The document illustrates the benefits of vaccines and strongly opposes the sabotage set up in recent years
Of Aboutpharma Online editorial staff – March 14, 2017 – Aboutpharma
here is the position paper of the Italian Society of Pharmacology (Sif): “Vaccines and vaccinations”. This is the Sif White Paper which, after years of denigrating, anti-scientist campaigns conveyed by the internet and social media, intervenes to clarify the delicate issue of vaccines. Co-authors of the text are the Italian Society of Hygiene, Preventive Medicine and Public Health (Sitl), Italian Pediatric Society (sip), Italian Federation of General Practitioners (Fimmg) e Italian Federation of Pediatricians (Fimp). The work was approved by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, signed by the Order of Surgeons and Dentists of the Province of Bologna and by the Order of Pharmacists of the Province of Bologna.
It should be noted - reports the Sif document - that in recent years there has been a progressive decline in vaccination coverage, both national and regional, for each preventable disease. There is, in fact, a decline in vaccination coverage for hexavalent vaccines (poliomyelitis, deferred, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B and haemophilus influenzae), thus failing to achieve the coverage targets set.
Vaccination-preventable diseases in adults
The demand for health and consequently health resources is destined to grow in the coming years, driven by socio-demographic, epidemiological and technological factors. The most important dynamics are those related to demographic aging and chronic conditions. The percentage of European adults over the age of 80 will increase further, reaching 10% in 2050. In Italy life expectancy at birth in 1920 was around 54 years, while those born today are expected to live on average up to over 80 years. According to the document, in 2050 more than a third of the Italian population will be over 65 years of age: this is the share of the population that already today absorbs around 50% of health expenditure. The prevalence of some chronic pathologies such as diabetes, tumors, cardiovascular diseases and neurodegenerative diseases will increase and more and more resources will be needed to guarantee citizens the best treatments. Also from a socio-economic point of view, the current demographic change will lead, in 2050, to having 2 people in employment towards one retired (today the ratio is 4 to 1).
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NOTE:
BUFFALOES. Social media are an extraordinary opportunity for freedom of information, but they also have a dark side: the uncontrolled dissemination of conspiracy theories and pseudo-scientific theories is one of the main risks for society. The selection of contents takes place by confirmation bias, leading to the formation of supportive groups on specific themes that tend to reinforce themselves and ignore everything else. Furthermore, conspiracy theorists are resistant to debunking (refutation). This phenomenon of selective exposure to information affects the spread of disinformation even more than failure to check the reliability of sources. Users group themselves into rather well-defined and isolated communities, which refer to the specific sources of information with which they interact, outlining a model of news use that is guided by the bias of confirmation. Umberto Eco said that "once imbeciles only spoke at the bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community. They were immediately silenced, while now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. The drama of the Internet is that it has promoted the village idiot into the bearer of truth“.
