Vaccine opponents should declare their interest

KATHY Sinnott (Letters, September 6) calls for the HPV vaccine Gardasil to be withheld from all parents and children pending what she calls “an honest debate”.

This is after her very one-sided argument deriding any benefits, castigating the suppliers and the HSE, and further hyping the scare stories about the vaccine. By all means let’s continue the “honest debate”, but why not let educated people make up their own minds while the debate continues.

And if the debate is really honest, then interested parties should make clear their own vested interests before making their argument. While it may be fair game for certain parties to point out that drugs companies invest in creating new products in order to make profits (isn’t that what any successful company does?), those who have religious reasons to oppose any HPV vaccine, no matter how perfect or not, should declare their interests as well.