The Science Didn’t Change

On the vaccine schedule change announcement and flu

Over Christmas break, my house was dealing with COVID and/or a stomach bug. We spent two weeks trading saltines while trying to keep the kids entertained inside the house. It wasn’t easy or fun. It reminded me of how much I hate being sick and seeing my kids sick. I will also note my whole family is vaccinated for COVID-19. My kids never tested positive (they just got the stomach bug and then gave it to us), and my husband and I were lucky to have mild cases. But, even if there aren’t complications, it isn’t a pleasant experience.

So, by the time the end of last week rolled around even my six year old was begging to return to school. Needless to say, the week wasn’t what we hoped, but it did inspire me to try to take up knitting (you can follow my hat making journey on Instagram).

Re-entry after the holidays is always tough. So, on Monday, I was prepared to have a rough day. I was also so glad to be healthy and with other humans. Then I started getting message after message warning that a major announcement was coming. HHS was announcing changes to the recommended childhood vaccine schedule.

My heart sank (also why did it have to be Monday?!)

The last thing parents or kids need is more kids getting sick. Especially without any protection. Especially when getting sick is not a risk free event. Especially when going into a New Year, which is shaping up to be a horrible flu season. Now there is going to be even more confusion about the best way to reduce flu and other infectious diseases complications.

This won’t make us healthier as a nation. It will just bring diseases back they we are better off with as little of as possible.

It’s been a rough re-entry week. So, I am going to keep this brief and answer the two most common questions I’m getting right now. If you have others please comment below and I’ll do my best to answer ASAP.

What’s going on with this childhood vaccine schedule change?

As mentioned above, the federal government just announced big changes to the childhood vaccine schedule by reducing the number of vaccines routinely recommended for all kids and moving several vaccines into an “optional/shared decision” category instead of routine care (hepatitis B, COVID-19, flu, rotavirus are a few of the changes). This means they’re only routinely recommending protection against 11 diseases, instead of 17. More disease is not good! I worked with The Evidence Collective to make this technical brief with people who want more details, but a short synopsis is below.

1. Science has not changed. This decision was not done for a scientific reason, even if they try to say it was. These vaccines have protected children for decades from illnesses that can cause long-term health problems, and sometimes death. Their benefits greatly outweigh their risks. This administration picked an outlier country, like Denmark, without being willing to copy its other social supports like longer paid parental leave, better screening and universal healthcare. The reality is many other countries have vaccine schedules much more similar to what we had.

   The original schedule is still recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and other major health organizations, regardless of what this administration might say.

   My family will follow the AAP vaccine schedule you can find here. As of right now, the vaccines should still be accessible and covered for those who want them. But finding them could get harder in certain states, only time will tell.

2. If people can still access them, then what’s the issue? This policy is going to create confusion. People may think the ones optional are not as important, and therefore leave their kids at risk of preventable complications. It is also possible this will make it harder for families to access them in some settings (like pharmacies). Ultimately, we expect this to lead to more kids getting sick, and dying, because of vaccine preventable diseases.

Flu is looking bad, but the vaccine is still valuable.

This flu season is shaping up to be a bad one. You may see lots of headlines about “super flu” and be confused. This isn’t a brand new flu virus, like some people seem to think. So let’s talk about why people are saying it’s “super flu”.

There are different strains of the flu. The vaccine provides protection against three versions of the flu. Types of H1N1 and H3N2 (both flu A), and a version of flu B known as B/victoria. The flu virus can change a lot (officially known as flu acquiring new mutations through antigenic shift and antigenic drift), this always makes it hard to predict exactly what the versions of flu circulating will look like once flu season hits.

This year there were many mutations in the H3N2 strain (this is being called subclade K by many or super flu by others). Because there are so many mutations this means prior exposure, and even this year’s flu vaccine, aren’t a perfect match. More people may get infected and have more symptoms as a result. Despite this, the H3N2 strain the flu vaccine generates protection for IS still related to the one circulating right now. This means the flu vaccine can still help your immune system be prepared.

Early data from Europe shows that the flu vaccine is still offering benefits compared to no vaccine. Also, remember that the flu vaccine also protects against H1N1 and flu B!

Last year was also a bad flu season, and we had the highest number of pediatric deaths on record in a non-pandemic flu year*. 280 kids died. 89% of them were not fully vaccinated, a bit less than half had no known medical conditions. This clearly demonstrates how important flu vaccines are, even for kids who had no known underlying medical condition. Despite this, our current administration no longer recommends them. This is unfathomable.

It’s not too late. Get you and your kids the flu vaccine if you haven’t already.

Also, please remember there is no benefit to getting sick. Just a lot of risk!

Consider masking, increasing ventilation and staying home when sick to help stop the spread. If you do test positive, notify your clinician in case you qualify for one of the many anti-viral medications available. Some people also may qualify if they’ve just been exposed and not yet positive. So, if someone in your house has the flu you can also reach out to your clinician (for more on options see the video I made for TNG & CVEEP below.

*=288 kids died in the pandemic flu season of 2009-2010

@cveepsocial

Champions for Vaccine Education, Equity and Progress on Instagr…

What can you do?

• Call you representatives. If this news bothers you, make it known. We need to be loud and clear about vaccine support and access. I know I tell you this a lot, but it does matter and it does make a difference if enough people call!

• Support science communicators online by engaging with our posts, even if you know and agree. Even if you think all your friends and family known and agree too. Comment, re-share, tell others to follow us, re-post ect…. All of these things help good information get out there because it pushes our place in the algorithm. This helps more people see it! One issue I see a lot is that post with false information get more engagement, so they’re seen by more people. This helps that information flourish. This can be combated by not-engaging with false information, and instead supporting those of us trying to counter it.

• Share why you care. Be vocal with your friends and family about why you care about science, vaccines and other important issues. The more people see others supporting science and vaccines, the better.

• Remember to find hope. More here.

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Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash