Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses and thank them for their presentations. We have discussed this issue at this committee but the ears of the broader public do not seem receptive, particularly with regard to the human papillomavirus, HPV, vaccine. The evidence is overwhelming in terms of broad vaccination programmes, and the national immunisation programme is clearly responsible for thousands of being alive or without injury or illness. In the case of the HPV vaccine, the concerns being expressed by individuals are clearly being received by the people because the immunisation programme and the confidence around it are being undermined by social media, misinformation, false information and fears to the point that people have told me that when girls in first year are waiting to be vaccinated, some make a decision there and then not to go ahead with it. They are chatting among themselves and decide as a group not to go ahead with it. Those fears can be quite profound and ingrained.

In view of the fact we were late to the table with this vaccination programme for HPV and other countries are ahead, has there been any similar drop-off in other First World countries using this vaccination programme? We were at 87% or 88% at one stage but we are now down to 50%. We are now possibly beyond the critical mass for community or herd immunisation. Have there been similar difficulties in other countries in terms of a drop-off because of misinformation, a lack of understanding and all that flows from that? This has come about primarily because of Internet and social media, especially the sharing of information or misinformation, depending on how one looks at it. It involves the sharing of views and opinions and that almost escalates at times to crisis point in social media discussions. In India and other regions, voodoo or taboo-type concerns would be expressed about vaccination programmes, but this is what we must deal with here. Have we the capacity to explain this scientifically in a way that is friendly and comprehensible in a social media context?

Professor Karina Butler explained this in a passionate and simple way in order that it could be understood by people. I do not mean to be disrespectful but I am a layperson and sometimes when the medical community explains issues or formulates advertisements, it may not amount to what is required in the modern era of social media. That is something that should be looked at. Rather than going around on the issue, have there been similar problems in other countries and what has been done to address that? Are we unique in that we have seen a critical drop-off in the uptake of the Gardasil vaccine?

The cases in Denmark have been referenced on a number of occasions by groups like Reactions and Effects of Gardasil Resulting in Extreme Trauma, REGRET, and others who are campaigning against this particular vaccination programme. They are not necessarily always campaigning against it but rather arguing that the Gardasil vaccine is unsafe. They instance Japan and Denmark as examples, which are two First World countries with good safety records. Denmark referred Gardasil to the European Medicines Agency or the World Health Organization for investigation. Why did that happen? Do the countries still have a vaccination programme? Those issues are consistently being raised. As a proponent of immunisation and vaccines, it is important to have information put not just to this committee but put to the broader public fairly quickly. As the Irish Cancer Society has indicated, otherwise we could end up condemning 40 women to certain death.

Pandemrix was manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline around 2009 as a swine flu vaccination and there issues arising from it with regard to narcolepsy. It is accepted there were side effects and this is sometimes used by the people who campaign against the human papillomavirus, Gardasil. Were the checks and balances, including an evaluation of the Pandemrix vaccine, done in the exact same way as every other vaccine or was it rushed because there was a pandemic?

There is the issue of parental information. Parents have come to me and while some advocate the vaccination, others were very concerned and some had the view that it should not be given. In the context of information being provided at school level for the Gardasil vaccine, even by the clinicians or nurses providing it, a better effort may need to be made. As I already said, there are girls chatting in corridors while queuing for the vaccination programme and they are very uncertain about it. I had a case reported to me recently with people fainting in advance of getting the vaccine because of the fear of it. This was used on social media to undermine the credibility of the programme.

Article 50 has been triggered and negotiations will take place about Brexit. Is there any concern for the short and medium term that there could be a divergence between the UK and European thinking on issues related to community and herd immunisation on the island of Ireland? There may be different vaccination approaches, one without a vaccination programme in one or the other jurisdiction. Is there a concern in that context or a plan to ensure the issue is Brexit-proofed, as we say with everything else?