Did you rescind your HPV refusal, Liadh?

ONE woman who wants to be President was yesterday propagating the nonsense that the media are trying to invade her family’s privacy in relation to the HPV vaccine.

Nothing could be further from the truth. This newspaper has never asked any politician about medical details relating to a family member, accepting that that is an entirely personal matter.

In this instance, the only reason for the inquiry into whether or not Liadh Ní Riada has permitted her daughter to have the vaccine is because Ms Ní Riada, as a public representative, voluntarily announced on social media in 2016 that she had misgivings about it.

The following day she went on radio and gave a detailed interview about why she was not allowing her younger daughter to be vaccinated and why, indeed, her older girl had not received the top-up vaccination.

The only person, therefore, who publicly raised the issue about her daughters and the vaccine, was Liadh Ní Riada herself.

Furthermore, she did so in an uninformed way, likely to frighten any parent listening, and make them question the efficacy of a vaccine that has been medically proven, by World Health Organisation evidence, to prevent cervical cancer.

She could, of course, have handled it differently. She could have expressed her misgivings about the vaccine without making any reference whatsoever to her own daughters.

Instead she chose to place her children at the centre of her argument.

Following that interview, she never publicly changed her position on the vaccine. Until she entered the Presidential race.

Then, starting to face the kind of questioning that is absolutely legitimate for anyone seeking the Presidency, she declared, first of all, that she hadn’t spoken negatively about the vaccine in the past and then, subsequently, she issued a statement expressing her support for it.

Obviously, in the light of this about-turn, the question had to be asked whether, if she now supported it, she had allowed her daughter to be vaccinated.

However, in a radio interview yesterday, not only did Ms Ní Riada still refuse to answer the question, but also claimed that this was an invasion of her privacy.

It wasn’t. It was simply a valid journalistic attempt to establish her current bona fides in the context of what she said two years ago.

But let’s make it easier by asking her a different question. In the light of her own statements that she had oroginally signed the vaccine consent form, but then sent a note to the school refusing her consent, all we need to know is this: has Ms Ní Riada subsequently rescinded that refusal? A simple yes or no will suffice.

Why does this matter? Because is not a victimless question – like the cost of a hotel room. Rather this is an issue of life and death.

We have spent the summer, after all, looking into the faces of women who are dying from cervical cancer.

There is every possibility that Liadh Ní Riada’s comments in 2016 prevented young Irish women from getting the vaccine, meaning that some of them may die, unnecessarily, in years to come.

For years we have campaigned vigorously in this newspaper in support of the HPV vaccine, constantly citing the medical evidence and highlighting the misinformation being peddled about it.

We are doing this because we don’t want any young woman in 20 or 30 years’ time to be in the same position as Vicky Phelan or Emma Mhic Mhathúna.

On that basis Liadh Ní Riada needs to stop pretending. Did she rescind her refusal note to the school, or did she not?

The people of Ireland deserve the truth.