Immunity
In Pam Jenkinson’s letter ‘Vaccinations? Yes please’ (December 17) she says she thinks it is nonsense that one of her members doesn’t believe in vaccination and that he thinks one’s immune system should fight off all infection unaided. She quotes Louis Pasteur, dairy maids and smallpox.
According to my information, in 1796 dairy maids often had beautiful unmarked skin which some said was because their exposure to cowpox gave them immunity to smallpox, a belief contradicted by physicians at the time. A far better explanation for their beautiful skin is that unlike most people of the time, dairy maids had daily access to a superb source of nutrition which made them healthy and protected them against diseases, including smallpox.
Their healthy immune systems fighting off infection unaided.
It was Edward Jenner who scraped pus from cowpox blisters on the hands of a milkmaid and inoculated a child with it. He claimed that his vaccine gave immunity to smallpox for life.
Statistics taken from Reports of the Registrar General of England indicate that the vaccine was not a success, with deaths from vaccination outnumbering deaths from smallpox. In 1854-1863, following the introduction of compulsory vaccination programmes in Europe, smallpox claimed the lives of over 33000 vaccinated people. In 1907 when the failure was too obvious to disguise, compulsory vaccination laws in England were repealed.
Louis Pasteur followed in Jenner’s footsteps in vaccine development. Upon his death Pasteur passed his laboratory notebooks to his heirs with the provision that they never made the notebooks public. His grandson Louis Pasteur Ballery-Radot, who apparently didn’t care for him much, donated the notebooks to the French national library, which published them. In 1914, Professor Gerard Geison of Princeton University published an analysis of these notebooks, which revealed that Pasteur committed massive fraud in all his studies.
M Hopkins, Wokingham
Thank you
I would like to thank the community for their incredible support of the Foodbank this year.
Local schools, churches, businesses, supermarkets and individuals have donated a phenomenal 55 tonnes of food and other household essentials.
We have distributed food parcels to almost 5,000 people across Wokingham Borough representing a 100% increase in demand when compared to last year. Sorting this volume of stock and making up so many food parcels would not have been possible without our incredible team of volunteers who have worked tirelessly. Their compassion towards people who find themselves unable to afford food and their constant can-do attitude when faced with such high numbers of referrals is to be applauded. I find it very sad that in this day and age so many people are struggling to afford the basics and I would love to see a time when we can close our doors.
I am so incredibly proud of the Foodbank team’s dedication to supporting residents across the borough during 2020 especially with the added challenges created by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Annette Medhurst, manager, Wokingham Foodbank
Apology
My wife thinks I should write to the paper and apologise to a few residents of the Wokingham area that I might have been perceived to have been rude to in the last month or so.
I would rather write and thank the vast majority of people that have been encountered on my walks and shopping trips that have made every effort to maintain a safe social distance, normally with a smile and a thank you.
What is wrong with a small number that make no effort to abide by the simple rules on tackling Covid infection spread?
So, if you are too selfish or stupid to keep a safe distance from me and get a comment such as “doesn’t the 2 metre rule apply to you?”, or something similar, tough!
Oh, and thank you for your contribution to getting us into tier 4.
Name and address supplied.
What do you think? Send your letters to letters@wokinghampaper.co.uk
We love to hear from you! Send us your views on issues relating to the borough (in 250 words or less) to The Wokingham Paper, Crown House, 231 Kings Road, Reading RG1 4LS or email: letters@wokinghampaper.co.uk
We reserve the right to edit letters
Views expressed in this section are not necessarily those of the paper
