I'm 85, and I'm puzzled as to why the RSV vaccine has been restricted to 75 - 79 year olds.
Are over 80s immune to RSV or are we being 'phased out'? I say that because in the winter of 2023 I had a persistent dry cough which was in my throat area - not my chest. It got on everybody's nerves including mine, wore me down, and because I'd worked with asbestos from age 15 to 25 I did wonder if it had caught up with me. Quite rightly, my wife badgered me to go to the Doc. Dr sound my chest - all clear, but arranged 2-week priority appointment for an X-Ray and a camera up my nose, and down into my chest. Thankfully, all clear. Back to the Doc and he said; 'it's viral - you'll just have to tough it out', so I did. It lasted 3 months then fizzled out. Same thing this year - mid Jan to mid April cough, cough, cough, cough till it ran its distance.
There's little doubt in my mind that it was RSV and if I am offered the jab, I'll have it.
My wife and I have got our Covid booster and 'Flu jab organised. The average number of flu deaths for the 5 years before the pandemic was 13,500 a year. In 2017 to 2018 season, here were 22,500 excess deaths associated with flu:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/excess-deaths-associated-with-flu-highest-in-5-years
The decline in vaccination of children in the UK is a case for real concern.
The World Health Organization (WHO) currently recommends that at least 95% of children are immunised against diseases preventable by immunisation and targeted for elimination or control (diphtheria, neonatal tetanus, pertussis, polio, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), Hepatitis B, measles, mumps and congenital rubella1 ). The routine childhood immunisation programme for the UK includes these immunisations recommended by WHO.
These are diseases which used to kill children in large numbers - prior to 1946 in the UK, an average of 4,000 children died from childhood diseases. (See graph).
95% has never been achieved and has steadily declined since 2012 due to the influence of 'anti-vaxxers'. Fifteen doses of eight vaccines are required to be administered from age 8 weeks to five years, including ‘booster jabs’.
MMR1 coverage at 5 years is 94.5%, down from 94.9% in 2017-18 and below the 95% target. MMR2 coverage (‘booster’ jab) at 5 years is 86.4% (down from 87.2% in 2017-18)
https://files.digital.nhs.uk/4C/09214C/child-vacc-stat-eng-2018-19-report.pdf
Before diphtheria vaccination was introduced in the UK in 1942, there were on average 55,000 cases of diphtheria annually leading to around 3,500 deaths each year (mostly children). The vaccine has been so effective, diphtheria has caused only four deaths in the UK in the last twenty years. All of these people were unvaccinated. Most cases of diphtheria that have occurred in recent years in the UK have been brought in from the Indian subcontinent or from Africa.
https://vk.ovg.ox.ac.uk/vk/diphtheria#:~:text=The graph below shows that,in the last twenty years.
In a small cemetery in a village near to me is the saddest headstone I've ever seen. I've attached a picture, but the text might not be very legible. It states:
'In affectionate remembrance of four loved ones who were removed by diphtheria in three weeks. The loved ones of William and Ann Stewart of Brantingham Grange:
Mary Jane, died Dec 6 1874 aged five years 6 months.
James Hamilton, died 8 Dec 1874 aged 2 years 7 months
Daniel Charles died 13 Dec 1874, aged 6 years 11 months, 3 weeks.
Anne, died 27 Dec 1874 aged 9 months.
Imagine the grief of that family over Christmas time. Not a poverty-stricken family living in an unheated hovel, but a wealthy land owning family living in comparative comfort it a large manor house. A virus is no respecter of status - 'The rich man in his castle, the poor many at his gate'.
During my childhood every school, and sometimes every classroom, had children inflicted with diseases such as polio and diphtheria, and when vaccines came along, few would have debated the efficacy of them. TB claimed the life of my mother when I was five in 1944. A year later, streptomycin would probably have saved her.
When debating the possible 'long-term effects of a vaccine', it's worth thinking about the possible short-term effects of not having it. Here today - gone tomorrow.
Just saying.
David.
