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“Protecting the health and informed consent rights of
children since 1982.”
This article appeared in The Varsity which is the
newspaper for the University of Toronto.
http://www.collegepublisher.com/thevarsity/main.cfm/include/detail/storyid/165592.html
The Varsity - News
Issue: 01/17/02
On second thought...
By Kaisa Walker
The disturbing images of the Ontario government’s “Let’s
Beat the Flu” ad campaign confront TTC riders with a startling plea get the flu
shot, or risk infecting loved ones with a potentially deadly disease.
The ads tell riders the flu can lead to pneumonia, kidney
failure and even heart failure in the elderly, children and the chronically
ill.
What the ads don’t say is that some experts worry that flu
shots could have startling long-term health effects. They say widespread
vaccination could prevent people from developing natural immunities and end up
making us a vaccine-dependent culture.
Meanwhile, others worry the issue isn’t public heath it’s
public relations.
And expensive public relations at that.
Critics like the Ontario Health Coalition say the $44
million universal vaccination plan the only of its kind in North America is a
half-hearted attempt by the government to look like it is working to remedy
emergency room overcrowding.
The Ministry of Health and Long Term Care says the vaccine
wards off the flu for 70 to 90 per cent of healthy adults. In the elderly, the
flu shot can prevent pneumonia and hospitalization in six out of 10 people, and
prevent death in eight out of 10 cases.
But Barbara Loe Fisher, president of the US-based National
Vaccine Information Center, has doubts about the flu vaccine’s reliability. She
says that since experts formulate the vaccine based on predictions of which strains
will be prevalent during a given season, there is no guarantee that a person
will not get the flu.
“Sometimes they guess right, sometimes they don’t guess
right,” said Fisher.
Fisher believes vaccinating healthy young people against
the flu instead of allowing them to recover naturally from the virus could lead
to long-term health problems. The flu shot’s protective effects last only six
months, requiring re-vaccination at the start of every flu season. But if
someone catches a strain of the flu and recovers from it they will develop an immunity
which will stop them from getting it again.
“When more people have been exposed to the flu shot as
opposed to the disease, you have fewer and fewer people who have any kind of
permanent immunity to any strains of flu,” said Fisher.
“We become basically vaccine-dependent.”
The Ontario Health Coalition says the shot is being
marketed too broadly, and argues that a campaign targeted at high-risk
individuals would cost less and be just as effective. But spokesperson Natalie
Mehra says the Harris government may be more concerned with public relations
than with public health.
“It’s so massive it bespeaks something other than just flu
shots,” she said. “If the real issue
were prevention, [the campaign] would be targeted at those groups that most
need the prevention, and it’s not.”
The government’s all-out campaign plays well in the media
and makes the government look like it is tackling serious health issues, Mehra
said.
“It is a bit of a manipulative public relations exercise,”
she added.
And opposition has spread to parliament.
Liberal MPP and Health critic Lynn McLeod said the flu
shot campaign has changed since last year, when the government placed a much
greater emphasis on the goal of reducing flu-related visits to hospital
emergency rooms.
This year, the Ministry of Health says their goal is not
only to reduce emergency room overcrowding, but to protect the vulnerable and
reduce the economic lag caused by an increase in sick days during flu season.
But while the flu shot, like so many issues, becomes just
one more battle in the long-raging dispute over medicare funding, experts worry
that some larger issues are simply being missed.
In addition to concerns about creating a society unable to
resist the flu without the aid of pharmaceuticals, Fisher and the National
Vaccine Information Center also worry about side effects from the ingredients
in the vaccine. Flu shots contain thimerosal, a mercury derivative used as a preservative.
While the Ontario government claims the flu shot is safe
for pregnant and breastfeeding women, Fisher said mercury has been linked to
brain injury and immune deficiencies in the developing fetus.
“I do not think that there has been nearly enough study to
prove that giving pregnant women the flu vaccine is a safe thing to do,” said
Fisher.
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