Live webchat with Professor David Salisbury, Dept of Health director of immunisation, Mon, November 2, 1pm

[GeraldineMumsnet]

We're very pleased to have Professor David Salisbury, the Department of Health's director of immunisation, as our guest for a live webchat this Friday, 30 Oct, at 1pm.

Professor Salisbury, who originally trained as a paediatrician, and also works extensively for the World Health Organisation including his role as chairman of the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Vaccines, is a timely guest given that the swine flu vaccination
programme is now being rolled out. Pregnant women are one of the first 'at-risk' groups being offered the jab.

There has already been a large amount of discussion about the vaccine, so this is your chance to put your questions, concerns and comments to the government's top vaccines expert.

As usual, if you can't join us on the day, please post your question here and Prof Salisbury will try to answer as many as possible.

[thedollshouse]

Thanks for answering my question.

I am still very nervous about the vaccine and equally nervous about remaining unvaccinated.

Hope MN HQ provided you with suitable biscuits!

[tatt]

think we've had enough of biscuit publicity, even if MN towers haven't. Hope you had a choice though

[Serennos]

Thank you

[Upsydaisy83]

So after that who is having jab now that wasn't ?

[waitingwaiting]

Dr Salisbury.
Many thanks for touching upon the question I asked earlier... please can I ask a follow up question, about the availability of Celvapan, I am asking this not only on behalf of myself but others.

Please can you spell out in black and white why Celvapan isnt being offered to pregnant women? when for many its their preferred choice and would encourge more women to be vaccinated.

Is it because of availability? If it was more available would it then be offered?

Please be so kind to expand on your reasons, saying 'that choice isnt neutral doesnt help?. More clarification is needed.

I'm sure that all those people who currently have signed a recently started petition (100+ people) asking for choice between the vaccines would like to have clear clarification about the exact reasons why it isnt being offered.

Many thanks and thanks for coming to chat to us all today. It is appreciated.

[Bubbaloo2]

It was great having him here but to be honest I got a lot out of other people's posts on here. Some interesting nuggets of info.. true or not true... makes one think even deeper!

[HappySeven]

Just wanted to say thanks to Professor Salisbury for taking the time to answer some of these questions. Many of us just want the facts and sadly our midwives aren't always the best informed. I shall definitely be having the innoculations after reading his replies.

[pugsandseals]

Still no answer to the ingredients which may cause an allergic reaction then
Hey ho, might get an answer someday!

[stuffitllllama]

[waitingwaiting]

oh is that the end...?
Dr Salisbury, thanks again for spending the time with us and I do hope that you will get back to us all again soon with answers to the unanswered questions.

[JustScreamMumsnet]

Please could you fill in our very quick swine flu survey if you haven't already - we're going to close it tonight.

[EldonAve]

I can't say that I feel any more informed than before

extremelychocolateymilkroll asked: "Is there any evidence to link pregnant women having flu vaccines and birth defects?"

The US routinely vaccinates pg women against seasonal flu - however they use adjuvant-free vaccine

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Thank you for coming here. We couldn't ask you a biscuit question as we are restricted to one question each and I don't think any of us wanted to waste our question on biscuits, interesting though they are

[stuffitllllama]

Shame he wasted an answer on biscuits though.

How sweet and familiar of him.

[JustScreamMumsnet]

Btw sadly we didn't get round to non-swine flu questions this time but the good news is Professor Salisbury agreed that he would come back for another chat about vaccinations in general once swine flu fever has subsided, probably in the new year.

[Bubbaloo2]

Does the Professor know a place we can email questions in the meantime?

[extremelychocolateymilkroll]

Thanks EldonAve. It seems as though there's a lot of fear of the vaccine - not supported by evidence while it is clear that swine flu can be very dangerous for pregnant women and other vulnerable groups - along with people with not even in these groups. I thought Professor Salisbury's answers were very interesting and have made me more inclined to have the vaccine.

[Beachcomber]

So it would appear that there is nothing to be said about the lamentable system for reporting adverse reactions to vaccines, mercury is no more dangerous than water, and the US 'got lucky' cos they made the decision not to use squalene and it worked out.

As far as I'm concerned the most useful information was about the biscuits.

[EVye]

Missed the actual webchat.

I can see why non-swine flu questions weren't answered but it's a bit disappointing. Makes the whole thing feel to me like a governmental PR exercise.

[ColetteJ]

This was my first experience of the Mumsnet live webchat (& actually the first time I have ever posted a message on any website). Have to say I am very disappointed.

Like many of the mums I posted what I thought was a fairly simple request for actual statistics that I honestly expected the Doc. to be able to provide. At the very least I thought we would be told where we could find the stats on the internet.

I am shocked at how few answers were provided when so many took the time to attend.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

As the decision for the US not to use squalene has exacerbated their vaccine shortage tremendously, I'm not sure they have 'got lucky'.

[Flightattendant]

I'm amazed that the Squalene/ GB syndrome issue was not even touched upon

Still would be very interested to hear a response to Janeb22's excellent post.

[MiniMarmite]

I (and others) posted these links on another thread previously. They might be useful to people wanting to read more detailed information about the data available for the vaccines:

www.emea.europa.eu/ click on the product names and then look at the patient information leaflet or, if you want more information, the summary of product characteristics.

If you want even more detail about the studies carried out then see:

www.emea.europa.eu/humandocs/Humans/EPAR/focetria/focetria.htm

www.emea.europa.eu/humandocs/Humans/EPAR/pandemrix/pandemrix.htm

www.emea.europa.eu/humandocs /Humans/EPAR/celvapan/celvapan.htm

then click on scientific discussion - this is really useful as you can see how the vaccines were evaluated and the information on vulnerable groups as it stands at the moment.

[EldonAve]

Times article

Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer for England, spoke out against protests aimed at deterring people from having the jab. ?We have had a lot of unfair public criticism and attacks in an attempt to scare people about a vaccine that?s potentially life-saving,? he added.

?We have seen it before with vaccines like MMR [the combined jab for measles, mumps and rubella], and now extremists are doing the same thing again.?

[Beachcomber]

Ohyoubadkitten, I was quoting Dr Salisbury with the 'got lucky' comment.

Who knows perhaps the US population has got lucky. Firstly if they aren't having squalene containing vaccines pushed on them. Secondly if they do have a 'shortage' then fewer people will be given an experimental vaccine for a disease, which so far, has proven itself to be considerably less virulent than your common or garden seasonal flu.