by David Gutierrez

staff writer
June 26, 2010

from NaturalNews Website

 


An advisory panel to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended that every person be vaccinated for the seasonal flu yearly, except in a few cases where the vaccine is known to be unsafe.

"Now no one should say 'Should I or shouldn't I?'" said CDC flu specialist Anthony Fiore.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 11-0 with one abstention to recommend yearly flu vaccination for everyone except for children under the age of six months, whose immune systems have not yet developed enough for vaccination to be safe, and people with egg allergies or other health conditions that are known to make flu vaccines hazardous.

 

If accepted by the CDC, this recommendation will then be publicized to doctors and other health workers.

The CDC nearly always accepts the advisory committee's recommendations.

Current CDC recommendations call for the yearly vaccination of all children over the age of six months, all adults over the age of 49, health care workers, people with chronic health problems and anyone who cares for a person in one of these groups. These recommendations cover 85 percent of the US population.

Excluded are adults between the ages of 19 and 49 who do not come into close contact with people in high-risk groups.

 

The new recommendation, if adopted, would close that gap, bringing an end to a 10-year campaign by supporters of universal vaccination. In the past, the advisory committee has been reluctant to recommend universal vaccination for fear that it might produce vaccine shortages that place members of higher risk groups in danger.

 

Yet even with current recommendations, only 33 percent of the public gets vaccinated every year, leaving millions of doses to be disposed of.

The H1N1 swine flu scare of the past year played a major role in the committee's about face, both because the disease killed many people falling outside the current recommended vaccine demographic and because it raised public awareness of and demand for vaccines.
 


Source

 


 

 

 


 Government Panel - All Should Get Seasonal Flu Shot Each Year
The Associated Press

February 25, 2010

from USAToday Website

ATLANTA (AP) - A government panel is now recommending that virtually all Americans get a flu shot each year, starting this fall.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices had gradually been expanding its recommendation for flu shots - 85% of Americans were already included.

On Wednesday, the panel voted to recommend a seasonal flu vaccination for everyone except babies younger than 6 months and those with egg allergies or other unusual conditions. The panel's recommendation now goes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

The CDC usually follows the panel's advice and spreads the message to doctors and hospitals across the country.

"Now no one should say 'Should I or shouldn't I?'" said Dr. Anthony Fiore, a CDC flu specialist.

CDC vaccination recommendations tend to be influential with the doctors who give the shots and the health insurers who pay for them.

Flu shots are already recommended for 85% of the U.S. public, including pregnant women, children older than 6 months, adults 50 and older, people with certain chronic health conditions, health care workers and those who take care of people in a recommended group. The only people who weren't specifically included were healthy people ages 19 to 49 who don't have close contact with anyone at risk of flu and its complications.

But only about 33% of Americans actually get a flu shot, and unusually millions and millions of doses get thrown away annually.

The swine flu pandemic that hit last year caused a new momentum for flu vaccinations. Virtually all the 114 million doses of seasonal flu vaccine doses made were distributed, and more young adults and children got the swine flu vaccine than usually come out for seasonal flu.

The panel voted 11 to 0 - with one abstention - for the recommendation, prompting a short round of applause in the CDC auditorium where the meeting was held. Some public health experts and physicians had been pushing for a universal flu vaccination recommendation for more than 10 years.

Also on Wednesday, the panel gave its nod to a proposed formulation of next year's seasonal flu vaccine. The vaccine will be built to protect against three strains of flu scientists think will be circulating next fall and winter. Swine flu is to be one of the strains incorporated into the vaccine.

At past meetings, the panel stopped short of recommending flu shots for everyone. Panel members were mindful of a history of temporary flu vaccine shortages in the United States.

 

They worried a universal recommendation might cause demand to far surpass supply and endanger those at the highest risk of life-threatening flu complications.

"Yet every year we wasted millions and millions of doses," said Dr. Gregory Poland, a Mayo Clinic infectious diseases expert who for years has passionately pushed the panel to recommend flu shots for all.

The swine flu vaccine campaign appears to be ending the same way.

 

Doses were scarce when the swine flu vaccine first became available in early October, but now roughly 90 million people have been vaccinated, demand is dying and millions of doses are unused.

Swine flu provided another argument for universal vaccination. The new virus proved to be unusually dangerous to young adults, and also took a surprising toll on Native Americans and obese people. Many of those hospitalized and killed by swine flu were not in groups previously recommended for annual flu shots, and that fact was another reason to expand the vaccination recommendation, experts said.

There are a few exceptions to the universal recommendation. Children under 6 months of age, who have undeveloped immune systems, will continue to be exempt. So too will people who have egg allergies (the vaccine is made using eggs) and those who have had certain severe reactions to flu shots in the past.

The panel also decided that elderly people can consider a new, revved-up version of the seasonal flu shot. It's a Sanofi Pasteur vaccine for adults 65 and older.

In years when the flu shot is well matched to circulating flu viruses, vaccine is 70 to 90% effective in people younger than 65, the CDC estimates. But it tends to be only 30 to 70% effective in those who are older because they generally have weakened immune systems.

The Sanofi vaccine - called Fluzone High-Dose - has four times as much immunity-building antibodies as a standard dose. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine in December, and it should be available for the 2010-2011 flu season. It would cost about $25 a shot, or about twice the standard version.

The panel did not state a preference for the vaccine, however.

 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine through an accelerated process, and Sanofi is to do further studies to show the shot reduces flu illnesses.

 


 

 

 

Just say yes

March 16, 2010

from Healthwealth-Wisealternatives Website


Recently, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted to expand the flu shot recommendations to include everyone over the age of 6 months.

In other words, the CDC will be recommending that virtually every American alive today should get a flu shot next season. Now you might have some contraindications - such as egg allergy or a chronic disease - that will keep you off the recommended list.

Everyone else? Step right up!

A CDC flu specialist told the Washington Post,

“Now no one should say, ‘Should I or shouldn’t I?’”

That’s right - you don’t even have to THINK about it anymore.

 

When your doctor says,

“Ready for your flu shot?” It’s easy. You just say, “Yes!”

And here’s the best part: It’s easier for your doctor because now HE doesn’t have to think about it either!

 

A representative of the American College of Physicians actually told Medscape:

“This will be much simpler. We don’t have to figure out who should get the vaccine.”

In the past, a doctor had to look at some paperwork to find the age of his patient. Then he had to figure out if the patient belonged in one of two age groups: six months to 18 years, or anyone over 50. Imagine how complex that was!

When the ACIP voted on the new recommendations, there was actually a round of applause at the meeting where the vote occurred. That’s how much these people craved this change. They were celebrating! Which is fairly odd because there’s zero evidence that the flu vaccine even works.

And they know it.

Last year, I told you about an important study from the Cochrane Collaboration - a non-profit, independent organization that reviews a wide variety of health care research. Cochrane researchers examined every influenza vaccine study conducted between 1948 and 2007.

Their conclusion:

“There is no evidence whatsoever that seasonal influenza vaccines have any effect, especially in the elderly and young children. No evidence of reduced cases, deaths, complications.”

So the CDC - these very mainstreamers who are always telling us that supplements don’t have gold standard proof of effectiveness - are recommending that nearly every person in the U.S. should get this completely unproven vaccine next year.

They’re going to be mystified when millions of people just say,

“No.”