tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
Is the swine flu threat real or not?
08 Mar 10
The latest news on the swine flu campaign really does make one wonder.
Either the threat from swine flu to the under-fives is real ? in which case the campaign to immunise them needs to be continued despite current low uptake ? or the threat is not real, in which case it should stop now.
Should a clinically necessary immunisation campaign really depend on uptake?
If so, why did we continue MMR vaccination when the uptake dropped because of the autism scare?
Dr Mary Hawking
Dunstable, Bedfordshire
http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=39&storycode=4125310&c=1
The lessons to be learned from the pandemic
08 Mar 10
The biggest problem we on the front line have had is that swine flu has only ever been a mild illness.
It never lived up to the apocalyptic chaos originally predicted ? 65,000 deaths, food and infrastructure shortages and so on.
But unfortunately the Government committed itself to 60 million doses of vaccine and a stockpile of Tamiflu due to expire in 2010.
There are two lessons to be learned from all this. First, a ?pandemic? isn?t always
a serious one ? perhaps the old epidemiology definition needs to be restored. And second, if you can?t engage healthcare teams and convince them of the value of vaccination, your stockpiles are going nowhere.
Dr Neil Tallant
Christchurch, Dorset
http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=39&storycode=4125311&c=1
Letter of the Week: Why not stop swine flu vaccine in children now?
08 Mar 10
The decision by the Department of Health to simply abandon the under-fives swine flu vaccination programme begs more questions than it answers (?Government scraps swine flu vaccination campaign for under-fives?).
For a start, why are we supposed to continue to vaccinate children till the end of March? If the DH has carried out a careful cost-risk-benefit analysis and decided it is no longer thought to be necessary why not just stop now? And how do we explain this to confused parents?
I know the decision to stockpile the vaccine had to be made quickly ? and at a time when it was far from clear how serious the pandemic was going to be.
But what?s changed from when the decision was made to vaccinate children to now? Very little it seems.
This latest decision seems to be based on financial expediency rather than clinical judgment. Is adopting the attitude of ?well, if nobody wants it, let?s not bother any more? a reasonable way to run a vaccination campaign?
Dr Margaret Hollings
Cardiff
http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=39&storycode=4125312&c=1
08 Mar 10
The latest news on the swine flu campaign really does make one wonder.
Either the threat from swine flu to the under-fives is real ? in which case the campaign to immunise them needs to be continued despite current low uptake ? or the threat is not real, in which case it should stop now.
Should a clinically necessary immunisation campaign really depend on uptake?
If so, why did we continue MMR vaccination when the uptake dropped because of the autism scare?
Dr Mary Hawking
Dunstable, Bedfordshire
http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=39&storycode=4125310&c=1
The lessons to be learned from the pandemic
08 Mar 10
The biggest problem we on the front line have had is that swine flu has only ever been a mild illness.
It never lived up to the apocalyptic chaos originally predicted ? 65,000 deaths, food and infrastructure shortages and so on.
But unfortunately the Government committed itself to 60 million doses of vaccine and a stockpile of Tamiflu due to expire in 2010.
There are two lessons to be learned from all this. First, a ?pandemic? isn?t always
a serious one ? perhaps the old epidemiology definition needs to be restored. And second, if you can?t engage healthcare teams and convince them of the value of vaccination, your stockpiles are going nowhere.
Dr Neil Tallant
Christchurch, Dorset
http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=39&storycode=4125311&c=1
Letter of the Week: Why not stop swine flu vaccine in children now?
08 Mar 10
The decision by the Department of Health to simply abandon the under-fives swine flu vaccination programme begs more questions than it answers (?Government scraps swine flu vaccination campaign for under-fives?).
For a start, why are we supposed to continue to vaccinate children till the end of March? If the DH has carried out a careful cost-risk-benefit analysis and decided it is no longer thought to be necessary why not just stop now? And how do we explain this to confused parents?
I know the decision to stockpile the vaccine had to be made quickly ? and at a time when it was far from clear how serious the pandemic was going to be.
But what?s changed from when the decision was made to vaccinate children to now? Very little it seems.
This latest decision seems to be based on financial expediency rather than clinical judgment. Is adopting the attitude of ?well, if nobody wants it, let?s not bother any more? a reasonable way to run a vaccination campaign?
Dr Margaret Hollings
Cardiff
http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=39&storycode=4125312&c=1