vaccination
tsmith | October 22, 2009I've written previously about "chicken pox parties". These types of events are coming back into vogue (they were common in the days before the vaccine, when the only way to provide immunity was to be infected), as parents mistakenly believe that "natural exposures" to these pathogens are somehow superior--and safer--than vaccinations. Though the latest rage are "H1N1 parties", chicken pox parties are still around, and potentially being held at your local McDonald's by families connecting on the internet:
I am trying to put together a chicken pox party and am looking for someone to donate…
mikethemadbiologist | October 19, 2009Bill Maher notwithstanding, a recent Pew survey shows that Democrats are far more willing to get a swine flu vaccination than either independents or Republicans:
For every four Democrats willing to get the vaccine, only three Republicans and independents are willing to do so. While I'm tempted to say something snarky, if this political divide holds up, this actually has serious repercussions for the spread of TEH SWINEY FLOO!!.
At both the state and local levels, there are often sharp skews in party affiliation. I've spot checked some county registration data for localities and it's worse…
mikethemadbiologist | October 8, 2009In the midst of all of the discussion about improving healthcare, one issue that has been neglected is the role of poverty in poor healthcare outcomes. One group that is hit particularly hard is the homeless. The Toronto Invasive Bacterial Diseases Network reports that the homeless are thirty times more likely to be diagnosed with pneumonia caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae than the population at large:
We identified 69 cases of invasive pneumococcal disease and 27 cases of laboratory confirmed pneumococcal pneumonia in an estimated population of 5050 homeless adults. The incidence of…
ddobbs | October 5, 2009I've wondered many times, including out loud in Slate, why it's not common in the U.S. to give flu vaccinations at schools, so they could efficiently be given to the population (children) whose inoculation most effectively prevents epidemics or pandemics, as well as to anyone else who wanted one. Same place, procedure, and personnel every year. It would simply and speed things immensely, and save scads of money?
This story in the Times has me asking the question anew. Instead of a single date (or a few dates) in which people can line up and get their shots in an orderly, efficient process,…
ddobbs | October 5, 2009Lots of flu news out there. Here's my short list for the day:
Helen Branswell reports that WHO is unpersuaded by the unpublished paper showing seasonal flu vaccine may raise chance of getting swine flu. (Anomalies are usually anomalies.) Canada has been thrown into quite a bit of confusion by this report, with some provinces holding off on seasonal flu vaccines.
Meanwhile, an OB notes an extraordinary death toll of H5N1 among pregnant women.
Greg Laden has an extremely short post suggesting how difficult these two bits of news are when you (or your wife) are actually pregnant. The gist: The…
mikethemadbiologist | October 3, 2009...as any other vaccine. One of the things that was frustrating about the recent report of some (a few) nurses who were concerned about the safety of the swine flu vaccine was the utter ignorance by medical professionals of how the vaccine is made: the swine flu vaccine is no different in terms of manufacture than other influenza vaccines. And since the seasonal flu vaccine is different every year, there's never extensive testing (i.e., months and months) of each year's vaccine. If there were, the vaccine would never be released in time. But don't believe the Mad Biologist, I CAN HAZ…
ddobbs | October 2, 2009Been a while, so these cover a span of reading.
I'm in the midst of my friend Adrienne Mayor's The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy, and can report that Mr. M is quite a poisonous but complicated handful -- a dark and deadly echo of his hero and model, Alexander -- and this reconstruction a splendid read.
A few weeks ago I finished Thomas Ricks' The Gamble, an excellent account of the surge in Iraq. Ricks -- who earlier wrote Fiasco, a devastating indictment of the run-up to the war, makes three things quite clear:
The surge was not about more soldiers…
mikethemadbiologist | October 1, 2009...for about $2.50 a day. Over at Age of Autism, there's a DEVASTATING two part series about how ScienceBlogs has been bought and paid for by Big Pharma (and I don't mean Rush Limbaugh). I've always been amazed when people accuse me and my fellow ScienceBloglings of being bought off. Most of us just aren't getting paid that much. Would I rather get paid than do it for free? Sure. But the moment ScienceBlogs or Our Benevolent Seed Overlords tell me what to write, I'm gone. How can anyone who reads this blog think for a minute that TEH EVUL SEED EDITARS are influencing this blog's…
mikethemadbiologist | September 30, 2009One of the thing we need to pay attention to during TEH SWINEY FLOO! is the role of bacterial infections in flu-related mortality: a fair number of the deaths ultimately could result from a secondary bacterial infection by organisms like Staphylococcus (including MRSA), Streptococcus, and some of the Gram-negative organisms. Unfortunately, this is happening in a significant fraction of cases:
Nevertheless, the 22 cases (among 77 deaths confirmed to be from H1N1) emphasize that bacterial co-infections are playing a role in the ongoing pandemic, something that was not clear at first, the CDC…
mikethemadbiologist | September 25, 2009While I think making swine flu vaccination mandatory for healthcare workers is bad policy, since it feeds into anti-vaccine paranoia: people forced to take the vaccine will assume that they are guinea pigs and this, in turn, will lead others to think something is wrong with the vaccine.
Having said that, I'm concerned by the response of Long Island nurses unions--they apparently don't think the vaccine is unsafe but oppose it anyway. But these reactions by nurses are more troubling (italics mine):
"This vaccine has not been clinically tested to the same degree as the regular flu vaccine,"…
tsmith | September 18, 2009Taking a brief hiatus from my hiatus to discuss a question I've been asked a number of times in recent weeks by friends and family: what about flu shots? Are you getting one for yourself? Your kids? The answer is yes to both, with more explanation after the jump.
First, for readers unfamiliar with this blog, let me be frank regarding my opinion on vaccine "controversies," such as "vaccines cause autism." As I've discussed here several times already (and more can be found by searching my older posts), this assertion is completely unsupported by many scientific studies, so this is not a…
mikethemadbiologist | September 14, 2009...the rest of us. Shorter version: you are an ambulatory germ dispersal unit, so be responsible.
I try to make it a regular habit to go through the ScienceBlogs 24-hour feed, and in doing so, I came across this post by ScienceBlogling Jason Rosenhouse talking about his experience with what might have been TEH SWINEY FLOO!, and my jaw dropped when I read this:
I didn't even cancel any of my classes, though I did cancel some office hours to get home and back into bed more quickly.
I became more troubled as none of the commenters seemed bothered by this. Fortunately, Orac showed up and…
mikethemadbiologist | August 3, 2009The CDC's expert committee has released its recommendations for who should receive the swine flu vaccination (TEH SWINEY FLOO!):
1. Pregnant women; household contacts and caretakers of children under 6 months old; health-care workers and emergency medical services workers; children and young adults ages 6 months through 24 years; adults ages 25 through 64 who have underlying medical conditions that put them at higher risk.
2. Healthy adults ages 25 through 64.
3. Healthy adults ages 65 and older.
This is a good list, but I have several concerns, stemming from the apparent lack of recognition…
mikethemadbiologist | May 8, 2009I hope the swine flu outbreak focuses attention on the importance of vaccination.
When you consider seasonal (annual) influenza (which kills ~36,000 per year) and how lackidaisical people are about vaccination, I can only hope that this makes people realize just how important vaccination for annual influenza is. Because I'm guessing, that right about now, people would be lining up for a vaccine.
It's easy to be sanguine about vaccination, or to 'debate' whether vaccines actually work, when such beliefs are viewed as having little or no consequence. But the specter of a pandemic has a funny…
mikethemadbiologist | May 1, 2009For keeping the big picture in mind when it comes to influenza--as the CDC decides to proceed with seasonal influenza vaccine production:
Dr. Marc Lipsitch, a Harvard School of Public Health epidemiologist, said the decision to proceed with seasonal flu vaccine production is evidence "that garden-variety seasonal flu kills on the order of 36,000 people a year, and while we are in a crisis and it might seem to make sense to ignore that, you can't."
..."We want to make sure in the vaccine manufacturing that we were still able to protect the country from seasonal flu and be able to protect from…
palmd | April 6, 2009I don't know what it's like to be autistic. I don't know what it's like to raise an autistic child. For this knowledge, I have to rely on others, and there are plenty of talented bloggers out there who write about these experiences all the time. What I do know is that there is a cadre of autism "activists" out there who do a great disservice to people who do know something about these experiences.
One such example is Dr. Jerry Kartzinel, who co-wrote Jenny McCarthy's latest monument to her own idiocy. "Dr. Jerry" is infamous among many parents of autistic children for this quote:
Autism,…
mikethemadbiologist | April 1, 2009Actually, he didn't. He interviewed anti-vaccinationist Jenny McCarthy. Which is worse. Here's one small dose of stupidity:
Most people who blame autism on vaccines point to the mercury in the shots, yet mercury has been removed from most vaccines and autism rates continue to climb.
We don't believe it's only the mercury. Aluminum and other toxins also play a role. The viruses in the vaccines themselves can be causing it, too.
That part in italics is demonstrably false. No virus has ever been shown to cause autism (horrible effects, including brain damage and hearing loss, yes).
And it's…
palmd | February 25, 2009The Autism Omnibus Trial is a conundrum for the infectious disease promotion movement. Still, their ability to pick up the goalposts and run is unmatched, and that is just what David Kirby and Robert Kennedy, Jr. have done in today's Huffington Post.
To review, the recent Omnibus decision looked at a few test cases for the "vaccine causes autism" hypothesis, and tossed them for being inconsistent with reality. This correlates well with what science has to say about the issue.
But of course the overwhelming evidence isn't going to deter these superheroes. They know the answer, and they're…
palmd | February 19, 2009It seems the same questions keep coming up when looking at the cult leaders of the infectious disease promotion movement. When you listen to them preach or read their liturgy you can't help thinking, "dumb, evil, or both?" I think I'm going to vote for "both" when it comes to Deirdre Imus. Her sermon last week in the Huffington Post was so far over the top that my nose is still bleeding from climbing her tower of intellectual excrement.
Her title advises health consumers, "On Vaccinations: Consider the Source and Follow the Money."
I don't know what that means, but Deirdre explains, "…
palmd | February 8, 2009It's generally a bad idea to assault the religious beliefs of your friends, neighbors, and relatives. That being said, sometimes it's unavoidable. My being Jewish is hard for some people, who feel that just by being me, I am denying their Lord and delaying His return (and before you start tossing No True Scotsmans at me, this has indeed happened more than once). Still, unless someone is directly pestering me with their religion (you know, by posthumously baptizing my grandma or something), I leave them be.
But what about quasi-religious beliefs? A great deal of alternative medicine is…