Today, Yahoo news reported a New Zealand Doctor item saying that the uptake of Gardasil in New Zealand was "underwhelming".
Anne Mulloy from Ratanui Medical Center in West Auckland was reported as saying, "I was expecting this big influx, but nothing happened."
Lesley Manning from Kelburn Medical Centre in Wellington, believed that women who were already sexually active needed to be "reassured" that they could still get the vaccine. "I think that might be holding them back."
Barbara Warren, Coastal Otago immunisation coordinator said that she had only heard postiive comments about Gardasil from immunisation providers.
Yahoo said that no comment was immediately available from the Ministry of Health.
Some thoughts and questions.
Do you honestly think that immunization providers, whose contracts specify to vaccinate anything that moves, are ever going to have anything other than positive comments about any vaccine?
Do you think that the Ministry of Health would want to comment on what can only be classified as a "beginner's bellyflop"?
Why has response been underwhelming?
Perhaps women are sick of being poked, prodded, pricked and mentally hammered into a corner called "Feardom"? The news these days is all bad. The Health Department and the public face of the medical profession are starting to sound like super-nannies on autopilot on every conceivable topic.
Possible options:
New Zealand girls are either too lazy to think about it, or maybe, they feel choked by messages long on emotion and short on fact.
