Cervical cancer vaccine - Japan no longer recommends because of side effects concern

[Crumbledwalnuts]

there are quite a lot of different places this story is written, this is one of them

It's not being withdrawn but the government isn't recommending it any more. At least for now, while it investigates.

I don't think we'll ever agree. I would view a government continu

Bastard phone
I would view a government continuing to recommend a vaccination they had serious c

Oh FFS this is the only website this happens on

... they had serious concerns about as acting unethically and engaging in a cover up. You clearly do not see it that way & would be c

Comfortable with this actions. I never will be.

And now I am giving up before I hit frigging post again by mistake

If they had serious concerns then they should have suspended its use. To continue to provide access to a vaccine they have serious concerns about is unethical, no? Not merely withdrawing the recommendation.

But they haven't suspended its use pending investigation. So one is left guessing as to what level of concern they actually do have, seeing as the evidence doesn't yet support a causal relationship and they have said that they may yet reinstate their recommendation.

What a mess.

But less of a mess than a cover up?

We are going to go round and round in circles on this

Personally I would prefer to live in a vaccination system overseen in the way the Japanese one is. Much prefer over-cautious to outright denial that vaccinations can ever do any harm (which I think is where we're at).

Who is suggesting a cover-up?

Well I think it could be argued in the case of urabe strain MMR Maybe it was just shocking indifference or a terrible error of judgment, but I think it bordered on a cover up.

It took until 1992 for Britain to stop injecting children with Urabe MMR, replacing it with MMR2, which contains a less potent form of the mumps virus. And, according to the minutes, that action owed more to the decision of the manufacturers of Urabe MMR to cease production. Revoking the licence would have cast light on Whitehall's decision to use Urabe MMR on British children despite disturbing evidence of its potential effects.

Like I said, I prefer an open and cautious approach.

You keep telling me that I think the government should suppress information, that I believe vaccines can't do any damage and I really don't know where you're getting it from.

Vaccines can and do cause damage. No vaccine is 100% safe. It is possible that this vaccine is causing serious side effects. However, the evidence doesn't yet show a causal link. If the evidence is then shown to support a causal link, I fully support a re-evaluation of the recommendation for its use. If the government has serious enough concerns not to recommend it, then I don't think they should be offering it either.

But the decision to withdraw the recommendation doesn't yet seem to be evidence-based as a causal link hasn't been demonstrated. Why withdraw the recommendation but not the vaccine? Someone hedging their bets??

I didn't say anything of the sort. I said I preferred an open and cautious approach to the one adopted at the time of the urabe issues (which doesn't seem to have changed). I didn't say anything about what you think.

Yes it is possible that this vaccine is causing serious side effects and I personally would prefer to have a ministry of health that acted upon concerns rather than ignored them.

Their response seems sensible to me (much as yes my personal reaction would be 'withdraw withdraw' at the first sign of problems because of my own experience with adverse reactions, this seems a sensible middle of the road approach to me - it would highlight to me that I needed to think carefully about risk factors - which is enough, I don't ask public health officials to do more than that.)