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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: 5, Informative) by Thexalon on Tuesday November 28 2017, @04:11AM (2 children)
If you eat fish once a year, that gave you a far higher dose of mercury than all the vaccines you've been given your entire lifetime. And that tuna won't protect you from lethal diseases.
I'm fine with not trusting big pharma. However, your response of "I'm going to disagree with nearly all doctors and all public health officials the world over who all agree that the benefits of vaccines outweigh the risks by a long shot" is irresponsible. Unless you've set up a lab yourself and done a bunch of testing, which I'm fairly certain you haven't, the fact is that (a) you don't know, and (b) the people who are likely to know all disagree with you.
Also, mercury is among the more expensive materials used in vaccines, so I highly doubt a for-profit business trying to keep its costs down would use more of it than they really have to.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 28 2017, @08:23AM
You mean "if you inject fish".
Anything that gets into the blood stream (or the lungs, but you don't usually inhale fish either) causes a lot more damage than simply eating it.
Look, I assume you a for vaccines, so how about some argument actually helping the pro side, rather than these shitty arguments that only help the anti-vaxxers?
Such as admitting that mercury was a mistake, but for most vaccines it has actually been replaced with things that aren't nearly as bad for you.
(Score: 2) by stormreaver on Tuesday November 28 2017, @09:24PM
Your response is one large logic error (Appeal to Authority).
Nearly all doctors and public health officials just blindly accept what the pharmaceutical companies tell them. And all the meta-studies that make the evening news are funded, conducted, or published by companies with funding ties to those same pharmaceutical companies.
We have no credible evidence that vaccines have had any positive effect, because we have had no independent research that extended beyond superficialities. We have only the propaganda departments of pharmaceutical companies trying to sell products.