So…Health Minister Simon Harris says those who aren’t ‘medical professionals’ shouldn’t give expert advice on vaccines. Yes, I agree Mr. Harris, and, as your qualifications are…what? Journalism and French? i.e. you’re not a doctor, my advice to you is to eh, take your own advice and stop dismissing the rational concerns of frantic parents whose daughters are in line to receive this vaccine.
Stop bullying them and instead reassure them and come up with scientific-based evidence that the HPV shot does not cause medical conditions such as chronic fatigue syndrome and chronic regional pain syndrome and other problems allegedly associated with it following administration!
Look readers, we all know that 300 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year with tragically 90 of them losing their lives to it. Now I’m not a doctor, but I was one of those 300 women back in 2012 and I had to undergo an emergency and radical total abdominal hysterectomy due to cervical and ovarian cancer scares and it was terrifying! But you know what, despite my diagnosis, l’ve advised my daughter not to allow my 10-year-old granddaughter have this vaccine, (which she is in line to receive next year), until our Government and drama queen in training, HSE boss Tony ‘emotional terrorism’ O’Brien can reassure parents that their children are not being exposed to a litany of alleged associated medical conditions.
We’re lucky; in this country we have a wonderful cervical screening programme that attempts to diagnose cervical cancer at an early stage. I believe I owe my diagnosis and my life to that screening programme and I also believe that a vaccine which prevents the HPV transmission and reduces the risk to women’s lives is a wonderful invention. However, I want to see scientific facts and clinical evidence to show that our pre-teens, while being saved from cervical cancer, are not being affected by other alleged medical concerns.
Look, as parents we want to protect our kids and, as a pro-vaccine supporter I celebrate this wonderful innovation and I do know and appreciate that it saves lives; but tell that to Leitrim man Peter Hollidge, who says his daughter Rebecca suffers from fatigue and is now forced to use a wheelchair after he alleges she became ill in the weeks following her inoculation. Tell that poor father it’s unfortunate his beautiful child is now bedridden, but hey, on the plus side, at least she won’t get cervical cancer! It’s a small consolation, isn’t it?
Simon Harris and Tony O’Brien et al have a legal and moral obligation to make parents fully aware of any known associated risks related to this vaccine. In addition, they should also give parents’ advice regarding other options available to them when trying to minimise, or more importantly, eradicate, the risk of HPV transmission in their children. Education, empathy and understanding are the way forward.
My advice, for what it’s worth readers, is to talk to your family doctor.
No need for PSC,
just Google us
Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon has concerns regarding the mandatory public services card – and I would agree with her. Okay, apparently around 2.8 million citizens have already been issued with this national identity, oops sorry, public service card, but what information is being collected and stored on it and what information will be shared and by whom?
You see, as far as I’m aware, there are over 120 agencies who’re linking up via this card and I’d like to see a proper PR launch and fanfare around the initiative so we can be fully aware why it’s deemed mandatory for us to be issued with one.
Now I’m not opposed to having it per se because, like most readers, I’ve got nothing to hide; but by Regina ‘I’ve got the power, and I’m not afraid to use it’ Doherty stamping her little foot issuing decrees all round without so much as an information campaign it kinda smacks of a political PR disaster and this makes people suspicious.
Yes, even those insufferable narcissistic bores who choke on their need for validation and post every banal aspect of their insignificant lives at 15 minute intervals on Facebook are getting neurotic over the Government knowing everything about them via the swipe of a card. Sure at this stage I’d say Google knows more about these attention-seeking harpies than any State body ever could, so er, unclench and suck it up.
