Flu Shot Added to Babies' Recommended Schedule

The Washington Post ^ | April 30, 2004 | NA

[neverdem]

FINDINGS

Influenza has been added to the recommended schedule of shots for all infants, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday.

The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians recommend that, beginning in fall 2004, all children age 6 months to 23 months, as well as household and out-of-home caregivers for such children, receive an annual influenza vaccine, the CDC said.

The CDC had been moving toward the recommendation even before this past flu season, which began early and featured a nasty strain of virus that killed at least 142 children younger than 18. In an average year, influenza kills 36,000 people and puts 115,000 in the hospital.

[neverdem]

Other topics in FINDINGS:

Some Cancer Patients' Genes Make New Drug Effective

Air Pollution (and Global Warming) May Hasten Asthma in Poor Children

[cyborg]

errrrr...flu shot for babies? Wow another vaccine that government will no doubt foist on people.

[neverdem]

PING

[John H K]

Damn, they've already deprived us of the pleasure of watching children hack themselves to death with whooping cough, what are they taking away next?

[aimhigh]

Vaccines are a high profit item. Babies are the sacrifice. This is nuts.

[cyborg]

spare me...I'm considering whether I should gratify your childish post with a response.

[cyborg]

I agree...certain vaccines are already controversial and that flu shot to me is the worst one. The flu shot should be optional.

[TBall]

And next we can have an Aids Vaccine, WNV vaccine, Sars vaccine, Small pox, and throw in a snake head for good measure. I guess my point is that a superior treatment is better than mass inoculation. The future of medicine is superior treatment and my bet is that viral DNA inhibitors will be part of the future. Antisense or not.

[TBall]

it may be viral RNA.

[cgk]

I wonder if it's on the list of "ethical doses" yet, or if they even bothered.

[mean lunch lady]

It's entirely possible that they will keep adding more and more things to the list. I am so glad my kids are adults now and don't have to go through all that. By the time they are between 2 and 3 years old, in Florida, children have to have 4 polio, 4 DTP, 4 HIB, 1 MMR, 1 Varicella, 3 Hepatitis B, and now 3 pnuemo or Prevnar shots on their Immunization Certificate. They are like little pincushions. And if you want them in school they have to have the shots or they are excluded from school (this includes preschool) and daycare. You have to wonder, when will it be enough?

[neverdem]

Vaccines are a high profit item. Babies are the sacrifice. This is nuts.

Vaccines are not high profit items, or there would be many more pharmaceutical companies in the business. They are afraid of lawsuits. Last year there was de facto rationing of the influenza vaccines to people who had other chronic illnesses, IIRC. It's the socialists in the public health community that are gung ho for mass vaccinations, and with good reason for enough diseases that their suggestions go unchallenged, e.g. chicken pox.

[Rightone]

C'mon. I'm not a big fan of shots for the kids and they have made some mistakes over the years, but overall, these shots do save lives. More and more kids are alive today due to disease prevention.

Sure you can find the few who die because of allergies, etc. but those are the exceptions.

[TightyRighty]

Good grief! I took my one and three year olds in for their immunization shots a couple of weeks ago. By the time we were done my one year old had been poked 5 times and my three year 3 times. I'm all for immunizations but where will it end?

[mean lunch lady]

I don't claim to know all the answers - I just wonder if there is real proof that all of these immunizations are effective and that they save as many lives as we are told they do. What if we eventually end up having no natural resistance to anything?

[Auntie Mame]

Don't you know? Medicine/doctors/healthcare is the new god. Not really sure how it happened, just the standard frog in the pot of water, but if you start watching, you'll see that EVERYTHING is geared to it. They can't even sell a box of cereal without the health benefits (usually bogus) being touted.

[mean lunch lady]

You mean you don't put wheat germ on your ice cream?

[Auntie Mame]

You mean you don't put wheat germ on your ice cream?

LOL!

[mcg1969]

I wouldn't be surprised if the effectiveness of vaccines is overstated but it is indisputable that they can be, and are, very effective. Polio would of course be the quintissential example. When was the last time you met a young person with polio? Likely never. And why? Because of vaccination.

Secondly, vaccinations generally work by stimulating immune response, so I don't think there is any real fear that we're compromising our ability to naturally fight disease because of vaccines. You may be confusing vaccines and antibiotics.

I'm not weighing in on whether or not this particular move by the CDC is valid. I'm still thinking about it. And as the father of a 6-month old I have seen my baby's screams as she receives four shots in less than 60 seconds---so I'm definitely an "interested" party. But I don't know, is the flu worth it? To be honest, the flu vaccine probably more appropriate a choice than the chicken pox vaccine---which by all accounts was recommended primarily for economic reasons, not health ones. At least the flu kills people, that's a defensible reason for using it. Still, it's not a slam-dunk like the polio vaccine. So is it worth it, statistically? I don't know.

[mean lunch lady]

Thanks for the info. I am not suggesting that there be no vaccines, only that it could get ridiculous. Also, I have known at least one person who had polio and I would not wish it on anyone. I still am not sure, even though they stimulate immune response, if avoiding disease through immunization is the same as being exposed to it and developing natural immunity. Too bad there is no way to immunize kids against asthma, that is a real problem today and seems to be getting worse all the time. Or maybe just more cases are diagnosed than ever before.