Thursday, September 3, 2009

Hogging The Headlines #3: Brits Jittery on Jabs

The British Government is warning senior UK neurologists, that the new swine flu jab is linked to a deadly nerve disease - Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), which could be triggered by the vaccine (as I first blogged back in June). GBS causes paralysis, an inability to breathe, and can be fatal. The letter, leaked to The Daily Mail, has raised questions over why the British public has not been told before mass vaccinations begin.
These worries about the vaccine itself follow UK Government concerns about insufficient testing and unknown effects, especially on children. Yet the first wave of immunisation is still on-track for October, when about 13-million Brits will blindly put their faith in a vaccine which has been speed-tracked without due process. Given the potential GBS risk, some UK doctors are asking why there even needs to be a vaccine.
Now, UK watchdog, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, is monitoring reported side effects from Tamiflu... yes, the very same drug guzzled here in NZ in great quantities during the initial rush! Meanwhile Australia begins a mass vaccination of 4-million at-risk patients and health workers this month...
Thankfully, our numbers of reported Swine Flu cases seem to be peaked and, with warmer weather, may be in decline. Maybe we'll see less panic, more common-sense...and hopefully our government will halt the vaccination programme for our health workers (planned for early 2010) until results are in from Britain. After all this doubt, would you want to risk it?
See my next Swine Flu update, 22 Sept.2009...

No comments: