
But in the relevant period 32 people started showing symptoms of narcolepsy. You really wouldn't expect so many cases of this rather rare condition to blip up the HSE statistics in such a short time. So Darina O'Flanagan and her colleagues at the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC - our equivalent of the CDC in Atlanta) carried out a retrospective study to see who had recently come into narcolepsy and whether they had been 'flu jabbed (N=30) or not had the jab (N=2). In young people aged 5-19 the risk of narcolepsy was, from these figures, calculated at 5.7 per 100,000 person-years for vaccinated vs 0.4 per 100,000 person-years for unvaccinated: 14x more likely to get this condition if you have the jab. But still extremely unlikely to get the condition. 81 cases of narcolepsy were revealed when notes were compared with Sweden and 79 cases when Finnish data was considered: the odds up North were similar to those in Ireland.
The vaccine Pandemrix was invented by GlaxoSmithKline GSK and patented in 2006, it consisted of an antigen from an H1N1 strain of influenza virus, an 'adjuvant' called AS03 and some preservatives. Adjuvants are often added to vaccines to goad the immune system into a response: inorganic alum (aluminium sulphate) has been used for decades for this purpose. It looks like the immune system of the vanishingly small fraction of youngsters, who had the jab AND THEN developed narcolepsy, goes on the rampage and attacks the part of the brain that produces orexin. Presumably they are DQ0602 positive for starters.
These unfortunate narcoleptics were in the news last week because an apparatchik (аппара́тчик) from the megalithic Health Service Executive HSE (of which HSPC is part) issued a diktat to say that these affected narcoleptics couldn't have their legal costs (of their suit against the state) covered by the state . . . and he was promptly over-ruled by the head of the HSE: probably because The Boss recognised a public-relations disaster when it jumped up and bit him.
Who to blame? There are plenty of lawyers who will, for a cut, offer to sue the State, the HSE, the Department of Health, and GlaxoSmithKlline and Uncle Tom Cobbley to vindicate the rights of these people and indemnify them for the results of their mis-call in the matter of whether to have the jab or take their chances with the 'flu. Do I hear you cry "moral hazard" you uncaring brute? The cases are so rare that they would be impossible to pick up in any reasonably sized epidemiological study carried out by GSK before they released the vaccine to the public. And here's another thing: there is evidence from China to suggest that, regardless of vaccines and GSK, by contracting a dose of H1N1 flu you are more likely to get narcolepsy. Whom do you sue then? Set your lawyers Dewey, Cheatem & Howe on Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos?
How do we give confidence to parents who are hesitant to vaccinate their children?
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