2023-10-26 10:35:40
Updated Thursday, October 26, 2023 – 10:35
Given the fake news and misinformation that proliferates, the Collegiate Medical Organization remembers that vaccines are safe and effective
A woman receives a vaccine against Covid in 2021 in Mallorca. CATI CLADERA
“Opinions and conjectures” about the effectiveness and safety of vaccines proliferate again, mainly hoaxes that are magnified on social networks; so from the Collegiate Medical Organization We want to make some considerations of interest to citizens.
Vaccines are the safest medicines there area statement that is based on the experience accumulated over decades of widespread use in millions of people, the scientific information in the technical sheet and a regulated notification system of adverse effects that may occur after marketing, which It is available to professionals and users in NotificaRAM.
It is a system that establishes guarantees through registered clinical trials and post-authorization studies. This procedure was respected during the vaccination process in the COVID-19 pandemic. Covid-19where the alarming situation favored a consensus among the countries involved that managed to accelerate their distribution by streamlining administrative procedures, without detriment to the quality, safety and control requirements of the trials.
Vaccines They are very effective, and they have managed to eradicate diseases such as smallpox; This is not the case in the case of poliomyelitis, where the virus has been detected again in rivers in large cities, which represents a alarming setback which justifies the intensification of vaccination guidelines throughout the world and forces the design of new strategies.
When vaccines are stopped, cases of almost forgotten but potentially deadly diseases such as diphtheria increase. Younger doctors had not seen cases before the generalization of anti-vaccine movements, paradoxically driven by people who do not have any qualifications in the health sciences. The flu vaccine reduces the risk of hospitalization due to the infection by 52% and the greatest progress against Covid-19 was achieved when we had access to the mass vaccinationwith a significant decrease in morbidity and fatality indicators compared to the previous ones.
Fight the fake news spread by the denialist and anti-vaccine movements meant an added effort to the demanding activity of health professionals during the crisis caused by the pandemic, who even endured personal and public threats; That is why the positioning endorsed by the health and academic authorities is: “the answers are in science”; insisting that all health information must be contrasted, analyzed and verified in accredited sources.
It is the responsibility of medical associations to protect the interests of patients and users, as well as to collaborate with public authorities to make this fundamental right to the protection of their health effective. That is why when statements contrary to the best evidence available at that time came from members, we proceeded to opening of files and its corresponding sanction that could lead to suspension from membership and therefore from the practice of Medicine.
Furthermore, in 2017, the organization that represents the medical profession in Spain created the Observatory against pseudosciences, pseudotherapies, intrusion and health sectswhose actions are in line with the Plan for the protection of health against pseudosciences and the position of the World Medical Association on the risks of pseudotherapies in the field of health.
Having access to vaccines is a privilege and participating in collective immunization is an act of solidarity to protect the most vulnerable patients, in whom their administration is contraindicated due to some clinical situation. For all these reasons, the objective of the scientific community and the medical profession is guarantee universal and equitable access to affordable vaccines through collaborative strategies based on a Global Vaccine Alliance. In short, protecting and defending public health from the risks derived from techniques and practices not supported by the best available evidence and the defense of scientific knowledge against misinformation is a duty of the medical profession.
Rosa Arroyo She is vice president 2 of the Collegiate Medical Organization (OMC) and coordinator of the Observatory against Pseudosciences of the OMC.
#Evidence #hoaxes #vaccines #safest #medications #exist