Sciblogs | Diplomatic Immunity Archives

Diplomatic Immunity

In defence of the tamariki

Helen Petousis Harris • May 24, 2017

Dr Lance O’Sullivan I salute you. Kaitaia is a town in the far north of NZ, warm people, lovely beaches. Sadly immunisation coverage is low, infectious disease rates are high. Doctors like Lance O’Sullivan work their guts out to improve the health of the people they serve, including treating kids for illnesses that they should never have to suffer. Read More

How vaccines are controlled and by whom

Helen Petousis Harris • May 05, 2017

A couple of people asked me the same questions yesterday. How do vaccines end up on a schedule, how are they regulated, and by whom? Reckon those are great questions, some answers ensue. How does a vaccine end up on the schedule? This is based on need, or other words the burden of a disease. It could be rare but … Read More

WHO VigiBase study does not find HPV vaccine unsafe.

Helen Petousis Harris • Mar 03, 2017

A new study used the World health Organization’s global database of reports of adverse events associated with the use of a medicine (VigiBase), including vaccines, to look at reporting patterns after HPV vaccine. The cases in VigiBase are collected for 125 member states, including NZ, who participate in the WHOs International Drug Monitoring Programme. The data from all the member … Read More

Was the Gardasil vaccine ever compared with a placebo?

Helen Petousis Harris • Feb 20, 2017

Gardasil was assessed in Double Blind Randomised Placebo Controlled Trials that used the fully formulated vaccine and compared it with two different placebos, the aluminium adjuvant and a saline solution. What is a placebo? A placebo is a substance as similar as possible to the active drug except it has no therapeutic effect. It does not … Read More

HPV vaccine does not destroy fertility, it helps protect it

Helen Petousis Harris • Feb 14, 2017

As we enter a new year and school-based vaccination programmes get cracking the recycled crazy myths raise their ill-founded serpent heads again. This week it is the notion that Gardasil causes infertility by inducing Primary Ovarian Failure/insufficient (POF). It is popping up on social media – again. The fact is that Gardasil does not cause infertility. By infertility I refer to the … Read More

If only there had been a vaccine…

Helen Petousis Harris • Nov 23, 2016

“Only clean water and antibiotics have had an impact on childhood death and disease that is equal to that of vaccines” – World Health Organization (WHO) In the 20th century, when most of you reading this were born, nearly 1.7 billion people died from infectious diseases. Most of the diseases in the sobering infographic linked above are … Read More

PHARMAC changes to vaccines – people are the winners

Helen Petousis Harris • Jul 28, 2016

Today PHARMAC announced their changes to funded vaccines. Basically they did what PHARMAC do, and within their given budget they negotiated the best deal they could with the suppliers to prevent as much disease as possible. After all, that is what we want them to do on our behalf. So who wins and who loses? The reality is, that like … Read More

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Nordic Cochrane, the medical regulator and anti-vax hypocrisy

Helen Petousis Harris • Jun 23, 2016

Last month members of the Nordic Cochrane posted a letter of complaint to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on their website. Does this mean that members of the Nordic Cochrane have uncovered previously undiscovered evidence about the HPV vaccine? No! The vaccine has an excellent safety profile and as of todays date the scientific community are unanimous about that fact. But … Read More

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Cost of civil liberty and what The Australian Sex Party said

Helen Petousis Harris • Jun 03, 2016

Today is sunny and the measles outbreak is still reigning. I wonder how many tax dollars have now been spent on this little plague thus far. New Zealand has an estimated 400,000 young people susceptible to measles, mainly the 80s and 90s kids that didn’t get immunised and are still unimmunised. Schools have had to close. I whinged about … Read More

NZ on the measles merry-go-round. Why?

Helen Petousis Harris • May 27, 2016

It is raining and we are having another measles outbreak because a non-immune someone went overseas, picked up the most contagious virus known to infect man and brought it back home to the Waikato. They then spread it to others who were not immune to measles (generally unvaccinated). Controlling spread of measles takes enormous public health resources, every case must … Read More