More Vaccine Hysteria

My editorial comment from today: 

Some mixed news this week on the flu vaccine front. The good news is that we seem to be on track for a mid-November availability of an H1N1 vaccine. There is also good news about the vaccine itself: the U-S National Institutes of Health says in clinical trials the vaccine acts just like the seasonal flu vaccine. That means kids over 10 will need only a single shot. One Canadian expert says our own vaccine might be even better because it contains a boosting additive. The bad news is the pending availability of the vaccine has given a new platform to the anti-vaccine movement. A news article this week suggests the H1N1 vaccine has "given a new life to the ongoing debate about whether vaccines cause autism". The fact is, there is no legitimate debate, because the evidence shows overwhelmingly that vaccines do not cause autism. Yet the same people claiming a link exists are now, it seems, the same ones spreading fear over the H1N1 vaccine We should demand evidence supporting the eiffcacy of any medical treatment, including vaccines and including this one in partcular. As Canada's chief public health officer says - get the facts. As the track record would indicate, facts are not a prominent feature of the anti-vaccine movement. We in the media should also be cautious about who we seek out to help bring you those facts.

You can read more here on the clinical trials of the vaccine. More in this story on the benefits of flu shots.

 

 This is the story I was referencing in the editorial: 

The much-anticipated H1N1 vaccine has given new life to an ongoing debate about whether vaccinations in children can cause autism, a discussion that will likely heat up as Canada and other countries move closer to releasing the new vaccine.

From one side of the debate come assurances that vaccines are safe and there is no conclusive link to autism; from the other, warnings that there is a relationship and parents should think twice about giving shots to their children.

Canada's chief public health officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones, has repeatedly sid that vaccines have a long history of being safe and effective.

 

It's a rather strange story, since the vaccines-cause-autism crowd are usually referring to the MMR vaccine, not the flu vaccine, so it's unclear as to why this story is drawing a link.

 

More at this blog here, here, and here on the evidence against vaccines causing autism. There's also some new research out of the UK reinforcing the point.

 

As for the H1N1 vaccine, it's obviously a new vaccine, so as I mention above there is a need for vigilance. The fearmongering, though, has begun in earnest. For more on that see here, here, here, and here.

 

UPDATE: A great piece on vaccine courtesy of Dr. Harriet Hall: 

Some people just plain hate the idea of vaccines — to the point that they are willing to spread old falsehoods, make up new lies, distort the results of studies, misrepresent statistics, and endanger our public health. There are websites like “Operation Fax to Stop the Vax” and even anti-swine-flu-vaccine rap videos. Press releases, e-mail campaigns, talk shows, and blogs are being used to stir up irrational fears. These people are irresponsible fearmongers. They are wrong, and they are dangerous.

 Read the whole thing.