My point about infectious disease units was that the deaths and major
sequelae occur there, but there is little fuss because they are sporadic.
In my experience there is relatively little fuss when babies get meningitis,
which they do frequently, and pandemonium when it happens in a school or
university. One would hate to suggest that this is because the middle
classes might get involved in the last two.
PS I have four and they get everything that's going - possibly because I
worked with smallpox, diphtheria and tetanus in Bangladesh in the 1970s.
Norman Vetter
Department of Epidemiology & Public Health
UWCM
Heath Park
Cardiff CF4 4XN
44 (0)29 20744196
Home Page: www.vetter.bizland.com/
SSMs Page: www.uwcm.ac.uk/study/medicine/ssm/
Dept Page: www.uwcm.ac.uk/study/medicine/epidemiology/
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike McDowall" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 23 January 2001 10:32
Subject: Re: MMR
> As a concerned, non-clinical, parent I am finding this discussion
> very enlightening.
>
> Norman Vetter suggests that there is a parallel with Meningitis C
> and that 'people need to know more about what goes on day by
> day in infectious disease units'. Possibly - but aren't infectious
> disease units totally unrepresentative ? What really happens in the
> general population ?
>
> Meningitis C appears, to me as a lay person, to kill a significant
> proportion of otherwise healthy people at a time in life when their
> resistance to illness related mortality should be near it's peak.
> Measles, mumps, rubella don't have the same pattern. As a child it
> was viewed as a good thing when I got measles, mumps, rubella
> and chickenpox. I was building up immunity. Risk was seen as
> negligible - in an otherwise healthy child. In this context Judi's
> comments are particularly interesting. Introduction of vaccination
> shows no appreciable effect on long term trends ? Rather different
> from preliminary results from Meningitis C vaccination.
>
> Of course, the media may be distorting the picture unfairly. We
> hear widely publicised rumours of autism and other side effects of
> MMR, but none of any side effects of Meningitis C. Is this accurate
> ?
>
> There is another difference. The government is refusing to accept
> separate vaccinations. Why ? To save resources. So children have
> to be challenged with three separate agents simultaneously. That
> goes against all my common sense. If a child got sick with all
> three simultaneously, there would be cause for serious concern.
>
> Maybe vaccination has a place. I don't find the propaganda
> convincing. In fact I suspect that the louder the shouting, the more
> is being hidden. Yeah, BSE is worth remembering. I am a farmer
> too, and I didn't believe the government from the day I first learned
> of BSE and I don't now. Especially after the government reaction to
> the BSE enquiry report. 'We may be responsible but accountable ?
> Stuff you !' Just two weeks ago Farmers Weekly reported that the
> studies done on milk safety may be flawed. Now we are hearing
> that studies done on MMR safety may be flawed. Time for an
> independent audit ?
>
> Lastly, Judi's comments remind me of the recent discussion about
> new suspicions emerging about the long term health effects of
> protecting children from immune challenges, summarised for
> instance in the BMJ late last year. Hopefully we will soon have
> more complete evidence on the wider picture, rather than
> arguments being too focussed on immediate effects.
>
> Mike.
>
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