Assessing suspicions against H1N1, cervical cancer vaccines

In addition to reading a lot of medical blogs, I also read some mommy blogs (it's a dirty secret, but there it is). Once in a while the two overlap, as they have recently over the swine flu and cervical cancer vaccines. Many of the mommy blogs are written by women who share the same values — breastfeeding, co-sleeping, etc. Several also have a very healthy suspicion of vaccines as a cause for autism (which, just for the record, I do not believe).

So, there it follows that many are at best unsupportive of the new H1N1 vaccine and the relatively new cervical cancer vaccine (there is a nice, thoughtful conversation about the pros and cons of both vaccines on this mom blog in the comments section).

To add fuel to the fire, a girl recently died after she received the cervical cancer vaccine. Now it has been released that she did not die from the vaccine, but from a chest tumor (huh?) and perhaps a resultant reaction after the vaccine, though that has not been clearly stated from what I have read in the press (here and here).

Many moms are also worried about the safety of the H1N1 vaccine because of how rapidly it has been developed. There are a lot of conspiracy theorists around, including — if commenters and other bloggers can be believed — many pediatricians. Many are worried that the vaccine was too rapidly brought to market, that there are high levels of mercury in the shot, that this is all just a big scam to make vaccine companies oodles of money, that vaccinating for cervical cancer encourages promiscuity. There will always be those people.

I think each family needs to decide what is right for their children and themselves, but for me in health care, having seen lots of flu and cervical cancer cases, I will be getting the shot and my kids will too (including for them, the cervical cancer vaccine). It's all related to your perceived level of risk.

Dr. LoConte is an oncologist and a regular blogger for PediatricSuperSite.com's sister publication, HemOncToday.com.