• Question: Why to we get scared of stuff, like HPV jabs, which we have today?

    Asked by imogenn to Mike, Pip, Tianfu, Tim, Tom on 26 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Philippa Bird

      Philippa Bird answered on 26 Jun 2012:

      Well you certainly should not get scared of an HPV jab, because that might just save your life!
      Being scared is a survival response from cave times. If we get scared, we are less likely to die by being bitten by a snake or something. And we are scared of pain for the same reason. If you think of evolution, more risk averse people would have had a greater chance of survival, so we were bred to be a bit scared. Even though we can nowadays logically think “The HPV jab is a good thing”, the inate fear response remains.

    • Photo: Tom Lister

      Tom Lister answered on 26 Jun 2012:

      It is very difficult to know who to believe, the press who tell us about scary stories, or the drug company who don’t want to let you know any of the risks. I think it is healthy to have a certain amount of distrust in both of these people!

    • Photo: Tim Stephens

      Tim Stephens answered on 26 Jun 2012:

      I think it’s natural to be scared of things that look like they might hurt you. Jabs are definitely a good thing, and not something to be scared of, since they barely hurt at all.
      And the drug companies are not allowed to hide adverse reactions – there are a lot of laws to protect you from this kind of thing. If a drug has any unexpected side-effects, the doctors are supposed to report it and the medical regulators can withdraw the company’s license to sell it.

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