Flu Update 2009: "On second thought..."

From the CDC (for the week ending January 24, 2009): "Widespread influenza activity was reported by two states (New Jersey and Virginia)."

  

A CDC official this week commented on the slow start to the flu vaccine season.

"It's been kind of a ho-hum year," Dr. Nancy Cox, influenza chief at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told a meeting of flu specialists Monday.

Except, it seems, in only two states - Virginia and New Jersey.  What's kind of interesting about this fact is that New Jersey is now the only state in the country to mandate influenza vaccination for those infants and children ages 6 months to 5 years old in preschool and/or daycare.  Oh well.  Guess it didn't help much this year.  Now tell that to all the panicked and angry parents forced to give their youngsters the vaccine or pull them out of school/daycare.  As I've written before, the best current available evidence does not support universal flu vaccination for children under two.  And for those 2-5, it's very limited. 

So, rather than leading to a vast reduction in flu morbidity and mortality, the flu vaccine mandate in NJ has triggered a troubling trend.  Faced with no other options, in order to avoid flu vaccination, parents in record numbers are claiming religious exemptions and thereby bypassing all childhood immunizations.  As I've said and will continue to advocate, the success of our public health immunization program depends on the trust and confidence of parents.  From someone on the front lines, I can tell you that we have a long, long way to go.

Comments

[Zenmom]

Wow. I don't know who is perceived to be 'crazier': Me for submitting an extreme religious exemption letter to our daughter's preschool or the State for mandating the vaccine that is not effective anyway. I did save the email from her school in which the director said that she personally didn't believe in it anyway :-)

[gotta, md]

"The flu is not a horrible, often life long, severely disabling epidemic in New Jersey, autism is. Dr. Larry Rosen combed through New Jersey’s influenza records and found that one New Jersey child died from the flu last year. That is indeed a horrible tragedy but not a state wide crisis."
What if your child died from a vaccine preventable illness Dr Rosen?
How about your body Deirdre Imus? bet her child was vaccinated despite her third grade education

[Dr. Larry Rosen]

Well, this is certainly a way to catch my attention. Kudos, "gotta, md" for keeping the dialogue alive. That's all I can ask, I suppose.
The point here, of course, is not having to choose which disease/disorder to die or suffer from. And if you paid attention to what I actually write, you would know I am not opposed to vaccination. Both of my children, and myself, and my wife, were flu vaccinated this year. That's my choice, based on my family history and occupation, and their histories, and ages, and my reading of the evidence. But that is NOT the decision I might make given other circumstances. Especially when in any given year, as with this year, the vaccines are not all that effective.
And not that I have to defend Deirdre Imus - she can certainly do that well enough herself - but she did graduate from college, and technically has an honorary doctorate, making her Dr. Imus after all.

[playdough]

You go, Dr Rosen!!! :)