Raging across the blogosphere
Her words, not mine.
There has been a veritable blogstorm raging across the blogosphere. Le Canard Noir and Dr Crippen can direct you to many of the relevant links. The Holford Watch list is exhaustive.
I have blogged re measles before here and here. The HPA have been feeding the BBC the figures but I am not sure that the HPA has provided any more information than we already had. However, I must doff my cap to them -their timing has been sublime. Now to the ridiculous…
There is an interesting ethical and social issue at the heart of immunising but of course it always gets drowned out by the shouty arguments.
We get our children immunised but no vaccine is 100% effective so we rely on our neighbours getting their kids vaccinated too. If a majority are in agreement we hit the magic level and the disease is suppressed throughout the community. Overall, our children benefit and, hey presto, we have the slightly agriculturally named ‘herd immunity’. (This seems to have unfortunate resonances with the anti-lobby.) If you are anxious about the side-effects then vaccination can be a little counter-intuitive at first but fortunately intelligence, rationality and cold hard data are there to compensate.
I debated about blogging on this issue because there is already reams of comments on this but when reading them I have to suppress my concern that my children could get measles (because no vaccine is 100%) as a consequence of the actions of Jeni et al. So on the basis of that worrying fact I will add my voice to the clamour.
Ultimately, it can be argued that not getting a vaccine is a selfish decision at a societal level. The parents choose to shield their child from a potential side-effect of the vaccine and place other children (who have been exposed to those potential side-effects) at risk. Autonomy vs Justice. Hmm.
Sadly, Jeni is not really basing her decision on this issue.
And it isn’t really an issue at all because the risks from disease so spectactularly outweigh the risks from vaccine. I won’t go there.
Must go – got an email to Ofcom to write.
May I say how much I enjoyed the Bus illustration of the Jeni Barnett meme?
Yes, the issue of autonomy v. justice is fascinating and I might have been more sympathetic, albeit still convinced of her wrong-headedness on matters of fact, had she been conflicted because of that. But, as you say, she wasn’t.
Ta. Yes, I am inclined to agree and it would be a much more interesting discussion. There ain’t much to suggest she is anything but very ‘ill informed’.
Everyone has picked up on the measles graph for 2008 but I am waiting for the HPA Jan 09 figures with interest. The previous numbers suggested measles might have peaked in London in May 08 and have been declining since then. It was still heading up oop north but I am hoping that will be some kind of lag effect and it will settle v soon. The first couple of months of 2009 may be revealing.
Fingers crossed the net effect of all this will be to push vaccines up and measles down.
Thanks for joining the many bloggers who have come to the aid of Ben Goldacre in getting this nonsense exposed for what it is and not letting lawyers dictate what’s debated and what’s not.
al
Virus vaccines and children with asthma has recently (10 Feb) been reprinted at Medscape (registration needed, then it’s free). It concludes that current evidence does not support a causal relationship between childhood immunisation and development of asthma & atopy.
“Abstract
Purpose of Review: To describe what is currently known about the role of virus vaccines in the pathogenesis of asthma and atopy and summarize their role in the prevention of morbidity due to childhood asthma.
Recent Findings: The development of virus vaccines and their incorporation into infant and childhood immunization programmes over the last few decades of the twentieth century have been accompanied by a striking concomitant rise in the incidence of asthma and atopy. However, a causal relationship is not supported by the majority of observational studies. The role of childhood immunization against respiratory viruses in the reduction of morbidity from asthma is another important public health issue. Recent findings suggest that influenza is not strongly associated with exacerbations of asthma in children, despite recommendations that this group should be immunized against it.
Summary: Current evidence suggests that virus vaccination is well tolerated and does not lead to an increased incidence of asthma or atopy in children receiving vaccines. Debate continues regarding the place of respiratory virus vaccination in the therapeutic armamentarium for children with asthma. In the case of influenza, there appears to be an absence of harm, but benefit seems to be limited to younger children.”