Pneumococcal Vaccine

The heading of this article in today's 9NEWS.com.au caught my attention: Death no incentive for lung infection vax. The entire article is reproduced below:

Potential death is not enough to make three quarters of Australian adults vaccinate against pneumococcal pneumonia, a survey reveals. The research shows efforts to raise public awareness of the seriousness of the infection are failing, says Associate Professor Lucy Morgan of the Lung Foundation Australia. 

"Even among high-risk groups, such as those aged over 65, there are no overwhelmingly high motivators for vaccination," she said. Pneumococcal pneumonia is a severe lung infection responsible for a large proportion of pneumonia cases aged 65 and above. An online survey of 1241 adults for the foundation found 75 per cent of adults cannot be motivated to protect against the infection, despite being informed of its seriousness and potentially fatal complications. Of those, 73 per cent are considered high risk of contracting the infection because of their age or a pre-existing condition. 

Infectious diseases paediatrician and immunisation expert Professor Robert Booy says there is a 93 per cent vaccine rate among Australian children. "However, among equally vulnerable senior, we're failing to achieve even 50 per cent pneumococcal vaccine uptake, which could offer up to five more years of high-quality life," he said. "Given grandchildren may pass pneumonia onto their grandparents, and vice-versa, protecting against pneumococcal infection would enrich their lives." 

The Lung Foundation Australia is releasing its research on Tuesday to mark Know Pneumonia Day.

According to this government website, immunisation against pneumococcal disease is achieved using single-disease vaccines. For babies, the first dose of pneumococcal vaccine is recommended at two months of age, with subsequent doses at four and six months of age. While the babies who receive the vaccine have no choice in the matter, adults do and the article laments that 75 per cent of adults cannot be motivated to protect against the infection. The article implies that they're dicing with death and the oldies in particular are just throwing away five more years of high-quality life and maybe passing the damn disease on to their grandchildren. The Lung Foundation Australia is releasing these shocking statistics to mark Know Pneumonia Day. So what is Lung Foundation Australia all about?

Well it turns out that it has offices very near where I grew up. It's official address is Level 2, 11 Finchley Street, Milton QLD 4064. Its website states that:

We ensure lung health is a priority for all in Australia by:

• Promoting the importance of lung health
• Promoting early diagnosis of lung disease
• Supporting those with lung disease, their families and carers
• Promoting equitable access to evidence-based care
• Funding quality research

We rely on donations, membership, bequests, grants, business and industry support.

So who keeps Lung Foundation Australia afloat? Who are the big sponsors? It doesn't take long to find out:

 

Hmmm, well Boehringer Ingelheim is one of the world's leading research-driven pharmaceutical companies with 130 years of experience and Roche is a leader in research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Get the picture? BIG PHARMA finances this foundation and it is BIG PHARMA that manufactures the pneumococcal vaccine. Perhaps there's a conflict of interest here but that's not an issue likely to be raised on 9NEWS.com.au. It's sounds quite reasonable at first sight: Lung Foundation Australia, whose sole non-profit interest is to keep you breathing, urges all right-thinking adults to line up for their pneumococcal vaccinations. It's in the best interests of themselves, their grandchildren and, just coincidentally, BIG PHARMA.

The drug companies must dream of a day where vaccinations like this are simply mandatory for everybody. 93% of Australian babies are already covered and you can bet that elderly people in nursing homes have little say in the matter as well. It's those damn 75% of adults who are proving a problem. Well, a sensational article with the heading Death no incentive for lung infection vax can't do any harm. It may panic some of them into having the jab. So how effective is this vaccine? Are there any side-effects? This article, admittedly from 2011, shows that we ought to be cautious:

UK Scraps Pneumonia Vaccines Because They 'Don't Work' 

When deciding whether or not to vaccinate, it's important to consider the risks versus the benefits. Case in point, new advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) in the UK has determined that routine vaccination of people over 65 with the pneumococcal vaccine should be discontinued. The Committee stated: 

"JCVI has concluded that the protection the vaccine provides is poor and is not long-lasting in older people. In addition, the programme has had no discernable impact on the incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease in older people. The committee has advised, therefore, that there is little benefit to continuing the programme and that it should be stopped." 

Millions of people over 65 have already received the pneumonia vaccine, which was often offered alongside the flu vaccine in the UK -- and the Department of Health was reportedly still promoting it as recently as January. 

For a vaccine that has provided "poor" protection against illness, the stakes have been high. Mail Online reported official figures from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency that stated the vaccine, sold under brand names Pneumovax and Pneumovax II, has been linked to 30 deaths and more than 3,300 reported side effects. LINK

A supposedly more effective pneumococcal vaccine was introduced by Pfizer in 2014 but there is clearly cause for concern. So for the elderly, as with the young, the list of suggested vaccines keeps rising: pneumococcal, flu, shingles, diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis are suggested by the Australian Government. At the moment, such vaccinations are optional but it won't be long before certain penalties will apply to seniors who don't submit to them, in the same way that child support payments are now being withheld from parents who don't fully vaccinate their children.