Interesting piece in the National Post today, very much along the lines of what I have been advocating and trying to do on this blog. It’s from Joe Schwarz, and titled “An Injection of H1N1 Reason.” You can read his op ed piece here, and below I’ve included my response.
Excellent post! I have been blogging on this very topic, and there's a few things I have to add.
1- When reading anti-vac folks (or anyone else), I recommend you click on links provided or look up studies referenced. By doing so and reading original sources I have found (a) studies claiming to show flu vaccines ineffective in children, in which the authors of the study state explicitly that vaccines have high efficacy in children, and good safety; (b) claims that H1N1 is no big deal--no worse than seasonal flu for kids--as last years' flu season in the US claimed 115 children, yet no mention is made of the fact that "last year's flu season" means data up to the end of August, hence 43 pediatric deaths from H1n1 itself from Apr-Aug are included among the 115, which is why the number is so high compared to previous years; (c) on a list of different years and child flu deaths, only certain years had data added as to vaccination rate, making it look both like vaccination rate was higher than usual and hence that flu vaccine causes death, yet when I read the original source the explicit statement "vaccine rates were similar to those of previous years" was found. And my favourite? The footnote provided supposedly showing the poor success rate of flu vaccine for children in fact took me to site with a request for children to participate in a study, which, clicking further, I discovered was still on-going and they needed no further participants. The lesson?--Putting in references and footnotes makes a point of view look reasonable, and very few folks actually follow up these sources and see if what has been quoted is accurate or in keeping with the original source. Do it!
2 - Another source you and some of your readers may enjoy is the ECDC (The European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention). They post a daily H1N1 update with a world perspective, and I particularly like them as they do not just give hard data (numbers). They also provide links to recent studies of relevance to H1N1--including those that contradict each other--new recommendations from WHO and elsewhere. Just today there is a link to a study from Melbourne Australia following 112 H1N1 patients at adult hospitals during their winter flu season, the largest retrospective study to date.
3 - Vitamin D is a very promising line of study, but even its main proponent (Dr. John Cannell) does not make the claims about it or H1N1 shots I have seen on anti-vac sites. Google "Vitamin D Council May 2009 Newsletter" for Cannell's thoughts on Vit D (helpful, but not a panacea), H1N1 shots (plans to get one) and Guillain-Barre (risks overstated).
Despite appearances on comment boards and such, there is a very significant population of Canada (and the world) trying to find accurate information about H1N1, and who are happy to read both sides, check facts and references for themselves, and make up their own minds. Keep up the good work!