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Exaggerating risk of vaccination leads to risk of epidemics, round table hears

Author: Snježana Pezer

ZAGREB, July 6 (Hina) -  Even though clinically effective and protective vaccines are one of the greatest inventions in contemporary medicine and vaccinology is one of the branches of medicine that has most contributed to relieving pain and extending life, in the past six years there has been a significant drop in vaccinations for babies and pre-school children, which is worrying because that increases the number of sensitive children and increases the risk of epidemics which were considered part of the past, it was said at a round table on Thursday. 

The round table "Why vaccination has no alternative?" was organised by the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (HAZU) and the Zagreb University School of Medicine. 

The fall in vaccinations is primarily due to misinformation being spread about certain vaccines, which confuses parents with children who need to be vaccinated. Risks of vaccination are exaggerated, alleged consequences are attributed to vaccines without any proof, and the public is constantly flooded with incorrect information that illnesses that vaccinations are used for are totally harmless and that vaccines are ineffective, the round table's organisers said.

One of the speakers, academic Slobodan Vukicevic, warned that usually when people object to vaccination and its consequences then arguments are used that have no grounds in medicine or science. "We are witnessing what is currently happening in the world, with people not standing behind evidence or science, but behind the identity of some leaders of any kind. That becomes extremely dangerous when those leaders come from the field of politics because they are elected based on some other identity and not the identity of believing in the progress of civilisation and the progress of medicine and science," he warned.

Vukicevic underscored that there is an entire series of scientific and epidemiological criteria that have to be satisfied to presume any kind of causality. "When some bombastic news is made public which is not based on arguments and is unfounded, there are many people who object to vaccination because they do not believe scientists, medical staff and the pharmaceutical industry. Such trends are degrading, repressive and destroy civilisation," he said.

Director of the Dr. Fran Mihaljevic infectious diseases hospital in Zagreb, Alemka Markotic, said that despite the technology, knowledge and experience, about 15 million people in the world die each year of some infectious disease.

The organisers of the round table underscored that compulsory vaccination is not repressive but a public health measure that raises the population's level of health and, in particular, protects children from illnesses.

The safety of vaccines in Croatia are not questionable considering the strict criteria to register them, they said.

(Hina) sp

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