Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Assignment Paulina Święch
Assignment Paulina Święch
- the headline
- any instances of transitivity, naming, evaluation, attribution
- objectivity; look for any signs of ideological bias.
Please keep your analysis short (400-600 words) and do not forget to include the link to
the story.
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UK swapped to fatal US blood products to save money, minutes suggest | Contaminated blood
scandal | The Guardian
The British government was willing to risk infecting NHS patients to get
“lower-priced” blood products, according to a document that campaigners
claim proves state and corporate guilt in one of the country’s worst ever
scandals.
“lower-priced”: attribution: direct speech
according to: attribution, modality
claim: attribution, indirect speech, modality
A public inquiry into the deaths of an estimated 2,900 people infected with
conditions such as HIV and hepatitis will publish its final report in May,
four decades after the NHS started prescribing blood and blood products –
including from drug users, prisoners and sex workers – sourced from the
US.
Within the thousands of documents disclosed to the inquiry, internal
company minutes have emerged that campaigners say provide the final
compelling piece of evidence of the commercial greed and state negligence
that destroyed thousands of lives.
say: attribution: indirect reporting
The company had concluded there was a “preference” in the UK for the
cheaper US option. The memo of the meeting said: “Kryobulin 2 will be
significantly cheaper than Kryobulin 1 because the British market will
accept a higher risk of hepatitis for a lower-priced product. In the long-
term, Kryobulin 1 will disappear from the British market.”
“preference”: attribution, direct speech
General apologies for the scandal have been made by the government in
recent years but Rishi Sunak has been accused of dragging his feet over
compensation. About 4,500 interim compensation payments of
£100,000 have been made to victims and bereaved partners but that leaves
two-thirds of families without redress.
The prime minister defied calls from the inquiry chair, Sir Brian Langstaff,
last year for a final compensation framework to be set up by the end of 2023
and for payments to be extended to the parents and children of those
infected.
the scandal: evaluation, naming
“What I want from the inquiry is it finally to be on the official record that
what happened was entirely preventable and was motivated by unethical
practices. For decades the line from government was that this was an
unavoidable accident that no one could have possibly have foreseen. No one
did anything wrong. Most importantly, one of the lines they used for
decades was that no one was ever knowingly given infected blood products,
and obviously a document like this just completely blows that statement out
of the water.” attribution: direct speech
Janine Jones, 59, from Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, whose brother Marc
Payton died at the age of 41 in 2003 after being infected with HIV and
hepatitis while a pupil at Treloar College, a boarding school in Hampshire
that specialised in teaching haemophiliacs, said she was relieved that her
parents had died before the new evidence emerged.
She said: “Even though most of us had some sort of inclination that this sort
of stuff was going on, to actually see it in black and white, it’s quite
shocking. And to be honest I’m glad that my parents aren’t alive to witness
that. (attribution, direct speech)
“Both my parents didn’t handle everything that happened to Marc very well.
Mum always blamed herself for giving him haemophilia in the first place
because she was the carrier. Dad was the one that persuaded mum to let
him go to Treloar’s to get him a better education. And to find out that was
actually done while he was actually there, you know, I mean, he went there
when he was 11 years old. So it’s quite barbaric when you think about it,
really. The fact that they were doing that to children.” (attribution, direct
speech)
The public inquiry was ordered by Theresa May in 2017 shortly after a
group litigation was launched in the high court by hundreds of victims of
the scandal, but the legal action has been paused to allow the inquiry, led by
Langstaff, to complete its work.
The public inquiry was ordered by Theresa May: transitivity: passive voice: The
public inquiry (the patient), Theresa May (the agent)
In an interim report last April, Langstaff said it was clear that “wrongs were
done at individual, collective and systemic levels”.
said it was clear that “wrongs were done at individual, collective and systemic levels”:
attribution, direct speech
In France, senior officials went to jail in the 1990s over a similar scandal,
but there has never been a prosecution in the UK.
similar scandal: evaluation, naming and consonance
The former health secretary Andy Burnham told the Commons in 2017 that
he believed there had been a “criminal cover-up on an industrial scale”.
told the Commons in 2017 that he believed there had been a “criminal
cover-up on an industrial scale”: attribution, direct speech
Des Collins, a lawyer representing 1,500 victims and their families, said:
“My view is that the administration at the time in the 80s and early 90s
realised what was happening in France and thought this isn’t going to
happen in this country and pulled up the drawbridge to say ‘nothing to see
here’. I think they were worried about criminal prosecutions. That led to 40
years of denial.”
said: “My view is that the administration at the time in the 80s and early
90s realised what was happening in France and thought this isn’t going to
happen in this country and pulled up the drawbridge to say ‘nothing to see
here’. I think they were worried about criminal prosecutions. That led to 40
years of denial.”: attribution, direct speech
View image in fullscreen
Sir Brian Langstaff, leading the inquiry, said last year that it was clear ‘wrongs
were done at individual, collective and systemic levels’. Photograph: Infected
Blood Inquiry/PA
said last year that it was clear ‘wrongs were done at individual, collective and
systemic levels’: attribution, direct speech
Tony Farrugia, 53, who lost his father, Barry, and two uncles to infections
caused by infected blood products, said he was yet to receive any redress
from the government.
said he was yet to receive any redress from the government: attribution, indirect
speech
Farrugia, who spent his childhood in care as a result of the disaster, said:
“My whole family was destroyed. It is cruel really what the government is
doing in making us wait for their acknowledgment of their part in what
happened.” (attribution, direct speech)
A spokesperson for Takeda said: “We have the greatest sympathy with the
individuals and families who have been impacted by infected blood. We
fully recognise the importance of the inquiry and have cooperated with the
inquiry, aiming to assist in its investigation as far as we are able by trying to
provide historic information in relation to the companies concerned. We
will continue to remain fully engaged with the inquiry.
‘Above all else, Takeda are committed to the safety and quality of our
medicines. We have strict standards and procedures in place, and for
plasma derived therapies specifically this includes rigorous donor selection,
extensive plasma testing and pathogen reduction, all in full compliance with
international regulatory and industry standards.
“It would not be appropriate for us to provide further comment at this time
given the independent inquiry’s work finalising its report remains ongoing,
and we welcome the full report that is due to be published next month.”
(attribution: direct speech)