Won’t Somebody Think?

at

Screen Shot 2015-10-22 at 12.56.38

Bonkers writes:

I see Senator Fidelma Healy-Eames has managed to find the whiffy code and is now campaigning against the HPV vaccine which is given to women to prevent cervical cancer. The HPV vaccine is recommended by the World Health Organisation but Senator Healy-Eames has anecdotal evidence of some women receiving side effects from the vaccine. I don’t know who to believe at this stage, the World Health Organisation or the good Senator?

Sponsored Link

79 thoughts on “Won’t Somebody Think?

  1. ahjayzis

    Ireland’s Sarah Palin.

    I’m genuinely struggling to think of a public representative of lower quality and intellect. The Healy-Rae’s spring to mind but at least they fixsht the rowad.

  2. huppenstop

    I did look this up at one point. Healy-Eames wasn’t appointed. She was elected via the Labour and Industrial panel afair

    1. ahjayzis

      Don’t dignify it by calling it election – a few hundred county councillors voting along party lines in the order of preference decided by the party is an insult to democracy. She was appointed by Fine Gael and Labour.

  3. Ming

    I’m constantly amazed that people think every and any vaccine is a good idea.. and not simply a new revenue stream for some Pharmaceutical company…

    There used to be a time when only one in 400 got autism… now its one in 60…

    I wouldn’t give HPV to my worst enemy.

        1. Dόn Pídgéόní

          Maybe she means she wouldn’t give them the one or two strains that cause cervical cancer?

    1. MoyestWithExcitement

      “and not simply a new revenue stream for some Pharmaceutical company…”

      It’s a revenue stream because it works.

    2. Wayne.F

      & what evidence do you have that HPV is responsible for that? Bye the way according to Autisim Ireland you are wrong the official figure here is 1/100

      1. MoyestWithExcitement

        “what evidence do you have that HPV is responsible for that?”

        I’d post another Simpsons vid here if I didn’t 2 minutes ago. (There’s a Simpsons quote for everything though) I’d speculate a big reason for the increase in autism diagnoses is simply because we have a much better understanding of it now than we did a few decades ago.

        1. Wayne.F

          Moyes always room for a Simpson quote. I am sure Ming will be back to tell us that the Irish Autisim association had its figures about those diagnosed wrong and evidence how

      2. danc

        Exactly! No evidence!
        Anyway we all know the real problem is FLOURIDE. That causes brain cancer too.

        And piles.

        1. ABM's Bloodied Underwear

          Pfft! Everyone knows it’s the Rand Corporation, in conjunction with the saucer people under the supervision of the reverse vampires, who are the cause of all this.

          There you go, Moyest.

    3. pedeyw

      How does a pharmaceutical company stand to make more money off a one off vaccine than a more long term treatment for a serious illness?

    4. Rowsdower

      There was also a time when nobody had Autism, then doctors came along and suddenly autism started appearing!

      I think its pretty clear that Doctors are the cause of Autism.

    5. Stephanenny

      And the increase isn’t related to vaccines in the slightest. It’s related to increased pollution, older age of parents, better diagnostics and changes in diagnostic criteria. Vaccines have nothing to do with it.

      Oh and I wouldn’t give the HPV vaccine to my worst enemy either so I guess we have that in common.

  4. Rita McCarthy

    This just beggars belief and is the kind of rubbish that spreads fear and ignorance. These are the people who represent us. She doesn’t even check her facts before she broadcasts. Just goes on one e-mail. Could we have some informed opinion on this.

    1. Stephanenny

      The thing is though that for her it has absolutely nothing to do with that email. She’s against the vaccine because it acknowledges that people have sex. Specifically that women have sex and do so outside of marriage. She’s against it for religious reasons, this is just a convenient, if incredibly tenuous, argument for her to use so she doesn’t have to say “BURN THE SINNERS” all day.

  5. donkey_kong

    the WHO approving something is as unless as a UN Mandate.
    they said the swine flu vaccine was safe….didn’t they. and that worked out well
    They are not infallible…

    I’ve no doubt there can be serious side effects to a vaccine , to rubbish the good senator for highlighting this is stupid in the extreme.
    Let people know the facts and maybe an informed choice…

    Although I wish I had that vaccine when I was young would have saved hours inspecting my knob after another dodgy ride..

  6. MoyestWithExcitement

    “to rubbish the good senator for highlighting this is stupid in the extreme.
    Let people know the facts and maybe an informed choice…”

    Call it arrogance but I read posts like that and my gut reaction is to assume you’re on a wind up. The “good senator” decided it was perfectly acceptable to stoke up fear without providing any facts so that someone would demand her protractors provide facts is just laughable. But, then, I genuinely can’t work out if you actually mean what you say.

    1. donkey_kong

      I do.. I fail to see what’s so wrong with it.
      the “good senator ” was in jest .. the rest was legit.

      The jabs aren’t risk free some people will pay with side effects…I think people need to be informed and not rely wholly on WHO approved formula only to claim later “ah jaysus…if i’d known”.
      That’s all .
      As I said I’d have got the jab myself if I was young enough and offered it.

      that said “maybe an informed choice ” should be “make an informed choice” , silly typo .

      1. Dόn Pídgéόní

        But they aren’t relying on the WHO. There are quite a few studies of the side effects of this particular vaccine, and MMR as well, to counter the and help people make informed choices about their child’s health. Pity it is undermined by people believing Jenny McCarthy and others over statistical analysis of the actual risks.

        There is no WHO mandate. They provide policy and implemnation guidelines and may or may not roll it out through the UN. The HPV vaccination programme is voluntary, not compulsory like polio for example.

    2. donkey_kong

      you have a point on the facts thing.. that is fair but it is twitter .. lets see what the meeting spits out.
      that said , these side effects only ever become known via anecdotal evidence ..
      they don’t dream up projects to investigate side effects of drugs for the craic , it stems from personal experiences being reported.

      1. Dόn Pídgéόní

        “they don’t dream up projects to investigate side effects of drugs for the craic , it stems from personal experiences being reported.”

        What do you think the FDA does?

          1. Dόn Pídgéόní

            And get flummoxed by bad science as well to be fair but fairly sure they have some role in dreaming up projects to assess side effects of drugs, though not for the craic

      2. ReproBertie

        What about the studies like this one –
        http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121001161442.htm – 200,000 women and 350,000 doses given. The only adverse reactions were fainting, an expected outcome from any needle injection, and skin infection, another expected outcome.

        Or this one – http://www.bmj.com/content/347/bmj.f5906 – Almost 1,000,000 women included in the study and yet it “found no evidence supporting associations between exposure to qHPV vaccine and autoimmune, neurological, and venous thromboembolic adverse events”

        Would these not count as projects to investigate the side effects of this particular drug?

        1. donkey_kong

          point taken – but if there was more at the meeting.
          The meeting is key , not twitter and it’s glorious 140 char length.

          people are judging her on her twitter comment , not her meeting.

          1. ReproBertie

            She sent out a tweet repeating a claim that 106 Irish girls are chronically ill following the HPV vaccine. If this was true there would be a HSE investigation and stories in the mainstream media. Damn right people are judging her for this unsubstantiated, irresponsbile, fear-mongering tweet.

          2. donkey_kong

            maybe but it is the HSE
            and we don’t know , maybe the HSE are investigating and haven’t released a statement yet . They aren’t known for their proactive behavior.

            who knows?

          3. ReproBertie

            Be serious. If 106 girls in Ireland were chronically ill as a result of the HPV vaccine it would be news. At the very least Joe Duffy and the Herald would be all over it.

      3. Stephanenny

        I’ve checked out the crowd she referenced in another tweet on the same issue. It’s total bollocks. Remember that Healy Eames also went on an abortion “fact finding trip” to the US funded by Family & Life who oppose the MMR. This has nothing to do with science, for her it’s religion.

    3. Clampers Outside!

      He shoots, he scores!
      Nailed it!
      It’s in the bag!
      etc….

      “perfectly acceptable to stoke up fear without providing any facts so that someone would demand her protractors provide facts is just laughable”

    4. TomCo

      The problem with this is that a lot of people are easily persuaded by misinformation such as this. If people stop getting vaccinations we’ll start to see some pretty serious diseases making a come back.

      The really sad part is the effect on herd immunity. Some people just can’t receive some vaccines (pregnant women, the immunocompromised etc) and are protected by virtue of most people being vaccinated preventing disease spread.

      When individuals exercise their right to choose not to be vaccinated they don’t just endanger themselves and their children, they endanger the segment of the community who have no choice.

    1. Neilo

      Brandine is far more thorough: she knew that Classy Lassy shirt that Cletus picked out for her would never fly with the arbiters of fashion in Dairy Queen.

  7. Jackdaw

    It would be nice to see Dr. Leo state clearly that this woman is wrong. The scary thing is that there will be foolish foolish people that will believe her.

  8. Urbanfrog

    All politics is bullpoo. It is not about planning for our future, it’s is about planning for theirs. cheap political bullshit using panic and fear to get elected.

  9. Ex salmon eile

    I think Sen Healy Eames claims are at least as valid as the straw men and articles of faith peddled by true believers here every day. I take every political claim like this with a grain of salt, but if this was, you know, Anne Marie McNally or someone ‘cool’ saying that, I bet the reactions here would not be as strident and whiny

  10. Peter Dempsey

    So Eoin O’Mahony is being whiny on Twitter. Again.

    This is the guy who tweeted “Cycled 9km from work tonight in the rain. Still better than commuting by car”.

    He hates motorists, property owners, people who wear suits, religious people – basically anyone who doesn’t conform to his so-hip leftist world view. Naturally he’s an academic.

Comments are closed.

Sponsored Link
Broadsheet.ie