It’s a natural response to stay away from something we know to be harmful. We imagine the instinct is stronger for parents.
Imagine then the anxiety that the Dengvaxia controversy has created. It is worse than “something harmful” because it is something harmful masking as something that protect children from harm.
As the debate of facts— on whether the 14 deaths among the hundreds of thousands of children administered the anti-dengue vaccine were caused by the cure—continues, we are reminded that the issue has become a tragedy for its immediate and long-term consequences.
For the short term, the children who were given what was supposed to be protection from a life-threatening disease will never be sure if they are better or worse because of Dengvaxia.
The pharmaceutical company that manufactured it, Sanofi Pasteur, belatedly announced its own misgivings and disclaimers about their product.
To what extent were the deaths a direct result of the vaccine? The scientists are trying to figure that out now—and the rumor-mongering, political intrigue-seeking lot are not proving to be any help.
For the long term, people will now refuse vaccines of any kind, even as the established practice has been known to be beneficial numerous times in the past.
A senator suggested that the Department of Health use its P634-million advertising budget to “fight the fake news that all vaccines are bad.”
It’s not fake news. It’s faulty generalization even as it is borne from legitimate fear.
Going the other way would be equally risky.
The department, the senator said, should launch an aggressive drive to emphasize among the people that science should always be superior to superstition.
It’s not superstition, either. It’s bad experience with those eager to gain political windfall by addressing a gut issue without regard to the risks.
Filipinos have had no problem with vaccines in the past. The poor especially relied on government-provided vaccines to protect their children. The confidence was eroded by what happened with Dengvaxia. The best way to regain that confidence is to do the right thing in this investigation: Establish the facts, prosecute the guilty, take concrete steps so that no similar blunder happens again.
The falsehood that must be countered is not that vaccines are bad. It is that government officials can never be so scheming, negligent or clueless as to put people’s lives on the line.