Revised Recommendations for Vaccines Are Being Phased In, CDC Report Says

[mzmolly]

Can vaccines be more useful for some people than for others?

Until now, most physicians have recommended immunizations for all infants and children, as well as for adults at various ages who may have missed shots. But new guidelines that take into account the strength of scientific evidence and individual health to determine whether specific vaccines should be recommended or simply optional for patients are being used in medicine for the first time, a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.

The recommendations are based on a framework for evaluating science used by more than 60 major organizations, including the American College of Physicians and the World Health Organization, and will each fall in one of two categories, reflective of evidence that a vaccine is essential to good health. Category A recommendations will include vaccinations considered necessary for all people of a certain age or those who are at an increased risk for contracting a vaccine-preventable disease. Category B recommendations will provide guidance to physicians in the context of individual cases where patients with varying health conditions may or may not benefit from a vaccine.

“Over the years, the science of developing recommendations has changed,” said Faruque Ahmed, PhD, a senior scientist at the CDC and a member of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which is leading the effort, in a telephone interview.

The need for updating immunization guidelines stems from the fact that the current language does not always indicate the importance of some vaccines over others. For example, the meningococcal vaccine, which protects against a debilitating and potentially life-threatening disease and can be routinely administered at various stages in a patient’s life, may be recommended with the same urgency as the hepatitis B vaccine for older adults with diabetes, for whom that vaccine is not always beneficial.

...

Ahmed also noted that if recommendations are made more clear, physicians will find them easier to follow and patients will likely gain more confidence in vaccines. To this point, he said some opponents of routine vaccinations have attended his group’s meetings over the years and are now supportive of the new approach. SafeMinds, (which is labeled an anti-vaccine advocacy group) which promotes the idea that mercury in vaccines is associated with autism, attention deficit disorder, and other neurological impairments, is one of those supporters that have signaled their approval for using evidence-based guidelines.

More at FORBES

Finally, the CDC is inching toward a thoughtful, patient centered approach to vaccination.

[longship]

1. But the bottom line is that unless you have a good reason not to, everybody should vaccinate

It is all about herd immunity. If everybody opts out, herd immunity doesn't happen. That means when you take your five month old into the doctor's office that some unvaccinated four year old could transmit whooping cough to your baby who is too young for the vaccine. That's how these pathogens transmit to others.

If everybody who can get vaccinated does get vaccinated we would be rid of some diseases which -- in my lifetime -- we're common and deadly.

We have eliminated smallpox on the planet. We are close to eliminating polio, which I really saw in my grade school in the fifties.

This is a good article, but many anti-vaccers will see it as permission to ignore it.

[mzmolly]

2. Where do we draw the line? Should every available vaccine, be given to every person on the planet?

I believe that small pox and polio are good examples of vaccines that were developed and distributed for worthy cause. I don't believe that every vaccine is created equal, however. For example, I feel that giving every 12 year old child Gardasil and every single newborn Hep B is over the top. I realize many here, disagree with me on this.

I often feel that we'd have enough vaccines for poor nations, if those of us who are insulated from various disease simply shared what we have available.

Like I said, I'm glad to see more thoughtful policy emerging. I believe that those who are opposed to vaccine safety will be apprehensive, however. They've been led to believe that we must look at vaccines as either, all good or all bad, and that every available vaccine, should be injected in all humans, without question.

[longship]

3. The line?

Vaccines cannot be given below a certain age. Whooping cough deaths worldwide are overwhelmingly amongst those too young to be vaccinated yet old enough to be exposed by kids who should have been vaccinated, but weren't. BTW, when you're less than six months old, pertussis is not a good way to die.

In Africa, various religious organizations are spreading lies about the polio vaccine, saying it is a Western plot to make Africans sterile. The result? Polio, instead of being eradicated is finding its way into the population. And since there has been next to no polio in the US in decades, many here are no longer being vaccinated for it. This provides an opportunity for somebody from an unvaccinated country where polio is extant, to the US where there are enough unvaccinated for some communities to provide a rich medium for polio to spread.

A disease few have ever seen could come back merely because of the vagaries of global airlines and ignorance of what vaccines can do.

[mzmolly]

4. Yes

the line.

I'm fully aware of how pertussis is spread and who is vulnerable. That's another topic of discussion, frankly. I will add however, that most adults in the US are not up to date on the Pertussis vaccine, given booster recommendations. The vast majority of children in the US are compliant, and up to date with the CDC recommendations.

[longship]

5. Except for where they aren't!

Like some areas of Oregon, Arizona, California, etc. where people like Jenny "I pick my boogers on MTV" McCarthy hold sway. It takes about 90% or more vaccinated in a population to provide herd immunity, depending on the infection.

If the population listens to idiots like McCarthy and her brain dead followers, we will lose that herd immunity. Then, some dude will bring polio, or some other disease via an international flight and a community will suffer the consequences of a disease which we have not seen for over a generation.

The anti-vaccination community has a body count. Their bullshit kills people, many children, every day. Fuck Jenny McCarthy.
Fuck Meryl Dorey! Fuck Andrew "No longer a doctor in Britain so I'll go to the US to peddle my quackery" Wakefield.

Fuck them all. Their harm is unmeasurable.

[mzmolly]

6. About 90% of adults in the us, are not up to date on vaccines.

I think it is brain dead to focus on the 10% of kids who may have skipped the procedure.

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=1070&sid=20115426

Health officials are beginning to realize that a) children are exposed to adults and b) adults can spread illness.