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England's National Health Service is urging parents to get their children vaccinated for the flu ahead of the holiday season to protect grandparents and other vulnerable relatives:
Flu vaccines administered through a nasal spray rather than an injection have been rolled out this autumn for two and three-year-olds, and children in reception class and years one to four in primary school. Children are super-spreaders because of the greater likelihood of them contracting flu at nursery or school, where germs are passed on at a rapid rate. But only 18% of school-age children have had the nasal spray immunisation, according to the latest figures.
Prof Keith Willett, NHS England's medical director for acute care, said: "Flu can be spread more easily by children, especially to vulnerable relatives such as older grandparents, those with heart or lung conditions and pregnant family members. Last year, millions of people missed out on their free vaccination and yet it's one simple, common sense step to help us all stay healthy this winter."
With less than a month until Christmas, the NHS is urging parents to book their children in for the free vaccination to help curb infection over the festive season, when family get-togethers can spread the infection.
Meanwhile, the Daily Mirror (a tabloid) claims that Russian agents are spreading anti-vaccination propaganda in the UK in an effort to destabilize the country:
Russian cyber units are spreading false information about flu and measles jabs in the UK, experts warn. [Ed's Note: The current flu immunisation is applied via a nasal spray - there are no 'jabs' involved.] Vladimir Putin is believed to want to erode trust in US and European governments. The state-sponsored units are spreading the lies on social media to destabilise Britain, it is claimed. The Kremlin has previously been accused of attempting to influence Brexit and Scottish independence. Now, it is feared it is trying to create distrust over flu jabs and the MMR measles vaccine.
[...] Security services are so concerned over the threat to public health and security that Government departments have been ordered to monitor social media and flag up risky articles. Health chiefs have had emergency meetings over the spread "fake news" over vaccination campaigns. [...] We can reveal public health officials are investigating whether an outbreak of measles last week in Liverpool and Leeds was fuelled by parents not vaccinating children due to "false information read on the internet".
Also at BBC. BBC's collection of newspaper covers.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Entropy on Monday November 27 2017, @09:32PM (7 children)
Here's a citation..
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/vaccine/thimerosal.htm [cdc.gov]
Rather than call it Mercury, you know..something universally recognized as awful they renamed it Thimerosal. You'd really think this sort of thing would have been phased out with lead pipes. Heck, we don't even use Mercury in most thermometers anymore because it's awful stuff but according to the flu vaccine fundraising machine it's just dandy to inject into your veins.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 27 2017, @09:54PM
There was one thing I couldn't find at that link. Is it more or less toxic than dihydrogen monoxide?
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 27 2017, @09:59PM (4 children)
And in the spirit of the season let us not leave ignorance hanging Thimerosal [cdc.gov]
Some short points for the lazy.
-- The human body eliminates thimerosal easily.
Thimerosal does not stay in the body a long time so it does not build up and reach harmful levels. When thimerosal enters the body, it breaks down to ethylmercury and thiosalicylate, which are readily eliminated.
-- Thimerosal has been shown to be safe when used in vaccines.
-- Thimerosal use in medical products has a record of being very safe. Data from many studies show no evidence of harm caused by the low doses of thimerosal in vaccines.
-- Thimerosal was taken out of childhood vaccines in the United States in 2001.
(Score: 1) by mobydisk on Monday November 27 2017, @11:42PM
Not entirely, and not all of them. [archive.org]
I know it was used as recently as 2014, since my wife and I had a discussion about it when we were offered the Flu vaccine for our son. They had 2 versions: one with it, and one without.
(Score: 2) by Entropy on Tuesday November 28 2017, @03:39AM (1 child)
Yep, perfectly safe to inject mercury. Nothing to worry about there.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday November 28 2017, @06:33AM
- It's in "trace" amounts, such that
- To FDA standards, it's not even there at all.
One piece of gravadlax or one small sprat contains more mercury than all of the vaccines you'll ever be encouraged to take. If you eat fish, you're not just ignorant, you're a hypocrite.
Ditto bananas - because you wouldn't want to be eating radioactive material, would you.
Oh, you're gonna have to give up breathing to be entirely consistent.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 28 2017, @08:41AM
See, if you had started out with this, you would have had a great argument for vaccines. But no, you just had to give credibility to every anti-vaxxer argument by pretending that injecting mercury wasn't a huge mistake (one that pharma CEOs, government officials and doctors should be in prison for, even). And then hiding the only argument that supports the pro-side down at the bottom where nobody reads it.
The anti-vaxxer side doesn't need Russian help. They are getting more help than they need from people like you.
(Score: 5, Informative) by julian on Monday November 27 2017, @10:54PM
Mercury has been part of the environment for longer than humans have existed. Your body can easily eliminate levels far above what's found in a seasonal influenza vaccine. If you enjoy eating large predatory fish (tuna, shark, swordfish) then you get more mercury from that than from your yearly jab.
Skip a few tuna salads and get the vaccine.