Maman Poulet

Quite a bit of noise this week regarding the HPV vaccination programme. The latest seems to be in The Examiner with a leading public health researcher now claiming she is being misquoted and seeking a published apology from the reporter Today the Examiner published a news article being on a letter to the editor from a local priest calling for chastity and questioning the efficacy of the vaccine. Who needs the Daily Mail in scare story reporting?

In correspondence seen by me, Professor Diane Harper now claims that Jennifer Hough has misrepresented her work and only reported the risks associated with the vaccine in a second article published yesterday which reported on adverse reactions claimed by people and where the opinion of the journalist concluded that the HPV vaccine did not prevent cervical cancer – no research was contained in the article to back up this particular statement.

Professor Harper advocates that young women and their parents are educated about the vaccine, the possible rare risks and also that screening for all forms of cervical cancer will remain essential. She has addressed those who believe there are concerns with the vaccine and says they cannot be ignored.

An interview with Professor Harper (which alludes to frequent misrepresentations of her work) published on the Huffington Post last year is one of the easier to read which discusses issues pertaining to epidemiology, public health campaigns and research into the vaccine. It’s a pity that Jennifer Hough did not provide more information on the benefits of the programme and also report that Professor Harper believes in the efficacy of the vaccine up to the age of 26 and a protector against women having to undergo pre cancerous treatments and having smear tests misreported. Further reading on twisting science in this post by the excellent Ben Goldacre.

The article on the priest’s letter is the usual rubbish seized upon with no statistics or balance or fact checking. Fr. Eamonn McCarthy proceeded to get a lot of radio coverage today on Newstalk and Radio 1. In his letter to the Examiner Fr. McCarthy said that there was no evidence to show that vaccines worked (Psst Father heres only one bit – 60% reduction in genital warts in Australia reported last month.)

“A quick surf on the internet yields enough scary evidence to suggest that parents should think very carefully before allowing their young daughters to receive Gardasil, the HPV vaccine,” he said. “Thousands of adverse side-effects have been reported and, worldwide, up to 80 deaths among otherwise healthy young women have been allegedly linked to it. Two states in India have halted the vaccine.”

Fr McCarthy said HPV also gave a lie to claims that condoms are safe.

He also questioned what was being asked of secondary school boys.

[No i did not understand this either]

Mother nature is speaking to us through the bitter tears of rampant infection, sub-fertility, sterility and death. Like Mother Church, her cries are not being heeded,” he said. “There is a better way. Parents, do not be afraid to challenge your children to cherish the health and freedom of chastity. It has now become a matter of (eternal) life and death.”

Today the Irish Times published an article with one piece from a homeopath/therapeutic radiographer who is against the programme and a piece from two senior medics involved in public health and immunisation in favour of the programme.

I’m not a science reporter but an interested patient and reader of research and the reporting of research. A thought on medical treatments and risks – If I take a new medication there is a leaflet inside which outlines maybe a 1 in a 1000 risk or a 10 in a 10,000 risk or even a 1 in 100,000 risk associated with the medication and possible side effects. I am educated by the doctors prescribing it and the information provided on the disease and the treatment. There are side effects with all medications, there are also sudden deaths in populations, MS, early menopause and other illnesses – among those who have never taken the vaccine or any other medication.

If hundreds of thousands of women are vaccinated there will be reactions and there will be illnesses not related. We have medical review boards and agencies who will review the risks and reports and I think we have to put our trust in them, be informed about the risks of both the vaccine and also the disease being vaccinated against and also the fact that prevention in the form of safer sex and screening is also essential.

There are also issues with the way in which adverse effects are reported and recorded. Reports to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) which Hough mentioned can be made by anyone, are often not followed up by a full report or evidence and many people could report a headache their daughter had 4 or 5 times over and it’s never checked up.

Facts are twisted to suit positions, religious groups have published all sorts of rubbish on this vaccine saying that it will make girls sexually permissive, there are anti big pharma groups, politicians who don’t want to pay for it, those who don’t believe women’s health is worth protecting. I would hope that all sides of the issue are covered in our national press and reported fairly and by people who actually know something on the issue – whatever I think about homeopathy (clue it’s sugary stuff) at least the Irish Times published both sides of the issue in today’s paper rather that the thoughts of a priest and delving into a list of scare stories and twisting research and data.

Cue loads of comments from anti vaccine types and other attention seekers. Tin hat on.

PS: I got through this post without referring to the incredibly soft and dangerous interview that Fr. McCarthy had on Drivetime this evening with Philip Boucher Hayes – it was this which set me off digging and where I received information on the concerns of Professor Harper regarding the reports in The Irish Examiner.

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who ya going to call?

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These things are not supposed to happen in modern politics. If a Minister goes to visit a project it is usually squeaky clean with no bad news hidden about it. It seems someone in British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s office didn’t do their homework. Oops

Malcolm Tucker (The Press Guru in the The Thick of It) would be cursing very loudly yesterday.

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If it’s the summer it must be time for Peninsula Ireland to publish research and get unquestioning news coverage. For previous episodes of ‘dodgy research getting press coverage syndrome’ please see here here and here .

For those of you unaware – the way this works is – Peninsula do research on employment related topic, get a headline put it on a press release and papers publish it verbatim. Peninsula get press coverage of their company and everyone thinks that the majority of employees take sick leave, surf too much at work and are otherwise terrible.

Today’s dramatic research finding (no info on their website about it) is regarding staff stealing from employers and Business World and other publications have reproduced the press release. Therefore director Alan Price will appear unchallenged throughout broadcast media without any examination of the methods involved in research, sample size and error margins. He’s just been on the News at One on RTE Radio 1 in a classic example of this. 68% of employees have admitted to stealing from employers ergo two thirds of all employees steal.

Trade Unions and others please take note and use some of your resources to kick this rubbish where it should remain.

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Mary White TD, Minister of State for Equality, Integration and Human Rights sent me and lots of other people an invitation to a party which is happening tomorrow night to mark the passing of legislation for Civil Partnerships.

The Party for Partnership is being held upstairs at the Odeon on Harcourt Street. The Odeon is one of the most inaccessible venues in Dublin, the upstairs part included.  (I telephoned and checked). So that’ll be able bodied people partying tomorrow night for forthcoming nuptials next year.

The Green Party and the Minister may wish when they have concluded their celebrations to consult a document from the National Disability Authority which is now five years old. *

It discusses issues pertaining to disability and sexual orientation. It’s well time that some of the suggestions in this report were acted on and further work completed regarding access and inclusion for lesbians and gay men with disabilities. It’s not just the Green Party that has this problem, the lgbt community is legendary itself.

*I was one of the people who advised the NDA in a voluntary capacity on the report.

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Gearoid Buckley (Labour) is the former Mayor of Bandon in Cork and local councillor.

He has written to his Local Representative in Seanad Eireann to raise a number of issues.

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The Seanad will begin a two day debate of the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Bill 2009 (note the new name!) tomorrow. (Schedule here.)

The 2nd stage will take place at some stage tomorrow after 12.30pm until 5pm and from 7.15pm onwards. This will be where Senators make general comments on the bill as to it’s general philosophy and how they feel about it so expect contributions from David Norris, the FF 3 (O’Murchu, Jim Walsh and John Hanafin) and others.

The Committee, Report and Final Stages where the bill is debated and possibly amended will take place on Thursday from 10.30 am. (Live stream can be accessed here by selecting one of the options for the Seanad)

You can see the various amendments that have been made and keep an eye to the page for amendments which will be proposed.

As ever a liveblog will take place and we will be watching online and possibly even inside the house. Tweets marked #cpbill will be included in the liveblog and other photo’s, blog posts and even video will be included. It’s history in the making, it may be slightly testy atmosphere, there may even be more ‘vicious protesters’ and it’s going to take two days to do – lots of people have been joining us on the liveblog over the other debates so we hope you’ll join in at some stage!.
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Apres Match have been delighting us post matches on RTE2 with some Vincent Brown take offs including appearances by ‘Joan ‘On the Ground’ Burton’, ‘Brian Lenihan’ and ‘Brian Cowen’. Tonight was the Fine Gael turn.  The ‘Leo Varadkar’ sounded a little bit Paschal Donohue for me?

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More regarding this over the next few days. Spotted it on a pavement near you yet?

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Bert McCann writes about the battle lines being drawn in the Mid-West

Before the skies darken into autumn  the plan to expand the Limerick City boundaries will  have reached  Environment Minister John Gormley’s desk. Saying that the issue has been controversial  is an understatement similar to describing  the Williamite siege as bit of a fall-out.  The ambitions of the metropolis though might yet result in a latter-day stand-off.  But this time neighbouring Co. Clare could be throwing up the barricades against the forces of its urban neighbour..

The city’s seeking for lebensraum goes way back.  The first ever coalition government, that of 1948-51 permitted expansion almost exactly sixty years ago. Another application  entered in 1974 remained unresolved before a chunk of the north county was handed over in 2008. Until then the troubled estate of Moyross was split with one half being the responsibility of the county and the other half  being in the fiefdom of the city. All of it is now within the walls a fact which may or may not contribute to civic peace of mind.

Paradoxically, it had in recent years the highest earned-income level after Dublin, a regeneration programme was in place, the arts were booming and the shops were alive with the sound of credit cards being swished.  However 40% of all housing was let to the less well-off and of course there ’s the high mortality rate amongst  local crime figures. The latter images it seems aren’t particularly attractive to potential investors.

Recession descended, building halted and the brand new commercial development in the Opera Centre, having occasioned the closure of a large number of local businesses to make room for, itself failed to attract tenants.  The city again started to eye the countryside acquisitively. It was perceived locally that the county got the money and the high-end  companies and the town got the pain.

Minister Gormley set up the Limerick Local Government Committee in March to help find solutions.  When the Fine Gael city council then suggested the ingestion of its neighbour all hell broke loose.  The cry was no surrender.

A local journalist familiar with both domains thinks that,.

‘There’s a feeling that the city needs room to grow into a regional centre and that inward investment will be easier to attract if it cultivates a cachet associated with having prosperous suburbs.’

He continued,

‘ On the county side deep loyalties are involved aside from fear of major financial loss. ‘

Suddenly, peace broke out. The FG led  county council  agreed to go along with expansion and a  single council.  Reading the report of the decision in the Limerick Leader it seems that it may have dawned on somebody that savings set against rate loss means a net gain of €2m to the country side of the new conurbation. That arithmetic pleases voters say the local pundits.  So the county council supported the change  in  its submission to the LLGC which visited the region yesterday, speaking in camera with concerned parties.  Now everyone’s happy…?

Well, not really. The single authority wants to cast its line and reel  in a wee bit of  Co. Clare. This has provoked a popular uprising. Verbally, at least.  Last week John Cooke of Clare FM took his Morning Focus programme to one of the villages under ‘threat’. Under a banner reading ‘Not an inch of Co. Clare’ the plain people of Parteen talked of Limerick crime, dereliction spilling into the area and a representative of Clare Against the Boundary talked about all the benefit accruing to the city. Another woman decared she would refuse mail with Limerick in the address. A local publican said that Limerick has to be stopped at the river.

The Clare local councillors while softening a little towards the LLGC and the job its doing are of course compelled to follow the people’s lead., if they want to keep their seats. John Gormley who comes from these parts is standing back and letting his committee get on with it. But it is clear that Clare folk are not going to be netted easily. A 21st Century.siege and strong resistance might yet ensue.

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