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Views & Reviews From the Frontline

Bad medicine: statins

BMJ 2013; 346 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f3566 (Published 31 May 2013) Cite this as: BMJ 2013;346:f3566

Rapid Response:

Re: Bad medicine: statins

Des Spence has quantified the dubious effects of statins, but not of vaccines. Des seems to have accepted the establishment position that vaccines are safe, effective and needed. However, experience has shown that current acceptance is often no guarantee of correctness ... and that many accepted ideas in medical science will eventually be superseded by others that are more accurate.

Jayne Donegan, a London GP and homeopath, said:

"We vaccinate against lots of childhood diseases now because we are told that having the diseases is a bad thing and leads to thousands of deaths. However, when we look at the figures from the Office for National Statistics [1], we see that 95% of the people who used to die from measles stopped dying before the vaccine was introduced in 1968 and similarly 99% of the people who used to die of whooping cough. The mortality rate for tuberculosis fell no differently in countries that did and did not use the BCG vaccine. Scarlet fever, rheumatic fever and typhus were deadly killers. They all disappeared without a vaccine. Why?" [2]

Des Spence has looked at the evidence and seems to have rejected the generally accepted establishment model on statins. Surely, it's time for a paradigm shift on vaccines. What can you tell us, Des?

[1]http://childhealthsafety.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/0707275measleslog.jpg

[2] Are childhood infections a good thing? Dr Jayne LM Donegan MBBS DRCOG DCH DFFP MRCGP MFHom. 2002, revised 2010.
http://bit.ly/10iFZ8Q

Competing interests: Agree that the selling of “statins for all” is bad medicine.

26 June 2013
Mark Struthers
GP and prison doctor
Bedfordshire
mark.struthers@which.net