On the Morning of Roy Butler’s Funeral
Speculation, 'misinformation' and Public Relations
On the morning of Roy Butler’s funeral, social media was rife with speculation as to what caused his sudden death. The promising young footballer, star of Villa FC and Waterford United, received a covid 19 vaccine five days before he died.
Roy (23) did not want to take a vaccine, his health and fitness was paramount to him. But government imposed covid restrictions prevented his access to the gym.
In the days leading up to his death, Roy shared multiple texts among friends and family, clearly stating his opposition to taking the vaccine.
The Janssen shot had become known colloquially in Ireland as the ‘clot shot’. People were talking amongst themselves and sharing information online, despite a massive media campaign to demonise those with questions regarding vaccine safety.
World Health Organisation (WHO) Director Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus helped fuel this fire.
“I think it’s time to be more aggressive in pushing back on anti-vaxxers,” he said.
Would Ghebreyesus have described Roy Butler as an ‘anti-vaxxer?’
Would the Irish media put this label on Roy?
The fall out of this wretched campaign continues to thwart efforts by individuals and families seeking justice in the Irish legal system today. Doctors, lawyers, medical experts and journalists appear to operate under a strict unwritten code:
“Thou shalt not question covid vaccine safety.”
On the morning of Roy Butler’s funeral, while the family prepared to say goodbye to their beloved son and baby brother, Roy’s name was trending on Twitter.
The agency with responsibility for ensuring quality and safety of medicines and vaccines in Ireland is the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA.)
The HPRA employs a public relations firm, Kano Communications.
On the morning of Roy Butler’s funeral, this Substack contacted Kano Communications, seeking clarification on the situation.
The time was 10.49am, on Saturday, August 21st, 2021.
The email asked the following questions:
Can the HPRA clarify whether or not there is a safety issue regarding C19 vaccines?
Has the HPRA received notification of any autopsy results, preliminary or otherwise, that connect this man's death to a Covid 19 vaccine?
Given the difficulty this speculation places on a grieving family, today on the day of his funeral, it is important this issue is clarified.
If the young man's death is related to the vaccine, obviously this is an urgent public health issue given the ongoing vaccination roll out.
I note a news report this morning that AZ and Jannsen vaccines have been withdrawn from use, is this true? And if so, why?
Is there a safety issue related to their use?
Within fifteen minutes of that email, the Director of the firm returned my call. This dear reader, is highly unusual.
Kano Communications Managing Director, Siobhan Molloy identified herself on the phone and informed this reporter that she was in fact, on holiday. The conversation was short. I set out the reasoning for my query, a young man was dead, his death was being linked to his covid 19 vaccine, the void of information was fuelling speculation. This was a potential public health issue of major importance.
Molloy’s response was to accuse this reporter of disingenuous motives, instruct me to ‘calm down’ and end the phone call abruptly.
It was this unusual and unprofessional response from a seasoned communications company director that lead me to conclude that something had gone very wrong. In clinical terms, a death within five days of the administration of any vaccine is considered a ‘close temporal association,’ and as such, would require investigation by a coroner. In response to Molloy’s refusal to attempt to clarify the situation, this reporter contacted the relevant pathologist and Coroner, to notify both of ongoing efforts to investigate covid vaccine safety. Given the possibility of a serious public health risk playing out in an environment of heavy censorship by health authorities, government ministers, NPHET members, politicians, and the media, I then contacted Gardai.
Five months on from the date of Roy Butler’s funeral, the Sunday Business Post published an interview with Kano Communications’ Siobhan Molloy under the headline:
“The art of getting in front of a crisis.”
The article celebrated Molloy’s great skill and experience in her handling ‘the messaging around one of the largest product recalls in the history of the state.’ The crisis topic was Irish pork, found to be contaminated with elevated levels of dioxins, an environmental pollutant. The year was 2008. The article informed readers that while levels of dioxins found in Irish pork were ‘not so high that they posed an immediate risk to the health of consumers, they were between 80 and 200 times the levels allowed under EU law.’
Molloy explained in the interview, that ‘every pork product was coming off the shelves.’
“Everyone woke up to warnings on the radio. Morning Ireland, I remember, did a special on it, as every pork product was coming off the shelves. It was the easiest, cleanest, safest way to handle it,” she said.
On the morning of Roy Butler’s funeral, there was no mention on RTE, or any media outlet, of the word ‘recall’ in relation to the Janssen vaccine.
The article noted that Molloy subsequently ‘worked closely with the Food Safety Authority of Ireland to manage the communication of the discovery of horse and pig DNA in Irish beef products in 2013.’
And more recently,
“she has aided the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) with monitoring the approval of Covid-19 vaccines and communicating any possible side effects or safety concerns (“of which there were not many”) to the public.”
“Not many” is PR speak for more than 20,000 reports of suspected side effects notified to the HPRA at the time of the publication of that interview.
In the article Molloy continued:
“Our world today is very volatile and communication moves fast. During a crisis, it’s all about trust and confidence. If you’re not clearly communicating and providing the necessary information, you will fail, and there will be a vacuum,” Molloy is quoted as saying.
The next couple of sentences are illuminating.
According to Molloy, one of the worst things that a brand can do during a crisis situation is fail to issue any kind of response.
“You need to think about what is the worst thing that could happen, and then plan for it,” she said.
“Misinformation can, when unchallenged, become reality,” Molloy said.
Was the death of a healthy young man with so much potential, five days after inoculation with a product only available through Emergency Use Authorisation (ie not fully tested) an example of ‘the worst thing that could happen’?
The HPRA and it’s communications team were in a quandary. By the fact of Roy Butler’s death, the fact of a temporal association of five days, by the fact he was previously healthy, the fact he did not want to take a vaccine but was mandated to do so in order to engage in ordinary activities such as frequenting the gym.
The HPRA and the state were plunged further into crisis due to fact that Roy Butler’s death had triggered the involvement of a highly qualified Assistant State Pathologist (Dr Margaret Bolster) and experienced independent Coroner (Mr Philip Comyn), whose investigations were now underway. The situation was further complicated by an adverse reaction report filed in connection to this young man’s sudden death.
On the morning of Roy Butler’s funeral, an article was published in the Irish Examiner and the Irish Times in which the HSE confirmed use of the Janssen vaccine would ‘soon cease.’
The article opened with this line:
“Pharmacists working in mass vaccination centres have claimed unused Janssen vaccines are going to waste.”
It continued:
“The HSE will soon stop using this vaccine following extra deliveries of the Pfizer vaccine, which is the preferred option for younger people.”
The article described pharmacists as ‘horrified’ that Janssen vaccines were ‘going to waste.’
"It is very disheartening now that the national policy is to simply stop using some Covid-19 vaccines and waste them," the pharmacists were quoted as saying.
A few weeks prior, in July 2021, this reporter put the following query to the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland (PSI):
Can the PSI provide the information being supplied to pharmacies regarding informed consent for individuals seeking a Covid 19 vaccine in pharmacies?
What data is being used to inform individuals regarding the risks/ benefits of the vaccine?
I am concerned by comments by Prof Karina Butler of NIAC, who stated at last week's NPHET briefing that the risk of thrombosis from the Janssen vaccine is one in 50,000.
The Janssen patient safety leaflet stated that the risk of thrombosis is one in 10,000.
How does the PSI ensure that individuals are receiving informed consent from pharmacists/ in pharmacy settings?
The response:
"The PSI is not involved in the detailed management of the vaccination programme in pharmacies and operational details are the responsibility of the HSE. The PSI also has no role in relation to the specific vaccines and any risk factors provided for in patient information leaflets, this is a matter for the Health Products Regulatory Authority."
Meanwhile, also in July 2021, the HSE through a private contract with media company Kinzen, had classified social media posts linking Janssen C19 vaccine to blood clots as 'misinformation.'
In the days following Roy Butler’s funeral the Janssen vaccine was quietly withdrawn from use. Tomorrow, an inquest into his death opens in Cork. Whether any HPRA representative attends the hearing remains to be seen.
At the end of November 2022, there were more than 300 deaths associated with the Janssen vaccine listed in a safety information document published by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) which was linked on the HPRA website. Under the same link, the document below is currently available. At 35 pages in length, it tracks multiple safety changes made to the information available on the Janssen shot post Emergency Use Authorisation. This information is provided by the pharmaceutical company and published by the EMA.
JCOVDEN Procedural steps taken and scientific information after the authorisation
Across each page the stretch the words “Medicinal product no longer authorised.”
The following are examples of safety updates outlined in this document:
April 15 2021 : Notification of ‘slightly different composition’ the removal of Trisodium citrate dihydrate
April 21 2021: A new warning on thrombocytopenia and coagulation disorder is added and the adverse reaction: thrombosis in combination with thrombocytopenia is introduced with a frequency: “very rare” (<1/10 000)
May 7 2021: Leg pain, seizures and mental status changes added as symptoms for thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, as well as the need to actively investigate for sign of thrombosis individuals diagnosed with thrombocytopenia within 3 weeks after vaccination with COVID-19 Vaccine Janssen
July 7 2021: Thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) is included in the list of the safety concerns as an important identified risk. A DHPC (direct healthcare professional communication) issued to alert health care professionals to the signs and symptoms of thromboembolism and/or thrombocytopenia. This letter also communicates the new contraindication of this vaccine in individuals who have previously experienced episodes of Capillary Leak Syndrome (CLS)
July 22 2021: A warning is added in 4.4 of the SmPC regarding the possibility of presenting a Guillain -Barré Syndrome (GBS) after the administration of Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine
September 2 2021: Update of section 4.8 of the SmPC in order to include diarrhoea and paraesthesia as adverse drug reactions (ADRs) with frequency uncommon; and hypoesthesia, lymphadenopathy, vomiting and tinnitus as ADRs with frequency rare as requested by PRAC from post authorisation measures MEA 014.2 and MEA 014.3
September 30 2021: A new warning on thrombocytopenia (ITP), and to add dizziness and ITP to the list of adverse drug reactions with frequencies uncommon and not known, respectively. Based on a cumulative review of post-marketing data on anxiety related reactions, including dizziness, it was concluded there was a reasonable possibility to consider dizziness as causally related to the COVID-19 vaccine Janssen
October 8 2021 :To include Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) as Adverse Drug Reaction
On the night before his death, Roy suffered seizures, vomiting and convulsions. He was taken by ambulance to Waterford General Hospital. He was placed in an induced coma and transferred to Cork University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead the following day, August 17 2021.
He suffered a catastrophic bleed to the brain.
The Butler family is now facing a David and Goliath battle as they attempt to prove a medical link between Roy’s death and his Janssen shot. The information published above, containing multiple safety updates following the release of the vaccine marketed by the media as ‘safe and effective’ prior to its withdrawal, is surely evidence enough to tip the balance of probabilities towards the conclusion that this injection may have cost Roy his life. His risk of death from Covid on the other hand, was negligible.
***
Readers of this Substack will be familiar with the autopsy protocols of German Pathologist, Prof Arne Burkhardt. This is the only method known to this reporter whereby damage caused by a covid vaccine can be identified at autopsy. In his final interview before his death, the Professor warned of the risk of such complications:
“Damage to the elastic fibers after C19 injection can lead to several complications. In some cases, the small lesions may heal. But in other cases, in which the elastic fibers cannot be replaced (once the patient is an adult), it can leave a scar. If there is a scar, the artery loses its elasticity and so the rise in the blood pressure during the contraction of the heart is very high and it goes up and down repeatedly. Given that the brain arteries are the most sensitive, it may lead to rupture and cause death by cerebral bleeding.
“My fear is that someone who has this scar in his (brain) artery, maybe he will die in five years from cerebral bleeding, but nobody will associate this with the vaccination.”
Dr. Burkhardt suggests that there may be a high number of cases in which no one will see a connection with the vaccination although it is probable, according to journalist Taylor Hudak, who conducted the interview.
Here’s a short synopsis of the autopsy protocols, which can be applied to autopsy tissue samples. The service is currently commercially available in Germany.
“Using state-of-the-art immunohistological technology, the German pathologists detected vaccine-induced spike protein in the endothelium (inner lining) of blood vessels up to at least four months after vaccination. They also found that the spike protein triggered local inflammation and lymphocyte (immune cell) infiltration that caused endothelial damage (endotheliitis) in blood vessels of the heart, lungs, brain, spleen, liver and other organs.”
Read more about the protocols here
Watch Dr Burkhardt’s final interview here
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Thanks Louise, this is what journalism should look like. The tragedy of this young man's death is examined with compassion, but with a forensic scrutiny of the facts, and a holding to account of those who have many questions to answer. It's so sad that Substack and the like are the only place such conversations can happen. I hope none of your readers are paying for RTE or other legacy media outlets.
The whole thing around this poor young man stinks of corruption and lies. Well done on your very thorough investigations. You are a great journalist.