I trust the NHS a lot more than a private company who makes a profit out of my health.

IIRC Smallpox is effectively eradicated; last ‘wild’ outbreak was in the early Seventies, and there have been no cases at all in >30 years.

I think I’d rather take the WHO’s word for it, on the whole 😛

IIRC the Spain was suspected to be a ‘bad’ batch, have you banned her from eating chicken in case it’s got Campylobacter, Salmonella, Shigella, E. coli O157:H7, Listeria, or botulism in it, because the vaccine will have been a lot more thoroughly prepared than anything served in a restaurant (or at home). Japan didn’t withdraw it, just suspended mass vaccination (you can still ask for it) but the symptoms weren’t any more severe than the TB jab (numbness, soreness etc arround the injection).

*Bangs head on wall* ‘mercury’ was removed from vaccines for one reason, and one reason only. People didn’t like the word mercury. The form it was used in was completely, unequivocally and utterly inert. Unfortunately anti vaccine campaigners have siezed on it as a victory over the government/pharmaceutical companies trying to poision them.

Please do proper research, not Google. Read scientific papers, and work out for yourself the risk you’re taking.

Reading scientific papers and knowing you’ve looked at a balanced sample of papers and understood them appropriately is not necessarily a good idea without a reasonably good understanding of medicine, science and statistics.
There’s an advert doing the rounds on Facebook that says “FACT- cancer is a fungus”, and from reading the comments attached to it, I am horrified at the number of people who believe that to be true and when challenged they tell you they’ve “done a lot of research and are well informed”.

As for “natural treatments” some of them are toxic, for example butterbur was banned because it causes liver toxicity. “Natural” does not necessarily mean ‘safe and effective’. Also, many pharmaceuticals are based on natural substances, so distinguishing the 2 isn’t so simple.

You don’t seriously think Ben Goldacre would bite the hand that feeds him?

A number of people on here are keasea and I claim multiple £5s!

Ben Goldacre is pretty wideranging in the hands he bites and is really happy to explain and justify his reasoning. I would trust him over the “truther girls” and the opinion piece in the new scientist linked above which was pretty comprehensively rebutted in the comments section .

OP you do need to be confident in your decision talk to your GP and read the NHS information .

I have avoided flu jab but one of colleague is addicted to it so demands getting one every year. Coz it’s free according to him … 🙄

I can assure you, having just read Bad Pharma and Bad Science, that at no point in either does he profess to hate the pharma industry.

It’s good; perhaps you should.

And, such as?

theflatboy – I have read large excerpts from that book and I have also read Bad Science twice. I am not defending the pharmaceutical industry, and I am sure that not all big pharma companies are totally inncocent of bad practice. However, what I cannot tolerate is people like Ben Goldacre making sweeping statements, giving the impression that everything he claims is fact and applies to all medicines developed in all pharmaceutical companies. Take Chapter 11 of Bad Science where he suggests that pharmaceutical companies are all out there manipulating their statistical analyses inappropriately to rig the results. I can’t claim that has never happened any more than he can claim that it happens frequently, or most of the time.
I am unusual in experiencing particularly bad side effects from almost all medicines that I have ever been prescribed, but that doesn’t mean I can’t see that many medications make a big differece to people’s lives and they haven’t all been developed by evil people.

Don’t decide not to let your daughter have the HPV vaccine on the strength of what you found on Google. Or if you are swayed by Google then include this blog by a cancer surgeon who gets very angry the antivaccine conspiracy theorists (amongst others): http://scienceblogs.com/?s=Hpv

Because of the vaccine future cases of cervical cancer could be much reduced but not if people don’t have it. Don’t forget that it’s vaccination that eradicated polio, diphtheria and has almost eradicated tetanus in the UK, amongst others, and it’s a tragedy that a combination of anti-Western propaganda and Western anti-vaccination groups have prevented the WHO from achieving the aim of eradicating polio worldwide (it’s endemic in Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan). We’ve forgotten how awful these communicable diseases are but if you need a reminder about polio you could do worse than listen to the samples here http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-body-blow-mw0000243699.

Ah yes the natural treatments. Over the years I’ve picked up several people taking natural treatments and giving their kids natural treatment, “We don’t believe in medicines” is the common phrase they use.

“Well I can make that severe pain you’re in go away in seconds are you can suffer in pain, the choice is yours but I do have a duty of care to look after you which will it be?”

Funny they all decide to take the pain relief.

“I’ve tried homeopathic medicines but he’s not got any better”

“Has he got worse or has his breathing been this bad for the last few days and have managed to control his temp?”

“No, he’s got worse the last few hours and his temp has been getting higher”

“Well it’s your child and your choice but I do have a duty of care for this child, I can make him well by given him a few simple meds or I can document you choice to refuse you sign it and we continue to leave him untreat”

“Oooh he is much better what did you say you gave him again”

“Calpol”

that doesn’t mean I can’t see that many medications make a big differece to people’s lives and they haven’t all been developed by evil people.

That sentiment is basically continually flagged up through the entirety of Bad Pharma (and the relevant parts of Bad Science). You really should read it.

This is worth a watch
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01f51s5 – Pain Puss & Poison and the evolution of modern healthcare.

Interestingly, I’ve found a Ben Goldacre blog about the Express’s reporting on cervical cancer vaccines –

http://www.badscience.net/2009/10/jabs-as-bad-as-the-cancer/#more-1374

And it seems to me that, while he is critical of the coverage (and explains why), he makes no sweeping statements about the medical industry as a whole. I must say (and not to labour the point) that I have read Bad Science, and I remember it as being very evidence-led and singularly lacking in sweeping statements. I’ll give it another go, though – it’s a good book.

I am a cancer researcher and remember seeing the original HPV story unfold – you should see what it does to monkeys 8O.
A friend, and mother to three children the same age as ours, has just had major surgery to remove a cervical cancer that wasn’t detected by regular screening. It’s not something to take lightly.
No surprise then that my daughter will have it, and if possible, my son will as well.