Skip to Content

Homosexuals launch a petition with a picture showing Swiss Health Minister Alain Berset with monkeypox. Behind the organization are pharmaceutical companies. Photo: Instagram
Zurich

Pharmaceutical companies behind appeal to Swiss Federal Council for monkeypox vaccines

Because the monkeypox vaccination is not yet available in Switzerland, queer organizations are now collecting signatures to petition the government. Has the Swiss health authority underestimated the situation?

Published: August 2, 2022, 9:34 am

    Read more

    The Swiss queer organization Checkpoint Zurich distributed a picture showing Swiss Health Minister Alain Berset with monkeypox. However, behind the organization are pharmaceutical companies.

    That monkeypox particularly affects men who have sex with men, is denied by Checkpoint Zurich. “Mr. Berset, monkeypox can affect anyone.” The health center for queer people is currently demanding that Alain Berset, the Swiss Minister of Health act because according to them, the situation is serious.

    The World Health Organization declared an international health emergency over the weekend. In the canton of Zurich, 101 cases have been registered; in Switzerland there are 234 cases.

    Checkpoint Zurich has urged the population to send an email to the Swiss Federal Councillor and Health Minister Berset with the following wording:

    “I demand that you get the smallpox vaccine (Imvanex) for Switzerland now. Please make it possible for people who want to be vaccinated to have access to the smallpox vaccine as soon as possible.”

    The implication is that the Federal Health Authority [Bundesamt für Gesundheit] (BAG) has not done enough to prevent the spread of the disease.

    However, the media has not been reporting that Checkpoint Zurich is connected to pharmaceutical companies. The organization is managed in cooperation with the Center for Addiction Medicine ARUD, which in turn has the Swiss Association for the Medical Management in Substance Users (SAMMSU) as a partner. In the years leading up to 2016, SAMMSU was co-funded by pharmaceutical companies Roche, Gilead, and AbbVie, while 2021’s only listed sponsor was ViiV Healthcare.

    ViiV Healthcare turns out to be the front organization of various pharmaceutical companies. It emerged from a partnership between GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Pfizer in 2009. In 2012, the Japanese company Shionogi joined.

    Almost all of the organization’s leadership positions are held by current or former GSK executives. For example, Deborah Waterhouse has been CEO of ViiV Healthcare since 2017 and a member of the Executive Committee of GSK since 2020.

    The required vaccine Imvanex is currently the only monkeypox vaccine approved in the EU. The vaccine has not yet received approval in Switzerland. It is manufactured by the Danish company Bavarian Nordic, which also has offices in Switzerland, in Zug. And Bavarian Nordic cooperated with GlaxoSmithKline until 2019. However, Henrik Juuel, CFO of Bavarian Nordic, made it known that he would be available for contract production.

    There are other connections between the two companies. For example, the CEO of Bavarian Nordic, Gerard van Odijk, was Senior Vice President of GSK Northern Europe until 2005. And the vice president of Bavarian Nordic, Jean-Christophe May was vice president and general manager of GSK Puerto Rico until 2012.

    A search on Researchgate also showed that one of the leading co-authors in scientific studies of the Bavarian Nordic CEO Paul Chaplin is Alfred von Krempelhuber from GSK Germany.

    Pharmaceutical companies are putting pressure on society and the authorities through front organizations in order to steer them in a certain direction – to the taxpayer’s vault.

    Consider donating to support our work

    Help us to produce more articles like this. FreeWestMedia is depending on donations from our readers to keep going. With your help, we expose the mainstream fake news agenda.

    Keep ​your language polite​. Readers from many different countries visit and contribute to Free West Media and we must therefore obey the rules in​,​ for example​, ​Germany. Illegal content will be deleted.

    If you have been approved to post comments without preview from FWM, you are responsible for violation​s​ of​ any​ law. This means that FWM may be forced to cooperate with authorities in a possible crime investigation.

    If your comments are subject to preview ​by FWM, please be patient. We continually review comments but depending on the time of day it can take up to several hours before your comment is reviewed.

    We reserve the right to del​ete​ comments that are offensive, contain slander or foul language, or are irrelevant to the discussion.

    Europe
    Cardinal Anders Arborelius, Bishop of Stockholm, is one of the Catholic bishops who signed the letter, which was read out in churches throughout Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland over the Easter weekend. Photo: The Catholic Church

    Care prompts bishops to criticize transgender ideology

    The Catholic bishops of the Scandinavian countries presented an open five-page letter criticizing transgender ideology on March 21, just before Easter. The document primarily expresses care and advice and was read aloud in Catholic churches in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland. Cardinal Anders Arborelius, Bishop of Stockholm, is one of the signatories of the document.

    FREEZING IN THEIR HOMES is the new grim reality for many Brits and Northern Europeans. Margaret is 92 years old and has just come in from the winter cold, but no warmth awaits her at home. She fears her own home more than the icy streets. Next to her are four thick blankets, and on the shelf above the fireplace, which she can no longer afford to buy wood for, is a meter showing the daily cost of electricity (inset). It shows £1.03, about 13 SEK. When it reaches £3, about 38 SEK, she is forced to turn off the little heat she has to afford it. Still image: ITW News

    Brits Forced to Live in Darkness and Cold

    Food prices are rising at a furious pace, fastest in Scotland in almost half a century. At the same time, energy prices are at record highs. People are forced to choose between freezing or going hungry, and a majority of Scots are forced to live in cold and darkness to cope with bills. Old generations' tricks for saving and keeping warm are returning. Nevertheless, it is feared that 10,000 Brits will die of cold homes this winter. We present the Swedish Public Health Agency's guidelines on indoor temperature. Governments in Europe are introducing rationing and monitoring of food purchases. Net-zero emissions are a lie that, in practice, de-industrializes the West and dramatically lowers our standard of living.

    Thousands of Flemish farmers block roads in Brussels against nitrogen policy

    BrusselsMore than 2500 farmers from Belgium's Dutch-speaking Flanders region gathered at Brussels' central Arts-Loi street and blocked roads with tractors toward Brussels to protest the regional government's plan to limit nitrogen emissions.

    Orban: EU energy sanctions costing citizens billions

    BudapestHungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has warned that some western states could soon send troops to Ukraine. He also criticized the fact that the EU sanctions against Russia had cost Hungarian taxpayers tens of billions of euros.

    Italy: New leader of the Social Democrats is one of Soros’ ‘preferred politicians’

    RomeDuring the election campaign, Elly Schlein presented herself as the standard-bearer of the poorest. However, her background and previous work raise doubts about her honesty.

    UK greenhouses shut down due to high energy costs

    LondonIn Great Britain, a particularly depressing facet of the crisis is now showing its first contours - and thus anticipating what is likely to happen in other European countries in the near future: because of the exploding energy prices, agriculture is being strangled and fresh produce has to be rationed.

    Lisbon opens borders to all Portuguese speakers

    LisbonNot only the German and Italian governments keep opening new paths for immigration. Portugal, too, has opened a Pandora's box and is paving the way for possibly millions of non-European immigrants to the EU – something which is not mentioned by the mainstream media.

    Illegal immigration to Italy has reached its highest level ever

    RomeIn Italy, despite the overwhelming right-wing electoral success in September, there is still nothing to be seen of the promised asylum turnaround – on the contrary. Giorgia Meloni has been in office for five months, but the arrivals of migrants in Italy have doubled compared to the previous year.

    Dismantling diplomacy with ‘feminist foreign policy’

    BudapestGerman Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) wants to counter German security issues abroad with feminist politics. Gender training, LGBTQ events and quotas are now part of their new guidelines, which are intended to bring about "cultural change". The German ambassador to Hungary, Julia Gross, provided an embarrassing example.

    Germans demand investigation of Nord Stream sabotage

    BerlinAfter the sensational revelations by US investigative reporter Seymour Hersh about the perpetrators of the Nord Stream attacks on September 26, 2022, the German government has remained silent. It does not want to comment on Hersh's research results, according to which the pipelines were blown up by Americans and Norwegians.

    Go to archive