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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: 2) by Aiwendil on Tuesday November 28 2017, @08:21AM (1 child)
Even in pre-industrial society a few atoms in your body would have been mercury (with volcanoes going off somewhere on the planet, rivers leeching metals and all that jazz) and since we started to burn coal this increased significantly (if you live with a few hundred miles of a coal plant today your mercury content is notably higher than it would be otherwise, and if you live within a dozen miles you are really building it up*).
Or maybe, just maybe, the tolerance is higher than "ZERO". :)
(Unless you used some weird definition of "ZERO" where it is greater than zero).
(But yeah, in ages from conception to about one-two year old there might be a cause to avoid this - but in all fairness just not living in a city would have a greater benificial effect on the health)
* = In pretty much any country with enforced enviornmental protection laws this is quite a bit below the levels usually considered safe.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 28 2017, @08:44AM
Oh, now it's getting funny. I thought pro-vaxxers were generally the same as the man-made global warming proponents.
But apparently, pro-vaxxers are also pro coal burning and pro living near volcanos.