Pop along to the Fail's website, and there's an almost daily stream of articles on the evils of the cervical cancer vaccine.
Apparently it will encourage promiscuity and bring numerous health problems.
Now, sadly, a fourteen year old girl has died. Unsurprisingly, the Mail were quick to blame her death on the cancer jab she'd had two hours before - either "an extreme reaction", or a dose from a "rogue contaminated batch".
Neither of these turned out to be the case, and it turns out that Natalie had a tumour in her heart and lungs. Her death shortly after receiving the jab was just an unfortunate coincidence, but one the Daily Mail were all-too-happy to blame on Cervarix.
Out of one million girls, 4,657 have reported side effects "including sore arms, dizziness and swelling". I, and many of my friends, had these after being given a meningitis jab at the age of 11/12, yet the Daily Mail seem to have no qualms about children being immunised against meningitis.
The Daily Mail's major concern seems to be these fears of "promiscuity". The argument that a vaccine will prompt a nation of 13-year-old girls to go out and have sex is just astounding. Despite what the Mail seem to think, teenage girls aren't all complete idiots. Yes, some do get pregnant. But the vast majority of 13-19 year old girls DON'T. Having a cancer vaccine isn't going to change these facts.
Their stance against the jab is even more shocking when you consider their constant coverage of the death of Jade Goody. This woman's painful and traumatic death was front page news for months. I do not want to go through that. I don't want anybody to go through that. I'm amazed that some parents are still denying their daughters the innoculation, when we've seen first hand what cervical cancer can do to a young woman.
But what's this?
"The Irish Daily Mail launched a campaign in November calling on the Government to reverse its decision to axe the cervical cancer vaccination programme...The Irish Daily Mail will not relent and will continue to urge the roll out of the vaccine"
Words actually fail me. I didn't think even the Fail could be quite THIS hypocritical.
01 October, 2009
Because stopping women getting cancer is wrong - according to the Fail (sometimes).
Posted by
Brackers
Labels:
cervical cancer,
daily fail,
hypocrisy,
lashings of rage
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The Mail's coverage of vaccination is terrible when you look at the articles they've published on the MMR and HPV vaccines. Oh, and the hep B vaccine and the H1N1 vaccine.
ReplyDeleteRe hypocrisy: isn't the Daily Mail the paper that after Princess Di’s death said it would never use Paparazzi photos again? Also, see here for more comment on the opposing vaccine campaigns in English and Irish editions: http://layscience.net/node/507
The Mail are one of the biggest pushers of the "MMR = Death and Autism" conspiracy theory, sadly this isn't surprising but it is teeth-grindingly frustrating. Some of the comments on those articles actually state, quite boldly, that they believe vaccines 'do nothing'. Which is depressing.
ReplyDeleteI can't get my head round the level of stupidity required to think being vaccinated will "encourage girls to be promiscuous".
ReplyDeleteFirstly, very few girls (not even all women) know that cervical cancer can be caused by contracting a sexually transmitted disease.
Secondly, if they were bright enough to know that, they would also know that it DIDN't protect against, HIV, Chlamydia, Herpes or any of the other delightful STDs out there.
Thirdly, they would certainly know it wouldn;t protect against pregnancy, which, let's face it, is what girls/women worry most about with sex.
Fourthly, have you ever, EVER heard anybody say "ooh, I'd love to sleep around more, but I'm worried about getting an STD"? No, you haven't, because if people want to sleep around they will sleep around, if they don't, they wont and considerations that practical literally never come into it. Plus, as ludicrous as the above statement was, can you imagine anyone ever saying "oh, I'm going to stay a virgin until I get married in case I get cancer"? No! Argh!
Fifthly, jebus, when I got the TB vaccination the first thing on my mind was not that I could finally go to India (where it is endemic) and start licking peoples faces. FFS.
Can't work out which is worse, the Mail one or today's Express. The Express doesn't have quite the same insane-Victorian-moralising tone as the Mail, but its more forthrightly stated lies will probably have a worse overall effect on uptake.
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