§ 51. Mr. Viantasked the Minister of Health, in view of the fact that an anti-poliomyelitis vaccine can now be prepared through eggs to be administered by mouth, if he will cancel his orders for the Salk vaccine, which is prepared from monkey kidney tissue.
The Minister of Health (Mr. lain Macleod)I am advised that the development of an egg vaccine against poliomyelitis is still in the experimental stage; in the circumstances, it would be unwise to reject other available vaccines, subject to all proper safety tests.
§ Mr. ViantIs the right hon. Gentleman aware of the fact that his insistence on the production of this vaccine by a company within the perimeter of London has meant that it shut down on the experiment it was conducting, of which it had great hopes?
Mr. MacleodI do not accept that. It may well be true that in the end the cultivation in an egg will be the answer, but we would be very unwise to neglect all the other advances made at present until we were sure of that.
§ Mr. HastingsMay I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether vaccines administered by the mouth are, as a general rule, successful?