Despite the hysteria, Government should think twice before rushing to vaccinate

THE hysteria I warned about in respect of bird flu outbreak in Europe has now become all too evident with the government’s intent to begin vaccination with an untried vaccine.

The dangers of vaccinating against flu if the vaccine is not a perfect match for the disease strain have been highlighted by a British horse study. Andrew Park’s team at the Animal Health Trust near Newmarket, Britain, tested vaccines that were either identical or slightly different to a strain of flu infecting ponies.

The ponies given mismatched vaccine were more likely to become infected and to excrete live flu virus, and also stayed infectious longer than ponies with a well-matched vaccine.