Vaccine scepticism – not just a recent phenomenon

Perhaps not. 

Better sanitation and public health measures have had an enormous impact on the reduction of disease. 

‘Contaminated water and lack of sanitation lead to the transmission of pathogens through feces and, to a lesser extent, urine.’ 

Source: Injury Prevention and Environmental Health. 3rd edition 

Data from socio-economic sources also show that serious harm from many of these diseases were already in decline, before vaccines were deployed.  

Numerous examples have been compiled by Dr Suzanne Humphries, including: 

As far back as the 1800s, doctors were speaking out about their concerns over vaccination. 

In 1818, the Scottish surgeon Thomas Brown – until then an advocate for smallpox vaccines – had a change of heart: 

‘The accounts from all quarters of the world, wherever vaccination has been introduced ... the cases of failures are now increased to an alarming proportion.’ 

The book ‘Dissolving Illusions’, by Dr Suzanne Humphries and Roman Bystrianyk, covers in fascinating detail the early (and now largely forgotten) controversy around vaccination. They note: ‘Surgeons and doctors were paid well to perform vaccination and embraced it as a new form of income’. 

The general public did not always fall easily into line. For example, few of us know that, on March 23, 1885, thousands of people gathered in Leicester, UK, to protest against government-enforced smallpox vaccination. 

Rightly or wrongly, over time, the voices of those supporting vaccination have largely drowned out the voices of those raising questions and concerns. 

The social contract between the pharmaceutical industry, public health bodies and parents has been challenged over the past few years. The rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine, in particular, has damaged the trust that many parents once had in these institutions.  

Some of the distrust stems from: 

• The speed at which these vaccines were manufactured and brought to market. 
• The strident claim that they were both safe and effective, when there was no long-term data to prove either of those claims. 
• Unequivocal approval for every citizen (adult and child) to receive a vaccine, when there was insufficient clinical trial data to warrant that. 
• Early, and then continuing, reports on official government websites (such as the Yellow Card system in the UK and VAERS in America) that detailed serious and unexpected side-effects. 
• Very disturbing media reports of serious vaccine harms. 

Parents of younger children in the UK were sufficiently sceptical about the need for Covid-19 jabs for their children that only 10% of 5-11-year-olds received the injection.  

We are now witnessing more general vaccine hesitancy on an unprecedented scale, perhaps as a result of the public distrust in pharmaceutical companies since Covid-19. 

We discuss the Covid-19 vaccines in more detail here.

Many of us assume, understandably, that all vaccines are thoroughly tested against true placebos (for example, saline water). 

This appears not to be the case.

This chart from ICAN claims that none of the vaccine doses the CDC recommends for routine injection into US children were licensed by the FDA based on a long-term placebo-controlled trial. 

What about the UK?

The following Freedom of Information Request was sent to the MHRA in June 2023: 

‘I would like to request copies of any inert placebo-controlled clinical trials for the current vaccines on the children's recommended vaccine schedule please.’ 

The MHRA’s response was that ‘the information you have requested is already in the public domain, and can be found at https://www.clinicaltrialsregister.eu/ctr-search/search '

Links to UK trials related to vaccines were included in their full response. 

Taking one of these trials - ‘Immunogenicity and reactogenicity of concomitantly administered hexavalent and Group B meningococcal vaccines in infancy’ - as an example, we can see that 194 subjects were split into 2 groups, and both groups were given a number of different vaccines. (The trial also reports that over 8% of participants suffered serious adverse events.) 

The use of true placebos – or not – in vaccine trials is something that we at Informing Consent plan to research further, and we will share what we find.  

It might be reasonable to assume, however, that the same companies make the same vaccines for worldwide distribution – so the data behind US vaccines would therefore be the same as or similar to the data behind UK vaccines. 

Parents and carers are entitled to ask their doctors for more information on vaccine trials and placebos. We encourage discourse between doctors and patients – find out more about how you might approach this here.  

You can also dig deeper with the resources in our Learning Library.

More broadly around the world, a committee of the World Health Organization makes recommendations for biological products used internationally. Many countries have adopted the WHO standards, and others have standards similar to those of the United States. Countries that lack the infrastructure to monitor drug and vaccine safety will often defer to WHO, FDA or European recommendations. 

Listen to this conversation between a mum of young twins, a retired paediatrician and a practising GP. 

It gives sensible, practical advice about how to care for unwell children – and when to seek further help.