My 13-year-old son went off last Friday with a sports shirt on under his school jumper. I’m currently wrangling with my fourth Medical Council complaint from someone I have never met, or treated, and RTE showed a beautiful documentary last week called Laura Brennan – This Is Me. All of these things are linked – that link is the HPV vaccine.
Child number three went off quite happily in his Aertex as he was about to receive the HPV vaccine into his upper arm – which I’m very happy about. It’s free, which is great, and I’m going to stump up the money and pay for it for son number one – who pre-dates the roll-out of it being given to boys. It’s safe – about 300 million doses and counting have been given worldwide and massive research on its safety exists. And, most importantly, it will protect him and indeed any future partners he may have from HPV-related cancers.
HPV causes about 4pc of all cancers we get such as cervical, mouth, head and neck, but others too. And the amazing thing is we can stop that. HPV is an infection that the majority of us have been exposed to and it’s been killing us. With this vaccine we can literally prevent that.
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You would think we would be delighted. And lots of us are. But not all of us. The HPV vaccine has had a sustained campaign of misinformation against it that was very successful, causing uptake rates to fall to 50pc among Irish schoolgirls, although it is climbing steadily again now and is back at 80pc. But Health Minister Simon Harris, launched a vaccine alliance recently to try to combat anti-vaccine rhetoric on social media and elsewhere.
A few factors are at play in this. HPV is a sexually transmitted infection (STI). Much of the opposition to the vaccine and the funding of the anti-vax movement comes from right-wing evangelical Christian groups around the world who believe that we should have to live with the consequences of sex – because we shouldn’t be having it presumably. So a vaccine that protects you against a cancer-causing STI is seen as a get-out-of-jail card that could lead to “promiscuity”.
And separately REGRET – a group of parents who believe that symptoms they say their daughters were experiencing were caused by the HPV vaccine – spoke out publicly against it, causing great fear and vaccine hesitancy among other Irish parents.
It should be pointed out that in the studies done on the hundreds of millions of doses of HPV vaccine that have been given, no association between the vaccine and the basket of symptoms that REGRET was suggesting were caused by the vaccine was ever found.
It should also be pointed out that vaccine hesitancy among parents who just want to do the right thing by their kids and anti-vax sentiment are not the same thing.
The first is completely understandable – and with so much misinformation out there, parents can feel bamboozled. The second is an agenda-driven movement that the World Health Organisation has said is one of the greatest current threats to global public health, putting it on a par with major diseases and poor sanitation.
Which brings me back to my Medical Council complaints. I was in clinical practice as a doctor for 20 years. Not once in that time did a patient make a complaint against me. For which I’m very grateful – a Medical Council complaint is one of the most stressful things a doctor will ever go through with a significant spike in doctor suicides known to be a result of the process. But I have had four in the last few years – all from people I have never met or treated.
All related to me publicly advocating for HPV vaccinations for Irish teens. (There’s also been complaints to my various media employers on the same issue – but they’re considerably less stressful).These complaints go to the Fitness to Practice committee in the Medical Council – so if you’re found to be unfit to practise you’re stripped of your title and your livelihood. The process is much like being taken to court. And the fact that I’m not actually in practice doesn’t seem to deter them or indeed lessen the stress.
But I’ve refused to defend the last of these complaints as I believe that the Irish Medical Council needs to find a better system for dealing with complaints against doctors that might be construed as vexatious. Many other countries have a different system. So I have told the Medical Council that I will not defend myself against any further complaints related to HPV vaccination and they can strike me off if they choose to do so. We shall wait and see what happens.
Bear in mind when these complaints started, the HPV vaccination rates were plummeting and we were losing the battle to get the message across to parents that the vaccine was safe and important.
Back then advocating in favour of it was not a popular thing to do – which brings me on to the wonderful Laura Brennan, who died earlier this year from cervical cancer at the age of 26.
Laura was a tireless advocate for HPV vaccination who campaigned for it right up until her death, so that others wouldn’t go through what she went through.
She took dog’s abuse from anti-vaxxers online but she persevered and almost single-handedly through the telling of her story changed the HPV vaccination rates in this country. She has saved and will save countless lives going forward. The documentary was beautiful, moving and tragic. Her family have suffered a devastating loss. But what she really wanted was that no other family would suffer that same loss. She was without a doubt genuinely inspirational.
And sadly we know many other patient advocates with cervical cancer. Brave Irish women like Vicky Phelan, Emma Mhic Mhathuna and Irene Teap. If we’d had HPV vaccination when they were young we would not even know their names. They would be anonymous – just living their lives – because they would not have had this horrible disease.
The school vaccination programme for first-year boys and girls is currently being rolled out around the country. Please get your child vaccinated. Please spare them going through what Laura Brennan and her family went through. We shouldn’t know any of these women’s names. I hope we never know your son or daughter’s name in this regard. HPV-related cancer is preventable.
Sign the form. Protect your kids.
@ciarakellydoc
Source: Read Full Article
Home » Analysis & Comment » Dr Ciara Kelly: 'This vaccine saves lives, please protect your child'
Dr Ciara Kelly: 'This vaccine saves lives, please protect your child'
My 13-year-old son went off last Friday with a sports shirt on under his school jumper. I’m currently wrangling with my fourth Medical Council complaint from someone I have never met, or treated, and RTE showed a beautiful documentary last week called Laura Brennan – This Is Me. All of these things are linked – that link is the HPV vaccine.
Child number three went off quite happily in his Aertex as he was about to receive the HPV vaccine into his upper arm – which I’m very happy about. It’s free, which is great, and I’m going to stump up the money and pay for it for son number one – who pre-dates the roll-out of it being given to boys. It’s safe – about 300 million doses and counting have been given worldwide and massive research on its safety exists. And, most importantly, it will protect him and indeed any future partners he may have from HPV-related cancers.
HPV causes about 4pc of all cancers we get such as cervical, mouth, head and neck, but others too. And the amazing thing is we can stop that. HPV is an infection that the majority of us have been exposed to and it’s been killing us. With this vaccine we can literally prevent that.
Please log in or register with Independent.ie for free access to this article.
Log In
New to Independent.ie? Create an account
You would think we would be delighted. And lots of us are. But not all of us. The HPV vaccine has had a sustained campaign of misinformation against it that was very successful, causing uptake rates to fall to 50pc among Irish schoolgirls, although it is climbing steadily again now and is back at 80pc. But Health Minister Simon Harris, launched a vaccine alliance recently to try to combat anti-vaccine rhetoric on social media and elsewhere.
A few factors are at play in this. HPV is a sexually transmitted infection (STI). Much of the opposition to the vaccine and the funding of the anti-vax movement comes from right-wing evangelical Christian groups around the world who believe that we should have to live with the consequences of sex – because we shouldn’t be having it presumably. So a vaccine that protects you against a cancer-causing STI is seen as a get-out-of-jail card that could lead to “promiscuity”.
And separately REGRET – a group of parents who believe that symptoms they say their daughters were experiencing were caused by the HPV vaccine – spoke out publicly against it, causing great fear and vaccine hesitancy among other Irish parents.
It should be pointed out that in the studies done on the hundreds of millions of doses of HPV vaccine that have been given, no association between the vaccine and the basket of symptoms that REGRET was suggesting were caused by the vaccine was ever found.
It should also be pointed out that vaccine hesitancy among parents who just want to do the right thing by their kids and anti-vax sentiment are not the same thing.
The first is completely understandable – and with so much misinformation out there, parents can feel bamboozled. The second is an agenda-driven movement that the World Health Organisation has said is one of the greatest current threats to global public health, putting it on a par with major diseases and poor sanitation.
Which brings me back to my Medical Council complaints. I was in clinical practice as a doctor for 20 years. Not once in that time did a patient make a complaint against me. For which I’m very grateful – a Medical Council complaint is one of the most stressful things a doctor will ever go through with a significant spike in doctor suicides known to be a result of the process. But I have had four in the last few years – all from people I have never met or treated.
All related to me publicly advocating for HPV vaccinations for Irish teens. (There’s also been complaints to my various media employers on the same issue – but they’re considerably less stressful).These complaints go to the Fitness to Practice committee in the Medical Council – so if you’re found to be unfit to practise you’re stripped of your title and your livelihood. The process is much like being taken to court. And the fact that I’m not actually in practice doesn’t seem to deter them or indeed lessen the stress.
But I’ve refused to defend the last of these complaints as I believe that the Irish Medical Council needs to find a better system for dealing with complaints against doctors that might be construed as vexatious. Many other countries have a different system. So I have told the Medical Council that I will not defend myself against any further complaints related to HPV vaccination and they can strike me off if they choose to do so. We shall wait and see what happens.
Bear in mind when these complaints started, the HPV vaccination rates were plummeting and we were losing the battle to get the message across to parents that the vaccine was safe and important.
Back then advocating in favour of it was not a popular thing to do – which brings me on to the wonderful Laura Brennan, who died earlier this year from cervical cancer at the age of 26.
Laura was a tireless advocate for HPV vaccination who campaigned for it right up until her death, so that others wouldn’t go through what she went through.
She took dog’s abuse from anti-vaxxers online but she persevered and almost single-handedly through the telling of her story changed the HPV vaccination rates in this country. She has saved and will save countless lives going forward. The documentary was beautiful, moving and tragic. Her family have suffered a devastating loss. But what she really wanted was that no other family would suffer that same loss. She was without a doubt genuinely inspirational.
And sadly we know many other patient advocates with cervical cancer. Brave Irish women like Vicky Phelan, Emma Mhic Mhathuna and Irene Teap. If we’d had HPV vaccination when they were young we would not even know their names. They would be anonymous – just living their lives – because they would not have had this horrible disease.
The school vaccination programme for first-year boys and girls is currently being rolled out around the country. Please get your child vaccinated. Please spare them going through what Laura Brennan and her family went through. We shouldn’t know any of these women’s names. I hope we never know your son or daughter’s name in this regard. HPV-related cancer is preventable.
Sign the form. Protect your kids.
@ciarakellydoc
Source: Read Full Article