CDC owes parents better vaccine messages for children



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One of the quirks of the CDC’s recommendation, beyond the calculations it is based on, is its failure to consider alternative vaccination approaches for adolescents beyond the same dosage and schedule as the ones. adults. The CDC’s analysis “assumes that single doses of mRNA vaccines have 0% effectiveness in preventing hospitalizations associated with Covid-19,” wrote Wes Pegden, mathematician at Carnegie Mellon University.

While numerous media reports of a study released by the UK’s public health agency in mid-June highlighted its finding that two doses of Pfizer’s vaccine provided 96% protection against hospitalization of the Delta variant. , many failed to mention that it also has 94 percent protection. Considering the benefit of a single dose, and the fact that the majority of myocarditis risk comes with the second dose, reviewers have suggested a variety of different plans that would mitigate the risks for teens. Pegden, along with several co-authors, including an epidemiologist, two cardiologists and a pediatrician, also wrote a separate essay criticizing the CDC’s “all-or-nothing” approach, listing several alternatives. Monica Gandhi, infectious disease physician at UCSF, suggested a variety of options too. These are especially adolescents, or in particular young men, receiving a single dose; give the second dose later, as spreading the doses out can reduce the likelihood of a serious reaction; recommend that only young people at high risk be vaccinated; and for any adolescent immunized to a previous infection, either a single dose or no vaccine, at least for the foreseeable future, as a previous infection confers strong immunity.

Despite the UK study, less than two weeks after its publication, Walensky said that “UK data shows that a stroke really doesn’t work as well to avoid, especially the Delta variant, and you really need of that second shot. “Two injections offer more protection than one, and it is not yet clear whether the protection of one dose may wane more quickly or may not be protective enough at a later date. But the CDC’s singular focus on every American individual receiving two doses, including those at significantly higher risk after the second dose, such as young men, seems needlessly and possibly dangerously myopic.

Following this point, a slide at the committee meeting recommended that even if a person contracts myocarditis after the first dose of the mRNA vaccine, if their heart recovers, they should still consider receiving a second dose. While some policy professionals were happy with this advice, numerous cardiologists and other medical professionals condemned he. Venk Murthy, cardiologist at the University of Michigan, commented: “Under no circumstances should a patient with myocarditis shortly after the first dose of vax mRNA be given a second dose, even if the heart is recovering. The CDC was wrong. Doctors at three different major teaching hospitals in New York and California, who weren’t allowed to speak in public, all told me this advice was “insane.”

The medical establishment has also lined up behind the CDC to support its questionable messages. In a remarkable display of uniformity, a joint statement, co-signed by the leaders of the CDC, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Heart Association, the American Medical Association, the American Nurses Association, the ‘American Hospital Association and 11 other organizations, was released in response to the advisory committee meeting. It reads, in part:

Today, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) met to discuss the latest data on reports of mild cases of inflammation of the heart muscle and surrounding tissues called myocarditis and pericarditis following vaccination. against Covid-19 in young people.



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