Women & Children First
-
Politician rediscovers Chivalry in Gardasil Debate.
ComeLook.org, 10 September 2010
Although it's very unusual for an
ambitious politician to tell a potential voter to not communicate with him
("not to waste politician’s time"), in Ireland at least,
highlighting the "not appropriate" subject of vaccine safety can provoke such a response.
When a
campaigner wrote two short emails to a Wexford local politician in late 2008
raising concerns
about
the HPV vaccine Gardasil and suggesting he do some
research into the associated side effects, the
local
Mairead Hilliard, of Irish Vaccine Informed Parents,
wrote to Counciller Joe Ryan (now Mayor of Wexford, pop 18000), after she
noticed that he had joined an online Facebook group campaigning for
reinstatement of the cervical cancer mass vaccination program in
Ireland.
She informed him that one of her own children was damaged by a
vaccine and that she believed
parents
should first be given the vaccine manufacturer's
leaflet to read before giving their consent: "You
cannot
expect parents to play russian roulette with the
health of a 12 year old child" she concluded. Mayor Ryan
replied saying: "It is an outrageous insult to suggest that a parent who
wants to protect their
child plays roulette of whatever type. It is
precisely to take the risk out of my daughter's [lives] that I want
them to receive a vaccination, which would not
have been offered to parents in 2008 unless it had been
approved beforehand by the HSE and the Irish
Medicines Board. Please refrain from sending me any further
Ryan's email comments were published in relation to
the censorship of Ms Hilliard from the group for
going
"Off Topic" (by posting comments disagreeing with the
stated objective of the group)
.
After the article came out Mayor Ryan appeared on a local radio
station to defend his position: "(She)
accused me effectively of playing Russian Roulette with my children's health. As
a parent that's a very
insulting thing to say to anyone. I decided the
nature of her contact was'nt appropriate...Miss Hilliard is
opposed to the vaccine, I don't see what the point
was in debating the matter with her..I've concluded that
the organisaton effectively is spreading
misinformation and that they have an agenda at undermining
confidence in vaccines.."
Fortunately for us,
Mayor Ryan's has decided to counteract the spread of such misinformation by
taking
it
upon himself to reveal the true science and statistics
behind the HPV Vaccine, via a
self-penned article on his personal website. A qualified Science
teacher himself, he is scornful of claims coming from those
less
qualified to comment on the subject: "What has
the world come to that I’m expected to indulge
someone
who peddles bad science..".
Although he declines to offer us any specific examples of
such misinformation, in his introduction to the subject of cervical cancer in
Ireland he offers the following 'facts' in relation to the HPV
Vaccine: 1) "Approximately 200 women die each year
from the condition in the Republic of Ireland" 2)"The occurence of cervical cancer is set to rise by
1.5% per year so when my daughters are in their middle
age it may well have doubled". 3) He also noted that "It is unusual to vaccinate
against a cancer and that’s because in the case of cervical
cancer about 66% of cases are caused by a virus
HPV".
At the risk of provoking more derision from Mayor
Ryan, but in the interests of objective reporting, we
should
point out that his figures seriously conflict with the official statistics. We
address the three above:
1) The latest available figure for cervical cancer mortality in Ireland is 81 deaths in 2007
.
- In his radio interview Ryan also claims it is the
5th most common cancer for women in Ireland - our
research shows it is the 9th
most common
. 2) After the introduction of a free
cervical cancer screening program in 2008, for which up to 80%
of women will be covered, and with a 95% detection rate, the incidence
of cervical cancer will now fall dramatically. When Ryan's daughters are in middle age, this will be an
extremely rare disease due to the effect of the screening program
alone (Eg In Finland, mortality rates
have dropped by 80
percent over the last four decades ). 3) Irish
Health Information and Quality Authority: "Infection with the human papillomavirus (HPV) is the
main
cancer cases are associated with the HPV virus [the
66% figure comes from the vaccine effectiveness
which
only targets 2 of the 100 or so HPV virus
types).
Unfortunately, in his haste to set the record straight
against those individuals peddling official figures,
Mayor
Ryan has apparently fallen on his own sword of bad
science and misinformation. What has the world come to
indeed..
But getting
back to the initial controversy above, vis-á-vis
the 'roulette' scenario which Mayor Ryan finds so objectionable - let
us try to represent the two
sides of the argument: A) There is absolutely no risk of a
serious reaction to the HPV vaccine - parents would never allow
their children to be vaccinated
if this was not the case, and it is an outrageous insult to suggest otherwise.
B) There is some risk of a serious adverse reaction and therefore to some degree the
'Roulette'
analogy applies.
Despite a current rate
of 4.2 deaths (@ average age 56) per 100,000 fe
males each year (and rapidly declining), in Mayor Ryan's mind, not
having the vaccine invites the "sheer certainty" of cervical cancer.. "I would rather see the risk of a violent reaction to a
vaccine rather than having the sheer certainty and the awful tragedy that's
unfolding .. " he admits when pressed on the
possibility of serious reactions in the above radio interview. At the risk of
outrageous insult, it seems to me that Mayor Ryan has essentially conceded the
'roulette' analogy with this last statement. And as the
HPV Gardasil Mass Vaccination program rolls out in Ireland in September
2010, it's a case of 'women and children first' - for them the
noble Mayor would rather "see the risk" than 'take' it himself.
Joe Ryan speaking at the Annual Labour Party
Conference
