Re: Belief not science is behind flu jab promotion, new report says
Dear Sir,
Peter English should know that vaccine fallibility isn't the main issue for parents.
There are a lot of other vaccines which don't work at all well.
The USA has NEVER used the BCG vaccine, because the USA has always known that using a very poor vaccine isn't worth their time, effort or money.
Yet, the course of TB is the same in USA as it is in developed countries that proclaim to the rooftoops that the BCG vaccine saved everyone from tuberculosis.
Other vaccines have issues for those parents who look beyond the narrow frame of usage advice given which appears to be, "it's the best we have, however bad, and since we don't have any other treatments which we know about, we should use imperfect vaccines to the maximum extent possible."
Parents know that doctors prefer parents to not think, and "just do it". However, for parents who know how to think, Nike’s motto doesn’t work for them.
As Dr Cunningham pointed out, there are very real potential disadvantages to using a flu vaccine if physiologically, it's use is counterproductive in the bigger picture. But I disagree with Alan Cunningham that the flu vaccine is the one vaccine that undermines parent’s “faith”.
Parents who know the medical literature, are wary of many vaccines, as well as the ages at which some of them are administered.
Parents know that there are very significant disadvantages with many other vaccines as well, in the bigger picture. Parents are finding out for themselves from medical literature databases, what those disadvantages are, providing their doctors with medical articles, and ticking off all the vaccines which are not only imperfect, but potentially dangerous in their opinion.
The problem for the medical profession is that they have not yet computed that parents are wising up, educating themselves and their doctors… and that it's no longer possible to persuade parents who realise that the most potent lie isn't something said, but is something that is deliberately left unsaid.
More interesting is the position their doctors are starting to be put in - which is one of realising that they have also had the wool pulled over their eyes. Some have described it as being similar to trying to snooze on barbed wire, which doesn’t sit well with doctors who prefer to make science based decisions rather than political, faith or peer reputation based decisions.
Rapid Response:
Re: Belief not science is behind flu jab promotion, new report says
Dear Sir,
Peter English should know that vaccine fallibility isn't the main issue for parents.
There are a lot of other vaccines which don't work at all well.
The USA has NEVER used the BCG vaccine, because the USA has always known that using a very poor vaccine isn't worth their time, effort or money.
Yet, the course of TB is the same in USA as it is in developed countries that proclaim to the rooftoops that the BCG vaccine saved everyone from tuberculosis.
Other vaccines have issues for those parents who look beyond the narrow frame of usage advice given which appears to be, "it's the best we have, however bad, and since we don't have any other treatments which we know about, we should use imperfect vaccines to the maximum extent possible."
Parents know that doctors prefer parents to not think, and "just do it". However, for parents who know how to think, Nike’s motto doesn’t work for them.
As Dr Cunningham pointed out, there are very real potential disadvantages to using a flu vaccine if physiologically, it's use is counterproductive in the bigger picture. But I disagree with Alan Cunningham that the flu vaccine is the one vaccine that undermines parent’s “faith”.
Parents who know the medical literature, are wary of many vaccines, as well as the ages at which some of them are administered.
Parents know that there are very significant disadvantages with many other vaccines as well, in the bigger picture. Parents are finding out for themselves from medical literature databases, what those disadvantages are, providing their doctors with medical articles, and ticking off all the vaccines which are not only imperfect, but potentially dangerous in their opinion.
The problem for the medical profession is that they have not yet computed that parents are wising up, educating themselves and their doctors… and that it's no longer possible to persuade parents who realise that the most potent lie isn't something said, but is something that is deliberately left unsaid.
More interesting is the position their doctors are starting to be put in - which is one of realising that they have also had the wool pulled over their eyes. Some have described it as being similar to trying to snooze on barbed wire, which doesn’t sit well with doctors who prefer to make science based decisions rather than political, faith or peer reputation based decisions.
Hilary Butler
Competing interests: No competing interests