Too Much Protest

The old phrase 'methinks he doth protest too much' is frequently an insight that something is genuinely amiss. And so I find myself thinking of MMR.

Let's be clear from the off, whilst the vaccination programme is to protect children the multiple jabs are to save money. It then became political. I don't know if the claims by Dr Andrew Wakefield that there is a link between the MMR injection and autism were correct. But what I did see was the full force of government and its authority lackeys being deployed to discredit and get rid of him.

Proving him wrong didn't seem to be a strategy. He was in the pay of drug companies who stood to profit, was unprofessional, his work not rigorous, anything but actual evidence. It caused consternation and people became fearful of the multiple vaccination. Some wanted to have single injections, spaced out but the government refused to allow doctors to provide this service, even if the parents volunteered to pay.

Why was that? All they could offer was a weak 'people will forget and not get their children vaccinated'. But of course, if a groundswell grew wanting single injections the battle would be lost. MMR had to stay.

Now an advert has appeared on a website claiming the link to autism again and it has immediately been banned. Such prompt action rarely signifies something good when the government is involved. Too much protesting, I think.

A bit like the silence over the deaths of farmers after compulsory sheep dipping, using government approved chemicals was introduced. The government don't want to investigate that at all, yet it is accepted fact that Organophosphates act on the nervous system and build up with repeated exposure. Some things are less important than others and a Minister being embarrassed is best avoided, even at the expense of people's lives.