(NaturalNews) It looks like there's more trouble in Vaccineland, as UK-based jab giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has been exposed for peddling a swine flu vaccine that caused brain damage in potentially thousands of children. But rather than be held responsible, GSK is actually billing the UK government the equivalent of about $92 million to pay for damages, which means taxpayers are footing the bill.

Reports indicate that dozens of Pandemrix victims from the UK will be awarded about $1.5 million each in British pounds for permanent health damage caused by GSK's Pandemrix vaccine. One in 16,000 people who took the vaccine, it turns out, are said to have developed narcolepsy and/or cataplexy, two neurological diseases that disrupt normal sleep patterns and muscle function.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) describes narcolepsy as "a chronic neurological disorder caused by the brain's inability to regulate sleep-wake cycles normally." The agency also admits that Pandemrix, which was widely administered during the manufactured 2009 swine flu "pandemic," increases one's risk of developing narcolepsy.

During the 2009/10 swine flu outbreak, some 60 million people received the Pandemrix jab. Based on a risk of one in 16,000, this suggests that nearly 4,000 people have likely developed one of the neurological diseases, with many more cases expected to emerge in the coming months. If each case is paid out at the roughly $1.5 million rate, taxpayers could be forced to shell out upwards of $5.6 billion in damages.

"There has never been a case like this before," stated Peter Todd, a lawyer representing many of the claimants, to the Sunday Times (as quoted by the International Business Times). "The victims of this vaccine have an incurable and lifelong condition and will require extensive medication."

GSK refused to supply governments with Pandemrix vaccines unless first granted total immunity from liability

Throughout Europe, where Pandemrix was primarily administered -- no Pandemrix vaccines were administered in the U.S., as the vaccine was never licensed and approved for use there -- there have been about 800 reported cases of injuries from the vaccine in children. Besides inducing sleep randomly, narcolepsy damages mental function and memory, and can lead to hallucinations and mental illness.

Similarly, cataplexy causes sufferers to suddenly lose consciousness during times when they're experiencing heightened levels of emotion, including when they're laughing. The condition is said to be incurable, and sufferers are constantly at risk of having "sleep attacks," including when they're working, driving, operating heavy machinery or performing other tasks that require one's full attention.

What many of the people who took the Pandemrix vaccine probably didn't realize, however, as they lined up like herded sheep to get jabbed is that GSK refused to supply the vaccine to governments without first being indemnified against any damage claims. The $92-or-so million now being shelled out, in other words, isn't actually coming out of its own profits.

According to the International Business Times, GSK will, in fact, have to pay the bill as required for damages caused by its Pandemrix vaccine. But it will then claim the money back from the government, meaning taxpayers in the various countries where Pandemrix was administered will end up footing the bill for their own injuries.

"There's no doubt in my mind whatsoever that Pandemrix increased the occurrence of narcolepsy onset in children in some countries - and probably in most countries," stated Emmanuelle Mignot, a specialist in sleep disorders at Stanford University, to Reuters.

Mignot, it turns out, was actually paid by GSK to investigate the effects of Pandemrix, and even he came to the conclusion that the vaccine is dangerous and can cause permanent neurological damage in some people.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk

http://www.cdc.gov