-----Original Message-----
From: p=NHS NATIONAL
INT;a=NHS;c=GB;dda:RFC-822=discussion(a)listserv.rcpch.ac.uk;
Sent: 10 February 2002 23:02
To: p=NHS NATIONAL
INT;a=NHS;c=GB;dda:RFC-822=discussion(a)listserv.rcpch.ac.uk;
Subject: Re: grey or not - the dreaded MMR
Please realise that the press have interests other than public health ones.
I spent hours with the Daily Mirror discussing the articles they intended to
include. Their interest was less to do with MMR itself and more about wrong
footing the Mail and Sun, whom they categorise as anti-MMR and to support T
Blair whom they perceive as pro-MMR. The problem was how to let them do that
while trying to infiltrate some facts. I hope we were successful. The
Express allowed me to write a 600 word article which they edited only
mildly. It is exceptionally difficult to get everything we need to say into
6oo ,so some important issues had to be left out - such as the explanation
of why there is current panic - which I take to be due to skilful PR work by
a number of separate groups with differing vested interests: eg Autistic
Society rightly eager to talk up numbers to help raise awareness and,
therefore, funds; individual parents of autistic children looking for an
explanation; lawyers in the class action who scent a vast sum of money if
successful; anti-vaccination campaigners jumping on the bandwagon;an
aggrieved single issue researcher and so on. They have achieved a lot of
success with the press, who tell me that they are not terribly interested in
publishing the official government view 'because people dont believe what
the government says.' Now, of course, the disgraceful Liam Fox has jumped
on the bandwagon. Does anyone feel like reporting him to the GMC for
spreading untrue info about immunisation? Meanwhile fellows can be
reasssured our beleagured president is spending hours in appropriate
conclaves to try to keep fingers in dykes, not to mention penning
presidential letters to the quality(?) press. David Elliman will be on TV on
Sunday to be interviewed by Dimbleby and I will be doing Radio 4s Newnight
on Tuesday. So we are all trying. Anything you can do with your local press
is very worth while. Please dont wait for them to approach you and remember
'short sentences and short words.'
Harvey Marcovitch
College press Adviser
----- Original Message -----
From: Faust, Saul N <s.faust@ic.ac.uk>
To: discussion rcpch <discussion@listserv.rcpch.ac.uk>
Sent: Friday, February 08, 2002 9:55 PM
Subject: Re: grey or not - the dreaded MMR
> Please, we surely cannot seriously even consider/discuss a return to a
> single vaccine.
> At last the tabloid press has backed MMR (see the Mirror, 7/2/02).
> The CMO and Government has backed MMR.
> Every other country backs the vaccine unconditionally.
> Wakefield study is weak and unrepeatable.
> Unfortunately weakness such as the suggestion below merely makes 'the
> public' (or journalists anyway) think that Medics know something they do
not
> - have we all not had the same endless converstions with parents regarding
> MMR safety recently?
> I would suggest that all paediatricians unconditionally back the official
> College and CMO line - MMR is safe and saves lives.
> Saul Faust
> Paediatric SpR, The Whittington Hospital
> Honorary Clinical Research Fellow, Dept of Paediatric Infectious Diseases,
> Imperial College Faculty of Medicine at St Mary's, London.
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dr Thomas Kus [mailto:t.kus@doctors.org.uk]
> Sent: 07 February 2002 21:38
> To: discussion@listserv.rcpch.ac.uk
> Subject: Re: grey or not - the dreaded MMR
>
>
> It may be neither scientific nor politically correct but I wonder whether
we
> should see single vaccines as "second best" rather than leave children
> completely unimmunised. In my view the vaccine could be offered with a
> suitable warning to parents that safety and efficacy are not established,
> perhaps on a named patient basis.
>
> What does the discussion group think about this?
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Dr Thomas Kus
> Paediatric SpR
> Llandough Hospital, Cardiff
> Email: t.kus@pedfocus.com <mailto:t.kus@pedfocus.com>
> URL: http://www.pedfocus.com <http://www.pedfocus.com/>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: discussion rcpch [mailto:discussion@listserv.rcpch.ac.uk]On Behalf
> Of janet.hislop@doctors.org.uk
> Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2002 8:35 AM
> To: discussion rcpch
> Subject: grey or not - the dreaded MMR
>
>
> a colleague and I were discussing the rights and wrongs of Tony Blair
being
> cagey
> about whether Leo has been immunised. I recall a poll of paediatricians
some
> time ago about whether they had had their children immunised. Did this
> really
> happen, or is my memory playing tricks. Would there be any point in
> repeating
> this exercise, or publicising the last one, in the current climate? We
could
> preface it with the fact that paediatricians have absolutely no financial
> interest
> in promoting immunisation. If we do so, it is because we truly believe it
to
> be the most useful public health measure we have.
> Janet Hislop
> Consultant Paediatrician and district immunisation coordinator (for my
sins)
>
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