Deetee
Illuminator
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2003
- Messages
- 3,789
Well, that's what I thought when I saw the UK Independent's headlines.
Ahhhh, just the stuff for rampant antivaccinationists to get their teeth into, and I see it has already been picked up by those at JABS.
(There was also a not dissimilar BBC pronouncement, fortunately less inaccurate.)
However, as usual, things are not what they seem. Firstly, the Independent headline is totally misleading; no-one is suggesting the vaccine is actually causing these cases as might be inferred from the headline. There is a valid argument that as vaccine strains of pneumococcal infection decline, some of the other strains may "move into" the vacant territory, so to speak, but in real terms this is quite a minor phenomenon in contrast to the huge decline in pneumococcal infections because of vaccine deployment. The vaccine works, and prevents invasive disease. It does what it says on the box, basically. At least the BBC gives some idea of this, indicating the vaccine has averted hundreds of cases of meningitis and invasive disease.
The news reports give the data (or opinions, at least until his data are published) of David Spencer. It seems Type 1, which is not covered by the current conjugate vaccine, has been causing a lot of pneumonia in Newcastle, and projected nationally, could account for a lot of disease.
But there is something else that is apparent - namely that Type 1 disease was becoming more common well before the conjugate pneumococcal vaccine was introduced in the UK in 2006, and its prevalence and virulence seem to have little to do with the vaccine's introduction. In fact it was Spencer himself who revealed this in 2004, having analysed data from 1997-2001. His conclusions at the time were:
This is surely a call for Type 1 to be included in the vaccine, not to throw the baby out with the bath water, as the antivaxers are suggesting. Let's wait and see what his new data show, shall we, before jumping to conclusions.
Once again, a combination of ignorant headline writers and fevered antivaccine campaigners will see this "evidence" showcased as a miserable failure of vaccine policy and effectiveness.
I get cross about this, because I still see kids and patients with invasive disease from pneumococcus, and recently I had someone in ITU with severe sepsis who should have been protected by vaccination before he had his spleen removed, but never did (true, this was probably the fault of his health carers at the time, but you can see where I am coming from on this)
ETA My browser crashed, making me lose the reference for the spencer 2004 paper. I'll chase it down again. ETAA - sorted - have it in pdf if you like
Meanwhile, here is Channel 4's take.
Ahhhh, just the stuff for rampant antivaccinationists to get their teeth into, and I see it has already been picked up by those at JABS.
(There was also a not dissimilar BBC pronouncement, fortunately less inaccurate.)
However, as usual, things are not what they seem. Firstly, the Independent headline is totally misleading; no-one is suggesting the vaccine is actually causing these cases as might be inferred from the headline. There is a valid argument that as vaccine strains of pneumococcal infection decline, some of the other strains may "move into" the vacant territory, so to speak, but in real terms this is quite a minor phenomenon in contrast to the huge decline in pneumococcal infections because of vaccine deployment. The vaccine works, and prevents invasive disease. It does what it says on the box, basically. At least the BBC gives some idea of this, indicating the vaccine has averted hundreds of cases of meningitis and invasive disease.
The news reports give the data (or opinions, at least until his data are published) of David Spencer. It seems Type 1, which is not covered by the current conjugate vaccine, has been causing a lot of pneumonia in Newcastle, and projected nationally, could account for a lot of disease.
But there is something else that is apparent - namely that Type 1 disease was becoming more common well before the conjugate pneumococcal vaccine was introduced in the UK in 2006, and its prevalence and virulence seem to have little to do with the vaccine's introduction. In fact it was Spencer himself who revealed this in 2004, having analysed data from 1997-2001. His conclusions at the time were:
This is surely a call for Type 1 to be included in the vaccine, not to throw the baby out with the bath water, as the antivaxers are suggesting. Let's wait and see what his new data show, shall we, before jumping to conclusions.
Once again, a combination of ignorant headline writers and fevered antivaccine campaigners will see this "evidence" showcased as a miserable failure of vaccine policy and effectiveness.
I get cross about this, because I still see kids and patients with invasive disease from pneumococcus, and recently I had someone in ITU with severe sepsis who should have been protected by vaccination before he had his spleen removed, but never did (true, this was probably the fault of his health carers at the time, but you can see where I am coming from on this)
ETA My browser crashed, making me lose the reference for the spencer 2004 paper. I'll chase it down again. ETAA - sorted - have it in pdf if you like
Meanwhile, here is Channel 4's take.
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