Aunty Jenny and Tinker Bell

My mother was the youngest of six children. Her next oldest sibling, Jenny, contracted polio at the age of six. She damned near died but struggled through to spend the rest of her life in a wheel chair. She had what I now know was a severe kypho-scoliosis but all it meant to me as a child was that she had to wear what was called in the family “Jenny’s case”, a supportive spinal case. And calipers. Ghastly. You do not see them now. She was highly intelligent, and always a pleasure to see. She read to me endlessly and, when I was a little older, she taught me card games. She died in her early fifties of respiratory complications secondary, I am sure, to her crooked spine and to her chain smoking. She smoked Du Maurier cigarettes.


An eccentric choice. I can see the packets now. Did she think they were sophisticated? I don't know, but she was never without one. Fortunately for me, passive smoking had not been invented then. Jenny lived with her mother (my grandmother) Martha.  Martha lived to the ripe old age of 91. She did not smoke. She made the most wonderful parkin, and shrewsbury biscuits and treacle toffee.

You do not see polio patients very often now. What was common place when I was a child has disappeared. You do not see children with diphtheria. Martha described a childhood friend of hers dying of diphtheria. When Martha was a child, parents lived in fear of diphtheria. When I was a child the only illness we really feared was smallpox. (Yes, we were pretty blasé and naïve about measles) I can remember queuing for a vaccination when there was a smallpox outbreak. Smallpox has now been eradicated. Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, measles, mumps, rubella, some forms of meningitis, and the virus that causes cervical cancer can all be prevented. I have no idea how many millions of lives have been saved by vaccination and immunisations. On a personal level, in a strange way, the millions of lives saved mean less to me than Aunty Jenny's life. She did not die of polio, but her life was appallingly compromised. I am the only doctor there has ever been in my family but, long before I went to medical school, my extended family was always at the front of the queue for any immunisation that was available.

I am annoyed when pseudo-scientists and misguided, malevolent fools start lobbying against immunisations. I am angry when dangerous organisations such as JABS get so much free publicity. I am in two minds about even discussing the controversy in a public forum for, each time it is discussed, it provides a platform for the anti-immunisation brigade and that means that every doctor in the country will have another family or two who will hesitate about immunisations. I only mention the problem now because, to coin a phrase, “something wicked this way comes”.

I refer to David Kirby. You have never heard of him. You are about to. He is an American who has “reservations” about immunisations. Reservations that are not scientifically sustainable. In fairness, I should say he is not wicked. It would be much easier if he were. He is far more dangerous than “wicked”. He is sincere, articulate and persuasive. He writes well, he speaks well, he believes what he says (I assume) and he is on a mission. He is utterly, totally wrong. He deserves as much credence as a representative of the Flat Earth Society. Yes, the society really does exist. You can join here if you wish. Safer to join them than JABS. But, as a member of the Flat Earth Society, do not expect to be asked to speak in the Houses of Parliament.

U.S. Journalist David Kirby, author of the award winning book “Evidence of Harm, Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic - A Medical Controversy,” will give a special briefing on this debate at the Houses of Parliament in London, on Wednesday, 4 June. Mr. Kirby will speak about recent legal, political and scientific developments in the United States in the ongoing vaccine-autism controversy. The briefing is open to Peers in the House of Lords, Members of Parliament, their Staff, members of the Media, and Invited Guests.

Full details of the nefarious Mr Kirby can be found here. Why is he being given a platform in Parliament? Because he has been invited to speak by Lord Hodgson.

Hodgson has a son diagnosed with mild Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Like many parents with kids with ADHD or autistic spectrum disorders (ASD), he has felt dissatisfied with the mainstream treatments on offer and become interested in alternative therapies. However, he has also seemingly bought some of the anti-vaccine lobby line:

“It is unlikely that there is any one single cause [of ADHD]. Genetics and heredity will probably be found to play a significant part. But what other factors are in play? One matter looks increasingly likely to be a significant contributory cause: the requirement in this country that every baby receives three injections in the first 16 weeks of life as immunisation against diphtheria, tetanus and whole cell pertussis—whooping cough, to laymen  (full report from Dr Aust)

I despair. I understand the frustrations of any parent who has an autistic child. But you can’t conflate “mild” ADHD and ASD and you can’t “treat” autism. A child with autism does not need treatment; he/she needs support and understanding. Will Lord Hodgson be asking a reputable paediatrician from Great Ormond Street to share the platform and describe the lack of an evidence base for so called vaccine damage? Of course not. Again, I despair.

Great Ormond Street is the most famous children’s hospital in the world. J.M. Barrie bequeathed the royalties from Peter Pan to the hospital. Peter Pan is particularly relevant. I hope Lord Hodgson will read it again. Spare a thought for Tinker Bell.  She said that

every time someome says “I don’t believe in fairies” a fairy dies.

It is the same with immunisations.

Every time you provide a platform for someone to say “I don’t believe in immunisations” somewhere a child will die.

Die unnecessarily from measles, or meningitis, or diphtheria. Or polio. Take your pick. We did not have the medical technology to protect Aunty Jenny from poliomyelitis. We do have the technology now, and we must not allow the media indulged lunatic fringe to throw it away.

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The polio victim pictured above is not Aunty Jenny. It is Edna Hindson from the USA. Her story is here.