Another inexplicable FOIA request response

There are no authorities - only the illusion of such...

Recently, a concerned medical professional FOIA’d (my new favorite verb) the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (RCOG) in order to find out some information pertaining to safety in pregnancy in the context of the COVID-19 injections. The RCOG are about as serious as you can get. I think. Or I thought. They have a beautiful website where they cite ways in which pregnant women can stay ‘healthy’ during the COVID-19 pandemic and stress the importance of ‘listening to patients’. They even use convincing imagery (good PR rep right there) in the form of a pregnant woman in a mask getting injected by a person in a white coat. Latex gloves no less! He’s pinching, by the way. Not supposed to do that. It makes it more likely that the injected material will get into fat layers and not muscle tissue.¹ Maybe that would lead to a ‘better outcome’? Speculation there.

Coronavirus (COVID-19), pregnancy and women’s healthtion - photo from RCOG website.

We have developed a range of information for healthcare professionals and pregnant women about COVID-19 vaccination.

All pregnant women will be offered COVID-19 vaccination when their age group is called.

Guidance for healthcare professionals on vaccination in pregnancy can be found within the updated guidance on coronavirus (COVID-19) infection in pregnancy.

So they do claim to be an authority and provide “updated guidance on coronavirus (COVID-19) infection in pregnancy”. They have a movie and 2 pdfs that you can download. One is Information for Healthcare Professionals entitled “Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection in Pregnancy” and is a whopping 156 pages (complete with references with a section on “Vaccines”). Another is a 6 page co-sponsored advice card entitled “Information sheet and decision aid: Updated Monday 20 December 2021”. They have information regarding fertiliy, breast-feeding and teratology.

They also have a place you can go to report an Adverse Event if you were pregnant and injection before March 31, 2021. I beg your pardon? Why?

So clearly the Royal College of Gynes and Obstees provide plenty of information and guidance on the subject of pregnancy in both the context of COVID-19 and the injections.

What if a gynecologist, who regularly advises women of child-bearing age and pregnant women alike, wanted to have access to the ‘data containing pregnancy outcomes’ or ‘animal study data’ or any safety data at all, solely for the purposes of being up-to-date and capable of answering intelligent and legitimate potential concerns of safety of these brand new experimental injections against COVID-19 posed by their patients? What would happen in that case. Let’s find out!

My very smart friend sent me a copy of the response from the RCOG to a request for these and other items. Hang onto your hats people. This is a loo-loo.

I’d like an answer to the following question in red and at least questions 2 and 4 above. How about you?

To honor completeness, my colleague gave me this definition:

A "public authority" is defined under FOIA law as "Public authorities include government departments, local authorities, the NHS, state schools and police forces. However, the Act does not necessarily cover every organization that receives public money. For example, it does not cover some charities that receive grants and certain private sector organizations that perform public functions.

So I guess, RCOG get off on a technicality.

1. Polania Gutierrez JJ, Munakomi S. Intramuscular Injection. [Updated 2022 Feb 9]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2022 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK556121/