This is a nice short article by a father of a child with autism.  The title says it all: Try reason, Not “Everything”

With the recent discrediting of Wakefield’s research, this story is particularly annoying. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been tracking an outbreak of the mumps since last summer and released their findings this week. At this point, over 1,500 people–mostly school-aged children–in New York and New Jersey have been affected.
» Continue reading “Mumps Outbreak in NY, NJ”

(The picture is of my son’s leg after getting his vaccinations)

Andrew Wakefield kicked off the anti vaccination movement with his paper published in 1998 that claimed to show a link between Autism and vaccines. His  findings  have been proven false over and over again. It was also found that he most likely faked his data.

Last week  the UK’s General Medical Council found that Andrew Wakefield acted “dishonestly and irresponsibly” when doing his research. And now The Lancet (who published the paper) has issued a full retraction.

This is very good news and I hope that this will help put parents concerns about vaccinating their children to rest.

In other news, Bill Gates has committed $10 Billion (yes Billion!)  to develop and deliver vaccines to children in the developing world. “We must make this the decade of vaccines,” said Bill Gates. “Vaccines already save and improve millions of lives in developing countries. Innovation will make it possible to save more children than ever before.”

I get a daily email from the American Council on Science and Health called “Health Facts and Fears”. In that news letter Dr Gilbert Ross is quoted as saying of Bill Gates, “We must give credit to him for taking a very effective, targeted, lifesaving approach to charitable giving as opposed to activists, who prefer to wage irrational attacks on substances that have no nexus with human health.”

I’m a Mac girl but this makes me want to buy a PC!

I was a little disappointed in Pro.Con.org’s article, “Should any vaccines be required for children?” I first discovered this site while job hunting and was impressed. Unfortunately, if you check out the pro and con list for this subject, you will see the same tired and debunked arguments against vaccines, including the utter myth that thimerosal is linked to autism.

If you go, put some comments on the pro side. I understand that this site wants to present a balanced argument, but is it balanced if one side is simply wrong about their facts?

Recently, my son’s daycare updated their vaccination records, and we realized that we only had two of his required Hepatitis B vaccinations on record. I had to go to the hospital where he was born and inquire with medical records to see if he received this vaccination at birth. While I thought the HepB vaccination at birth was standard, there is some question about whether our birth hospital actually performed it. We’ll see when the records come in the mail.

We also faced having to switch pediatricians lately due to an insurance change, so I explained the situation to our new pediatrician, a grandfatherly gentleman who was nice enough to sit with us and talk about our son for a length of time defying the normal HMO visit. “I wouldn’t worry about that shot immediately,” he said, “unless your son is planning to get a tattoo soon.”

Among parents who question the standard vaccination schedule, the Hepatitis B vaccine at birth is a frequently discussed topic. I see it pop up often on Mommy chat boards. Most parents don’t really see the urgency of innoculating a newborn against a disease that is primarily transmitted through sexual contact or injection.

Joseph Albietz explains the rationale behind the US HepB vaccination schedule in a November post on Science Based Medicine. This is a concise article that clarifies the public health strategy behind the decision to vaccinate infants at birth. I read the post with great interest, but it was only my recent investigation into my own son’s HepB records that reminded to post the article here today.

To sum it up, vaccinating only a high risk population was a strategy that was tried in the US and then abandoned as not effective enough. Given that the HepB vaccine is incredibly safe, the morbidity and mortality of HepB is substantial, and that the number of cases of HepB has been dramatically reduced using the current strategy–”from 10.7/100,000 in 1983 to 2.1 per 100,000 in 2004. (25,916 total cases down to 6212 cases)”–it makes sense to vaccinate against this disease at birth. There is also the issue that although children make up a small portion of those infected, they tend to become lifelong carriers more often than infected adults.

One of the questions many parents ask (and the question Albietz is responding to in this post) is about the US vaccination strategy verses other countries, specificially those in Northern Europe. Those countries have such a low incidence of the disease that a prevention strategy like that of the US is not cost effective.

Very interesting reading. I hope you will click over and enjoy the entire post.

According to the CDC, the gaps in U.S. kids vaccine coverage are shrinking:

Vaccine coverage in 2000 ranged from 47 percent for children treated by public providers to nearly 60 percent for only children. In 2008, 72 percent of children with public providers were fully immunized, as were nearly 81 percent of only children.

The report does mention that children with siblings are less likely to be vaccinated than families with only one child. This seems rather sad. I know second, third and fourth (and so on, in the case of the Duggars) usually don’t have as many photos or mementos as the first born. However, it’s a little sad that preventative medicine falls under this category, too.

Anyway, it’s encouraging news. Let’s keep fighting the vaccine woo and get to 100%.

This was meant to be part of a little series I was writing called, “The Good, the Bad, and the Frustrating.” I was covering a lot of H1N1 information. But honestly, I got pretty burnt out on H1N1. Not to mention, the entire discussion among parents about whether or not to get the vaccine is kind of pointless when it’s so difficult to get the vaccine in the first place. Our pediatrician still doesn’t have it, and the local clinics are screening carefully now to only give shots to those in high risk groups without regular medical care.  Our son is prone to getting croup, and since we fly every winter for the holidays, I just really wanted him to get that immunity. I would have gladly foregone getting shots for myself, but a month ago, the LA clinics were just doling them out to anyone. It didn’t seem like a big deal.

So the main side effect of my own H1N1 nasal spray has been a lingering sense of guilt that I took someone else’s dose.

Still, even when the vaccinations are hard to get, I hate to hear misinformation that scares parents away from getting them. So I wanted to go ahead and post this article, which I started a while ago, in response to an essay by Dr. Lauren Feder.

This essay by Dr. Feder popped up on my mom support board recently, posted by someone trying to be helpful and informative.  I went and grabbed it from Dr. Feder’s website, and here it is, with my comments.

» Continue reading “Some Notes on Dr. Feder’s Essay About H1N1 Vaccinations”

In contrast to Amy Wallace’s excellent article in Wired, there was a recently a fairly awful piece in The Atlantic entitled Does the Vaccine Matter?

This article has been making the rounds on my mommy board in that being waved in your face sorta way: “Oh yeah? Well what about this? Did you see this?” And more panic, confusion, and general mayhem ensue.  The article suggests that the H1N1 vaccine, as well as all seasonal flu vaccines, are not that effective.  Naturally this has moms in a tizzy.  Too much confusing information out there.  How are they supposed to know what to do?

As soon as I read this article, I emailed the friend who had told me she heard “somewhere” that the vaccines don’t work anyway, and here’s my email response, with the colorful bits edited. » Continue reading “The Good, the Bad, and the Frustrating…continued”

I asked Harriet Hall why kids need two flu shots a few posts back.

And then I heard through that pesky old grapevine that actually kids might only need one H1N1 shot. And it turns out that this is actually, sadly not true here in the US. From Effect Measure:

CDC says on the basis of clinical trials with the unadjuvanted vaccine used in the US that two shots, 21 days apart, are needed for children under 10. WHO, on the other hand, is telling its member nations that one will suffice. Why the confusion?

We may be comparing apples and oranges. Many countries use adjuvants in their vaccines which promote a quicker and more powerful response. It appears that a single dose is sufficient for children under 10 when there is adjuvant in the vaccine. Canada currently is using adjuvant, as are many other countries, although concerns from parents have forced the Canadians to offer an adjuvant-free option.

The US H1N1 vaccines do not contain adjuvant. An adjuvant increases immune response. I wonder if the adjuvants in the US were taken out because of anti-vaccine concerns. If so, that stinks. Our son will not have full immunity against H1N1 until about two weeks after that second shot. But we already know kids who have had H1N1.

While I am not at all terrified about Zack getting swine flu, I really, really, really would rather avoid it. But I guess we are just racing against it at this point. At least his seasonal flu shot has kicked in by now. One less thing to worry about.

Let’s start with the good!

It’s pretty tough to keep up with all the media coverage of swine flu, but a few standouts from recently deserve mention here.

First, from the Daily Show.  I was so, so happy when this came on that I had to do a few laps around the living room.  Hooray for John Stewart and all the writers on the Daily Show.

Way to be, Daily Show.

Then there’s Amy Wallace’s Wired article, which many of you have probably already seen, but it was so great that it should just get even more attention.  Wallace outlines the history of the anti-vaccine movement’s “War on Science,” interviews Paul Offit, and even offers a basic lesson in skepticism: » Continue reading “The Good, The Bad, and the Frustrating”