even further to suggest that we could get rid of most of the jobs in the Department of Health and Social Care and things wouldn’t not only not get worse, but they might even go better.
Doctors (who can act independently), nurses etc, yes, plenty of that.
Health bureaucrats. No thanks.
Things would definitely get better. The covid reaction, cheered on by the health industry, killed more people than it “saved”. Would our health suffer if we got rid of the WHO?
Our health will DEFINITELY suffer if we don’t get rid of the WHO.
It has already.
Agree 100%.. and I’m not so sure we need government either..
We don’t need more laws.
“Before granting any new power or prerogative to the state, first imagine that power wielded by the politician you hate most, because one day it will be.”
10 years would be better as after that length of time the value of the rat jumping the ship would be Net Zero
If only more people had seen through the whole covid vax scam instead of meekly rolling up their sleeves taking the toxic vax the whole hysteria driven scam would have collapsed. As for me, I suspected fraud from the very beginning and the minute Bill Gates knocked on the door of No 10 and his shill Boris Johnson was banging pots and pans the whole scam was flashing caution like a Belisha beacon.
Should be taking up roll as a prison cook or sawing post bags. Sharing a cell with his mates Vallance and Witty.
I thought the exact same thing! These three destroyed lives, why are the still out on the street?
sickening isn’t it?
Judy’s.
I meant of course Judas
No, it’s fantastic.
The one thing we’ve been absolutely able to rely upon is these peoples stupidity.
Now even the most pro Covid hysterics are going to be raising their eyebrows at this ill timed action,scratching their heads and maybe wondering if the ‘conspiracists’ may just have had a point all along?
It all works in our favour.
“The fact that Moderna snapped him up so quickly proves that the government appoints the Top Scientists in the Country to advise them! Our NHS is the envy of the world!”
Sadly the nhs is hardly the envy of anyone’s world.
sorry this is so disgusting. That man has profited on deaths and misery, he used his influence to ruin the country, to abuse children forced a lie and experimental injections on us, and now he goes to his true masters for his big pay off. The fact that he knows we know and he doesn’t care. he is literally rubbing our noses in sh1t.
What next I wonder Mitchie the monster and Farrsr are safely ensconced in the WHO so they can create more tyranny and despair. I just wait on Whitty and Valance although the latter has more than handsomely profited already, to show up in a Phsrma, the WEF. The UN
WHO or one of the Gates Rockerfella scams.
When if ever will justice be served on these serpents.
Apologies to snakes
They are all doing nicely for playing their part in the plandemic.
It’s not just unsafe covid jabs that are being being promoted. Rexulti, a new antipsychotic drug for agitation in Alzheimer’s has been shown to have little beneficial effect and yet it is being fast tracked for licensing by the FDA despite an increased risk of death of four fold in the control group over the placebo group.
“The FDA has set a dangerous precedent about the data it may require for future drug approvals for this vulnerable patient group.”
Alarm as FDA fast-tracks first antipsychotic drug for agitation in dementia
Do your own research before taking anything.
“Do your own research…”
For that reason I declined the recent offer of a Shingles vaccination (look at the NNT and the side effects, folks, as well as the cost to the taxpayer). Only this week I hear of a friend of a friend who developed chickenpox (which she thought she’d had in childhood) just a few days after vaccination. Not a pleasant infection to get in your seventies.
“Van-Tam was a member of the Vaccine Taskforce, which the Government said made decisions on “all vaccine supply contracts..”
The cynisim behind ‘No one is safe until everyone is safe’ is laid bare.
Never trust a word these cretins say again.
“re-opening the debate about Government officials transitioning to the private sector roles and the potential misuse of privileged information”
The debate was never closed. Actually, what debate? They are all in cahoots. Unholy cahoots.
I don’t think I want the state to be responsible for my health – or anyone else’s.
He’ll need the saline substitute or the ‘real’ thing will probably kill him.
Now wouldn’t *that* be a turn up for the books?
This short arse needs to be held to account for the months and months of utter lies and BS he spouted..
What a vile human being
Rewarded for lying to the British people; playing his part in wrecking the economy and ruining the lives of millions.
Why am I not surprised?
Poor diddums, obviously his gold-plated, taxpayer funded final salary pension wasn’t enough for him to get by in the standard he’s been used to.
As the reports of SADS, myocarditis, strokes and other serious adverse events and deaths continue to roll in and data analyst experts are censored by the government via the NHS post covid vaxx, one of the men who carried out the evil plot is catapulted to the top. Something is SERIOUSLY wrong.
The Road to the killing fields are paved with impunity & reward
Entirely predictable unfortunately. I hope his conscious is clear but it looks deeply troubling to me.
They may have snapped him up so quickly so they can keep their strangle hold on the truth. Which I mean, what really happened.
He is less likely to be a witness for the prosecution in the ‘fold’ under their employment and control.