Here's the horror story about chicken pox, courtesy of the BBC, replete with a pic designed to create a nice drop of cognitive dissonance to help the fear "bed in".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7082853.stm

Here's a press release for the vaccine itself. Note the second sentence in particular (I'd advise skipping the rest of the drivel!)

http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=88849

And here's the reality: chicken pox kills less than FIVE children per year and the disease is in decline anyway, according to the British Medical Journal.

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/bmj%3b324/7337/609/a

I wonder if this could be the reason for all the apparent deceit:

QUOTE
It is possible that vaccinating children, and lowering the overall level of infection greatly, could make adults who have had chickenpox more susceptible to shingles. Countries that use the vaccine against chickenpox routinely, such as the US, have not been doing so for long enough to show whether these concerns are justified. Studies in the US are contradictory, with one showing a big rise in shingles and another no change.

One way round this problem would be to vaccinate the elderly against shingles, the team says.

Quoted from http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_...icle2827746.ece


Money, money, money...