Your Saturday front-page item beneath a prominent sensational headline reflecting the negative opinion of a “veteran” doctor on the swine flu vaccine (‘Doctors cast doubts on safety of H1N1 vaccine’) was rash and irresponsible and is bound to cause much distress.

Giving prominence to the opinion of anonymous persons is thoroughly unethical and is to be strongly condemned because it undermines the good work being done by our Health Authority in disease prevention and control. If a doctor wants to speak out and contradict received wisdom then he should have the courage to identify himself and not hide behind anonymity.

There is bound to be some divergence of opinions among medical practitioners on certain matters but, overall, there is strong general agreement on certain basic concepts as that of vaccination. It is therefore gravely unethical to publicise the biased sweeping statements as a front-page headline reflecting the opinion of an individual doctor.

This doctor might well have “practised for 35 years”, but this does not necessarily confer on him any specialised understanding of statistics or of the methodology of safety testing of new vaccines. Reporting biased and subjective statements on sensitive issues made by anonymous individuals which are not based on good-quality evidence is not the stuff of medicine or science.

At the very least, such potentially damaging articles or reports in the media should be vetted by a suitably qualified scientist or medical practitioner before publication in order to exclude bias or misinformation which is liable to cause confusion among the public.

The Malta Independent is now duty-bound to limit the damage as far as possible. The least that can be done is to ask this doctor to identify him – or herself, to declare any conflicting interests and to submit suitably authentic references in support of the validity of statements as published – or to retract what has been published if there has been misquotation.

The misleading headline and report is to be strongly condemned and The Independent should apologise for causing distress among those who have opted to take the vaccine. The Health Department should take steps against this reckless kind of sensational journalism.

Dr G G Debono

M.D.,D.T.M & H

Sliema

Editorial note: The Malta Independent is duty bound to inform its readers about the various trains of thought that exist among doctors on the safety or otherwise of the H1N1 vaccine.

Over the past weeks, this newspaper has often published stories, many times on the front page, quoting Health Department officials suggesting that the vaccine should be taken, especially by vulnerable people.

Reports have however reached our offices that a number of doctors are advising their patients against being inoculated. This newspaper felt the need to bring this view to its readers. We do not think that this kind of journalism is “irresponsible”, “reckless”, or “sensational”. On the contrary, giving our readers as wide an opinion as possible will help to give them the whole picture, and not part of it, as Dr Debono seems to be suggesting.

Dr Debono mentions “one” doctor, but the story carried quotes from three medical practitioners. We are sure that there are many other doctors who are advising their clients against taking the jab.

The story mentioned by Dr Debono also carries quotes by the Medical Association of Malta, which is toeing the line taken by the health authorities. Coupled with the many articles that were published over the past weeks, all speaking in favour of taking the jab, this newspaper has offered its readers the different points of view.

It is then, of course, up to them whether to take the vaccine or not.