POLIO VACCINATION

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 893, 14 September 1956, Page 5

POLIO VACCINATION

' Sir,-Listening to a National panel discussion in the Women’s Session from 1YA recently, I heard the woman speaker state that medical opinion is almost unanimous in approving polio vaccination. The speaker is not to be blamed for the statement, of course, since all information that might cast doubts on the safety and efficacy of polio vaccination has been rigidly suppressed. New Zealand parents should know that the BBC broadcast letters from listeners both for and against polio vaccination, and invited two doctors-one in favour and one against-to sum up the advantages and disadvantages. It is significant, I think, that in England and Wales only 29 per cent of the children between the ages of two and nine have received their parents’ consent to be vaccinated. How is it that the Health Department here can play God and see that the public hears only one side of the ques-tion-that which the Health Department thinks it is good, for the public to know? Are these bureaucrats by any chance infallible? If so, they must be a unique species of the human race. How is it that Dr. Turbott can broadcast in favour of polio vaccination, but no speaker with opposite views is invited to do so? How is it that The Listener prints two articles on the subject by Dr. Turbott, but nothing of ,the reverse

viewpoint? Is it, perhaps, because if the full truth about polio vaccination were known, the percentage of children to receive the vaccine would not be in the 80’s as it is now, but nearer the British figure? There are many interested parties who would not be_pleased if the scheme failed to "go over."

MARY I.

STROOBANT

(Auckland)

(This letter was shown to Dr. H. B. Turbott, Deputy-Director-General of Health, who replied as follows: ‘"The statement in the panel discussion that medical opinion is almost unanimous in approving polio vaccination is correct. at does not mean that the medical world believes it to be the final answer, but rather that it is the best protection yet devised, and that it should be used in countries with a high incidence of poliomyelitis until a better vaccine is devised. The World Health Organisation at its meeting at Geneva in May, 1956, with doctors representing 88 countries attending, unanimously agreed to advise countries plagued with poliomyelitis to use the vaccine immediately it became available. "As far as is known no New Zealand doctor is opposed to the use of the vaccine. The Health Department, in recommending the vaccine, is guided not only by W.H.O., but by an expert New, Zealand Medical Committee ceprenentia the academic and practising mediprofession. Of course, there has been a certain amount of reservation! We all had it after the U.S.A. initial mistake. However, the measures taken after that mistake have satisfied world experts, and everywhere now the vaccine is being accepted as being as ‘safe as it is humanly possible to make it.’’--Ed.)