The Flu Kills Healthy Kids, but Flu Shots Can Still Help

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ONCE THE SHOT IS GIVEN; HOW SOON ARE THEY PROTECTED? IS IT IMMEDIATELY?

Shirley M. Drew of TX 10:09AM September 24, 2009

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Zwzdyfbm of AL 1:02PM July 15, 2009

Looking over some of the "studies" that have been brought up here, I noticed that most of them are paid for by the pharmaceutical companies. Research looking at vaccine efficacy has been tainted by conflict of interest in the outcomes. In particular, many of the FDA and CDC committee members for vaccine safety are stock holders in vaccine manufacturing companies.
Be careful of citing incidence rates of flu deaths. The numbers of "flu-related deaths" can be reduced down to very few once you control for the "other" infection that resulted in death (i.e. pnuemonia, staph, strep, menengitis). Vaccine damaged children are being reported in larger than ever numbers and the VAERS data is only estimated to capture 10% of all actual vaccine adverse events (including death).
The efficacy of childhood vaccines remains an unanswered question. There are no rigorous studies comparing the rates of disease in unvaccinated vs. vaccinted children. Until an unbiased, peer-reviewed scientific study by an independent researcher can demonstrate efficacy of childhood vaccin you must be a strong advocate for your child's health. Most pediatricians are trained in the medical model that uses vaccines without clinical trails. Educate yourselves as parents. Our vaccine schedules today require REQUIRE over 38 shots to be given by the age of five years. Consider the health of your child before EVER giving a vaccine and take the vaccine in single-doseshots spaced apart by at least 2-3 weeks to avoid overloading the immune system. If your child has an adverse response to ANY vaccine you need to document it immediately and refuse to give him/her any additional vaccines. There is much at risk for a second or third adverse reaction including brain damage, paralysis, even death.

Dawn Cortez McKee of NY 3:05PM April 05, 2009

Hello!
Very Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource!
PS: Sorry for my bad english, I'v just started to learn this language ;)
See you!
Your, Raiul Baztepo

RaiulBaztepo of AL 7:02PM March 28, 2009

I'm curious - in these 2 incidents of teenagers who died due to flu-related causes, and the 4 year old, were they vaccinated? I suppose if they WEREN'T it would have been headline news... so I should assume they were?
It's a horrible, horrible tragedy on a very human level. On a science and statistical level, I'm just curious.

DrMomOnline.com of MI 6:21AM March 05, 2009

In actuality, placebo controlled trials (our gold standard) have NOT shown the vaccine to be effective. there have been recent studies looking at children age 6 mos to 6 yrs, and found no effectiveness. the same is true with a study of people over the age of 71.
So beware. the flu vaccine may not be as effective as the self reporting non-placebo trials tell us. in fact, these types of studies are always flawed, and not considered gold or even bronze standard.
another consideration is that all non pediatric flu vaccines contain 25ug of mercury. these are being injected into pregnant women and women of child bearing ages.
the flu vaccine may be more problematic than helpful!

toni bark md of IL 11:53PM March 04, 2009

When vaccine supporters try to discredit families who say that their children experienced a negative reaction to a vaccine, they say "show us real science! These thousands of stories of actual experiences don't count. These reactions (not just autism, but asthma, allergies, immune disorders and even SIDS)are very rare. We don't even know if it was linked to the vaccine!" Now it seems their marketing folks are taking the same route because the public has seen that they can trust the observations of other parents more than they can trust the hype that's being paid for and passed around the medical community by people who profit off the mandates and sales of vaccines.
You don't even discuss vaccine reactions in this article. This looks like an advertisement to me.

Lisa of NJ 11:38AM March 03, 2009

Once again, Nancy Shute has written an important article that should successfully persuade more parents to get their kids vaccinated against the flu.
There is almost always a problem in "get a flu shot" articles, however, that can lead to a parental backlash: Language that makes the flu vaccine sound better than it actually is.
Language like, "It takes two shots spaced a month apart for a child under age 9 who's never had a flu shot to get THE FULL BENEFIT," and "[Offit] urges parents to get flu shots TO PROTECT their own kids." (capital letters added for emphasis.)
A normal reader hears those messages over and over, and reasons [falsely but rationally] that "if I get my kid vaccinated, and if the vaccine is a good match, MY KID WILL NOT GET THE FLU."
Then, every season, we hear skeptical protests from people who "got the shot but still got the flu." (The real flu, not just an "influenza-like illness" that would not be prevented by the flu shot.) They got the impression they were "protected," and they got that impression from their docs and from the media.
It is better to passionately recommend the flu shot, while sadly explaining that it isn't perfect.
Even with far less than 100% effectiveness, the vaccine saves huge numbers of lives, and reduces the severity of huge numbers of flu cases. Here is how CDC describes flu vaccine efficacy:
http://www.cdc.gov/FLU/PROFESSIONALS/VACCINATION/effectivenessqa.htm
[Children:]
"A 4-year randomized, placebo-controlled trial of children aged 1-15 years found vaccine effectiveness ranging from 77% to 91%, following only one dose of vaccine given to previously unvaccinated children.
"Another 2-year study of children aged 6-24 months found that the vaccine was 66% effective against laboratory-confirmed influenza in year 1 of the study. Only children who were fully vaccinated (i.e. had either 2 doses if not previously vaccinated, or 1 dose if previously vaccinated) versus unvaccinated children were included in the analysis. In the other year, few cases of influenza occurred, making it difficult to assess the vaccine’s effectiveness.
"A study of influenza vaccine effectiveness among >5,000 children aged 6-23 months found vaccine effectiveness of 49% against clinically diagnosed pneumonia or influenza among fully vaccinated children."
[Healthy adults less than 65 years old:]
"in years when the vaccine and circulating viruses are well-matched, influenza vaccines can be expected to reduce laboratory-confirmed influenza by approximately 70% to 90% in healthy adults <65 years of age."
[Adults over 65 living in the community:]
"Among elderly persons not living in nursing homes or similar long-term care facilities, influenza vaccine has been reported to be 30%-70% effective in preventing hospitalization for pneumonia and influenza."
[Lower effectiveness -- but not usually zero -- in poor match years: The CDC url above goes on to document this as well.]

Jody Lanard M.D. of NJ 8:51AM March 03, 2009

This is tragic all around. My heart goes out to the families. I would like to know what treatement the kids that died received prior to death. Clearly if there was treatment it did not work! Also, what drugs did they take in the hours and days preceeding the death - over the counter drugs could possibly be implicated, is anyone looking at that?

Rita 7:49PM March 02, 2009

Nancy, Can you provide any evidence that the type of flu these kids are dying from is the kind that is in the flu vaccine. Last year only one strain in the shot was right. Can you get back to us on this, like by the end of the week.

Jerry of IL 5:21PM March 02, 2009