The Daily Mail: Campaigning both For AND Against the HPV Vaccine in Different Countries Simultaneously

[bpsdb] This is just incredible. The same newspaper that is currently attacking the HPV vaccine in Britain, with stories such as: "How safe is the cervical cancer jab?", is astonishingly campaigning FOR the HPV vaccine in its Irish edition under the following banner:

I spotted this extraordinarily two-faced editorial policy when I started looking back at the Daily Mail archives to see just how anti-vaccine they were in the wake of the MMR hoax. Of course in Britain, the Mail have a reputation for printing vaccine scare stories after their part in the MMR Hoax. As you would expect, here are the some of the latest HPV vaccine stories in the British Edition:

* How safe is the cervical cancer jab? Five teenagers reveal their alarming stories
* Why boys need a jab for cervical cancer: Only then will girls be totally protected, say experts (Featuring quotes from JABS)
* Twelve-year-old girl paralysed 'after being given cervical cancer jab'
* Government turns to social networking sites in bid to get young girls to take up cervical cancer jab
* Cervical cancer jab left my 12-year-old daughter paralysed, says mother
* Revealed: The serious health concerns about the cervical cancer jab
* Alert over jab for girls as two die following cervical cancer vaccination
* Now girls aged NINE are offered cervical cancer jab

So the usual mix of scare stories and exaggerations. But meanwhile, here's the biggest WTF moment I've had since I woke up one morning in 2003 after a heavy night out to find a television set in bed with me - the latest stories from the Irish Edition:

* Europe will shame FF into providing Ireland's life-saving cervical cancer jabs
* Join the Irish Daily Mail's cervical cancer vaccination campaign today
* Pathologist appeals for U-turn by Harney over cervical cancer vaccine
* Tax cut hits Irish cancer jab
* Ditching cancer vaccine is a big step back, says expert
* HSE backs cancer jab Harney scrapped in Ireland
* Cervical cancer jabs available 'as soon as possible' in Ireland
* Health campaigners in Ireland take fight for cancer jabs to Washington
* Union rescue bid for Irish cancer vaccine
* Top surgeons say Irish cancer jab U-turn was a disgrace
* Cervical cancer vaccine for Ireland's girls: online poll slams decision to pull funding

Are they insane?! They're printing scare stores about the dangers of the HPV vaccine in one country, while simultaneously campaigning for its introduction in another. It's so absurdly cynical that I can't quite form the words to convey just how shocked I am by this. Even by the piss-poor journalistic standards of the Daily Mail, this takes quite some beating.

What this means is that those of us who believed that the Daily Mail had some editorial, ideological stance against certain vaccines (such as MMR) were in fact wrong. The Daily Mail position on vaccines is whatever sells newspapers - and if those positions are completely self-contradictory, or might cause a bit more cancer in the readership, then who cares, as long as the advertisers are happy?

In many ways, this is worse than being anti-vaccine. Anti-vaccinationists may be cranks, but at least they ultimately care about the people affected. The revelation that the Mail is pushing two contradictory positions on a major public health issue on either side of the Irish Sea, proves once and for all that they don't give a crap about the impact such stories may have on their readers. It's a whole new level of sick. It's crossing the line where misguided becomes truly evil.

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For impartial advice about the HPV Vaccine, check out: The NHS Website