July 22, 2008 7:22am by David Farrar

Was it worth it?

Fewer than half New Zealand’s young children are thought to be still protected against the meningococcal disease epidemic, despite a $200 million mass vaccination campaign.

So we know the cost. What are the benefits?

The centre’s clinical director, Dr Nikki Turner, said yesterday the mass campaign was justified,”because we are talking about a reduction in disease and deaths in children … “

Obviously a good thing, but more specifically:

Statisticians have calculated that in the two years after it started, the vaccination programme prevented 54 cases of disease and 1.7 deaths.

Now it seems very heartless but agencies over the years have a value for a human life, so that decisions can be made on whether a particular road improvement or new drug etc is worth investing in. It used to be $2 million and I think might now be $5 million. Someone out there will know.

Is $200 million a good investment for preventing 2 deaths and 54 infections? Purely on a numbers basis, it is arguable it was not.

Now again, this may seem a harsh judgement. But the reality is, money is limited. Another way to look at it, is could more lives have been saved if the $200 million had instead been spent on elective surgery or Herceptin?

Now I am not saying conclusively the campaign was a bad idea. One should not decide those things off a newspaper story. There will be a mass of data to be considered. But on the face of it, it does appear to have been of debatable value for the investment.