Public health institute takes anti-flu jab doctor to court

The public health institute RIVM and its director of infectious disease control Roel Coutinho are taking a family doctor to court for questioning Coutinho’s ‘integrity and independence’, Trouw reports on Monday.


The doctor, Hans van der Linde, wrote an article in Trouw last month doubting the need for the annual anti-flu vaccination after a report in a medical journal said there is no evidence that it works on elderly and at-risk patients.
Coutinho is in charge of the flu prevention programme but has also been recently appointed a professor at Utrecht University where he works on projects partly funded by MSD and GlaxoSmithKline, which make the vaccines.
Conflict of interest
Van der Linde said he believes this is a conflict of interest. And although this is acceptable up to a certain level, the boundaries had become increasingly vague over the past 30 years, he said.
‘This is partly due to advisors who work with vaccinations, like Ab Osterhaus or Roel Coutinho who, as academics, do a lot of work for the industry,’ the doctor wrote.
Van der Linde later repeated his criticism on radio and refused to retract the statements, prompting a lawsuit. His statements could have ‘serious social or during an environmental disaster,’ Coutinho said.
Ab Osterhaus, the government’s chief virologist, came under fire in 2009 because of his shareholding in a company working on flu vaccines and his other drugs company links.
It is not clear from the Trouw report when the court case will begin, but the paper says Coutinho has opted for a slower procedure than a simple injuction, which may take years to complete.

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