Vaccine problems always hidden

I WISH to comment on the scandal of vaccine trials in Ireland. I have met victims of these trials – some of them have suffered ill health since they were used for vaccine trials as babies.

Scandals associated with vaccines and vaccine practices in Ireland are inevitable because of the nature of vaccine policy here.

Vaccines, like any other medicine, are sometimes effective and sometimes not; they are sometimes safe and sometimes not. Sometimes they are tested ethically and sufficiently and sometimes they are not.

However the negatives are always kept hidden. Public health campaigns like the recent campaign promoting the H1N1 flu jab present a rosy picture that ignores the full reality and anyone who tries to provide balance is accused of putting lives at risk.

Unfortunately it seems the only way to learn there can be a darker side to immunisation is through personal experience. My son was born healthy and normal, but he was profoundly disabled by a vaccine. I am not anti-vaccine, but I am strongly in favour of full and honest information about vaccines so that a person or, in the case of children, parents can make an informed decision on whether a particular vaccine is right for them or their child. Instead of one-sided pamphlets extolling the wonders of the latest vaccine, people making the decision to jab or not should have accurate information on the positive and the negatives of the vaccine.

As a parent, I am certain that had I known what was in the three-in-one vaccine and the kind of adverse reactions that were being experienced by other babies, I would have refused the jab, opted for a two-in-one vaccine or at least delayed vaccinating until my son’s colic had settled.

Three decades later parents are still being denied this basic and important information. Next month thousands of secondary schoolgirls will be given HPV vaccines. Will the girls and their parents be given the important fact, for example, that this vaccine has a particularly bad safety record?

Kathy Sinnott

Hope Project

‘St Joseph’

Ballinabearna

Ballinhassig

Co Cork