It has for a long time concerned me that we are not routinely giving full information to assist patients in giving informed consent for flu vaccine.
This should in my opinion include a statement about the doubts about efficacy as in Margaret McCartney's review but also should highlight the potential for side effects - flu like illness and feeling unwell - common, but also rare but serious side effects Guillain Barrie Syndrome to name just one. There should also be a conflicting interests statement that highlights the pressures financial and otherwise that Doctors are under to hit targets of flu vaccine coverage and that therefore the advice to have flu vaccination may be subject to bias.
Do the incentives in the Flu Fighter campaign accord with the notion of "freely given consent without duress"? I doubt it
Rapid Response:
It has for a long time concerned me that we are not routinely giving full information to assist patients in giving informed consent for flu vaccine.
This should in my opinion include a statement about the doubts about efficacy as in Margaret McCartney's review but also should highlight the potential for side effects - flu like illness and feeling unwell - common, but also rare but serious side effects Guillain Barrie Syndrome to name just one. There should also be a conflicting interests statement that highlights the pressures financial and otherwise that Doctors are under to hit targets of flu vaccine coverage and that therefore the advice to have flu vaccination may be subject to bias.
Do the incentives in the Flu Fighter campaign accord with the notion of "freely given consent without duress"? I doubt it
Competing interests: No competing interests