November 12, 2009 – 11:22 am
This investigation from The Atlantic, raising many questions about the merits of influenza vaccination and the pandemic response generally, is worth reading for a few reasons.
Firstly, the authors, investigative journalists Shannon Brownlee and Jeanne Lenzer are at the cutting edge of showing there is a place for philanthropic and not-for-profit funding of health journalism. The [...]
October 5, 2009 – 12:21 pm
Maryann Napoli from the Center for Medical Consumers in New York recently interviewed Dr Tom Jefferson, a medically trained epidemiologist who has long experience as a reviewer for the Cochrane Collaboration, for this story titled “why the swine flu virus is not a major threat”.
A previous Croakey post linked to this interview, as well as [...]
September 30, 2009 – 7:22 pm
With today’s launch of what may prove to be the biggest vaccination program in Australia’s history, debate about the merits of swine flu vaccination continues.
In Crikey today, a leading US consumer advocate as well as an international expert on influenza vaccines from the Cochrane Collaboration raise several questions for Australian health authorities, while former [...]
September 25, 2009 – 1:17 pm
For those who would like to dig deeper into the issues surrounding swine flu and vaccination, it’s worth having a read of this interview with Dr Tom Jefferson, a medically trained epidemiologist who has long experience as a reviewer for the Cochrane Collaboration, examining the evidence around seasonal influenza vaccines.
The interview, conducted by Maryann [...]
September 25, 2009 – 11:32 am
Following the previous post about informed consent and swine flu vaccination, I thought it might be useful to have a consumer organisation’s view on the issues.
Carol Bennett, executive director of the Consumers Health Forum, is encouraging the public to discuss the pros and cons of vaccination with their health provider, rather than relying on [...]
September 24, 2009 – 6:53 pm
Further to the earlier post about Minister Roxon’s spruiking of swine flu vaccination (you can see various interviews here, here and here – what a busy day she’s had), I’ve been pondering the issue of informed consent.
Below is a document that the Medical Indemnity Protection Society has sent members, making it clear that they will [...]
September 24, 2009 – 8:28 am
Minister Roxon was spruiking the benefits of swine flu vaccination to Fran Kelly this morning and downplaying any potential risks.
Asked about infection control concerns surrounding the use of multidose vials(as outlined in this Crikey story recently), Minister Roxon said these are “very minimal”.
Does she realise what dangerous territory she’s entering here?
Our national infection control guidelines [...]
September 22, 2009 – 8:46 pm
The announcement last Friday that the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has approved CSL’s vaccine against swine flu and that a national vaccination campaign will be rolled out in the next few weeks means two things:
• a lot of people must be working pretty hard and wondering how on earth they’re going to pull it all [...]
September 15, 2009 – 7:25 pm
New media has made health promotion so much more interesting. And fun.
Check out this example – the US Department of Health and Human Services has launched a competition for a public service announcement on swine flu prevention. It’s a clever way of getting people to engage with public health messages.
I quite liked the rapping doc [...]
September 3, 2009 – 4:50 pm
Dr Julie Leask, a social scientist in the medical faculty at the University of Sydney, has done much research and thinking on the issues around public acceptance, or otherwise, of vaccination.
She wrote an interesting article in Crikey today about the image problem of swine flu vaccination and the need for “full transparency from the [...]
