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  • Closing the Vaccine Confidence Gap

    Closing the Vaccine Confidence Gap

    After disrupting life everywhere and killing millions globally, the COVID-19 pandemic finally has a cure in the form of several vaccines.  For countries like America to end the pandemic, they need to have 70 to 85% of their population vaccinated.  With large sections of the country still hesitant to take the shot, however, between 10 and 15% of the population still needs to change their mind to make herd immunity happen.  How can vaccine confidence in the US peak past its plateau?

    First, one needs to understand which groups of people are hesitant to receive a vaccine.  While those living in rural areas or members of the Black/African American community are slightly less likely to seek vaccination, the real indicator of hesitancy is political affiliation.  Those who identify their politics as right leaning are 65% likely to vaccinate as compared to 92% of apolitical individuals and 95% of the mainstream left.  This disparity is dramatic, but it is worth noting that it has been improving in recent months.  When people across the political spectrum were asked about vaccine confidence in December 2020, the numbers for people on the right were 41%.  Meanwhile, the confidence of other groups has stayed largely the same.

    If one wishes to get more specific regarding consumer attributes of vaccine-hesitant people, there are a number of traits that go beyond race, geography, or political affiliation.  Research shows that the vaccine ambivalent are likely to spend more in physical stores than on online shopping, they have an average education of high school or less, and often own multiple pets.  While some of these traits don’t seem to relate to vaccination, they can help target campaigns that encourage confidence in the shot.  According to Glenna Crooks, “we’ve not applied the industry’s commercialization skills to the challenge of increasing vaccine confidence [yet]… we need to leverage the market research, marketing, communications, sales, patient advocacy, public relations, and healthcare delivery expertise within companies.”

    The rationale that vaccine holdouts list for their position is split between freedom of choice and fear of side effects.  As such, efforts to increase vaccination rates should focus on addressing these concerns head on.  A three-pronged approach to closing the confidence gap will require incentives, convenience, and positive dialogue.  With incentives, freedom of choice must remain paramount, but governments and companies ought to experiment with incentives that resonate with the people they want to reach.  For example, New Jersey has launched their “Shot and a Beer” program to encourage citizens of drinking age to get vaccinated.  When it comes to convenience, shifting from mass vaccination sites to local healthcare provider offices can boost confidence and access in one.  Vaccination rates by healthcare providers remain at all time high with 99% endorsements.  Finally, positive dialogue should emphasize the personal and economic benefits of vaccination while reinforcing freedom of choice.  They should not point fingers at politicians.

    Vaccination is the safest path for America in its quest for herd immunity. Every citizen benefits from ending the pandemic.

    Vaccine Confidence
    Via: realchemistry.com

  • Misinformation and Facts About the COVID-19 Vaccine

    The COVID-19 vaccine was developed faster than any other vaccine in history. This fast pace has made some people nervous to receive it. On average, vaccines take 10-15 years to develop. The previous fastest vaccines developed were for mumps, which took 4 years, and measles, which took 3. The COVID-19 vaccine was created so quickly because scientists around the world collaborated and shared their data. There was previous research into other coronaviruses that made the processes easier, and the mRNA vaccines were developed with readily available materials. Scientists also had help from governments around the world that fast-tracked clinical trials and vaccine approvals. 

    The Vaccine is Safe

    Even though some elements of the vaccine were fast-tracked, it is still safe.  The fast-tracked elements did not affect the accuracy of trial results. All COVID-19 vaccines were put through standard clinical trials to determine the safety and effectiveness, which included laboratory trials and 3 phases of clinical trials. Of the vaccines put through clinical trials, only 7% succeeded in preclinical studies. 

    Despite the facts, misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines continues to be a problem. The vaccine can not give you the coronavirus because it doesn’t contain any active viral material. Vaccines do not weaken the immune system, cause autism, or damage children or babies. They do protect you against COVID-19 and protect others by helping build herd immunity. From September to December 2020, hesitancy towards receiving the vaccine fell by 5%, but there are still common myths associated with vaccines. Many assume that vaccines aren’t necessary if a person has already been sick, but this is not the case.

    People should get vaccinated to prevent reinfection. The vaccine will not end masks and social distancing immediately; full protection against the coronavirus may not develop until weeks after the second shot. Vaccinated people may still be able to act as an asymptomatic spreader as well. Right now, the vaccine isn’t mandated anywhere in the United States. 

    What Companies are Making the Vaccine

    Currently, there are two authorized vaccines available in the United States, Pfizer and Moderna. There are another 3 vaccines in the final phase of clinical trials: AstraZeneca, Novavax, and Janssen. Researching multiple vaccines has helped find a solution quickly, and trials will ensure continuous improvements. If approved, these new vaccines can provide unique benefits. AstraZeneca can be stored in a refrigerator, and the Janssen vaccine is administered in a single dose. Novavax may produce a stronger immune response. 

    So who gets the vaccine first? The CDC recommends that healthcare workers and long-term care residents receive vaccines first, followed by frontline essential workers and people over the age of 75. After those groups receive the vaccine, younger people and the rest of the essential worker population are eligible to get the vaccine. Vaccines will be distributed through commercial pharmacies, healthcare facilities, local health departments, community centers, large chain grocery stores, schools, and nursing homes. Individual states can adjust eligibility guidelines as they see fit, so it’s important to stay updated by your local health department to see when you are eligible to receive your vaccine. Fight misinformation. Spread just the facts about the COVID vaccine.

    Covid Vaccine

  • Reminder: Facebook Doesn’t Owe You Free Speech

    If you said something really controversial, or created an incredibly offensive page on Facebook, what’s the worst that could happen? In other words, what is Facebook’s recourse?

    It could block your content. It could remove your page. It could suspend your account. Facebook can’t throw you in jail.

    Facebook cannot violate your First Amendment rights to free speech because Facebook isn’t bound by the nation’s oldest set of laws to protect your free speech rights. Facebook is a company with the ability to set its own rules on what kind of content it wants on its site. End of story. Facebook can say that it’s all about protecting free speech and if it wanted to protect the idea of true free speech, then it could. But that would be a choice. Facebook doesn’t owe you First Amendment protections.

    Should Facebook remove certain content if it feels it’s a danger to public health? Let us know in the comments.

    This has been said over and over again, but it bears repeating because we’re about to get into another “Facebook censorship” debate. No, Facebook hasn’t done anything. Instead, a rather prominent figure from a rather prominent publication has suggested – nay demanded – that Facebook shut down an entire group of people on the site because what they say is a danger to the public at large.

    TIME magazine’s editor-at-large Jeffrey Kluger has just called on Facebook to shut down the anti-vaxxers.

    “One thing that would help—something Zuckerberg could do with little more than a flick of the switch, as could Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and the other bosses of other sites—is simply shut the anti-vaxxers down. Really. Pull their pages, block their posts, twist the spigot of misinformation before more people get hurt,” he says.

    His argument is that Facebook supposedly bans content that’s harmful, specifically a “direct threat to public safety”. He says that the anti-vaccination movement is just that – a direct threat to public safety. Thus, Facebook should just yank their pages and block their posts before more people get hurt.

    “It’s not as if the folks at Facebook aren’t clear about the kinds of things they will and won’t allow on the site, providing a brief listing and a detailed description of what are considered no-go areas. ‘You may not credibly threaten others, or organize acts of real-world violence,’ is one rule, so nobody would get away with posting instructions for, say, how to build a pressure cooker bomb. There is nothing in the regulations that specifically prohibits trafficking in bogus medical information, but the first section of the policy statement begins, ‘Safety is Facebook’s top priority,’ and then goes on to say ‘We remove content and may escalate to law enforcement when we perceive a genuine risk of physical harm, or a direct threat to public safety,’” says Kluger.

    Do you think the anti-vaccine movement is a direct threat to public safety? I do. But if I didn’t, it wouldn’t matter. The point is that Facebook can pull every single anti-vaccination page off its site and you shouldn’t really bat an eye. You shouldn’t cry “censorship!” and you should bitch about Facebook and free speech.

    You should just expect it.

    Facebook removes content at its discretion constantly. Oftentimes that content is removed in error, as when a photo of a breastfeeding mother is flagged and taken down. Sometimes it’s on purpose, after pressure. Last month Facebook blocked pages in Turkey that were deemed “insulting” to Muhammad after pressure from the country.

    This was just weeks after Mark Zuckerberg himself took a stand for free speech following the terrorist attacks on French magazine Charlie Hebdo.

    “[A]s I reflect on yesterday’s attack and my own experience with extremism, this is what we all need to reject — a group of extremists trying to silence the voices and opinions of everyone else around the world. I won’t let that happen on Facebook. I’m committed to building a service where you can speak freely without fear of violence,” he said. Didn’t matter. When pressured, Facebook caved.

    Facebook, a company which makes the vast majority of its money as an advertising platform, will never be a haven for free speech. It’s simply not built that way. This has been proven time and time again.

    “We can remove any content or information you post on Facebook if we believe that it violates this Statement or our policies,” says Facebook in its Terms of Service. You agree to this when you use the service. It’s that simple.

    Should Facebook play a part in shutting down the anti-vaccination movement? I don’t know. Jeffrey Kluger thinks it should.

    Will they? Probably not, although Mark Zuckerberg did take a big swipe at the anti-vaxxers earlier this week when he chose the book On Immunity for his “book club”.

    Post by Mark Zuckerberg.

    “Vaccination is an important and timely topic. The science is completely clear: vaccinations work and are important for the health of everyone in our community. This book explores the reasons why some people question vaccines, and then logically explains why the doubts are unfounded and vaccines are in fact effective and safe,” said Zuckerberg.

    Pretty clear where Zuck stands. Still, it’s unlikely that Zuckerberg will take that passion and transform it into sitewide policy.

    Could Facebook aid in the fight against misinformation by blocking anti-vaccine content? Absolutely. And you could be pissed about that, if it ever were to happen.

    But don’t cry free speech.

    You have the right to say whatever you want, but Facebook doesn’t owe you a microphone.

    So, what’s your opinion? Sound off below in the comments.

  • Mark Zuckerberg: Vaccines Work and Are Important

    Mark Zuckerberg: Vaccines Work and Are Important

    Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is wading into the vaccination debate, as his newest book club choice tackles “anti-vaxxers” and disproves their various arguments – without actually focusing on the anti-vaccination movement by name.

    Zuckerberg has chosen On Immunity by Eula Biss, one of the New York Times Book Review’s 10 Best Books of 2014. And in his recommendation, Zuckerberg has made a clear, succinct plea for the power of vaccinations.

    “Vaccination is an important and timely topic. The science is completely clear: vaccinations work and are important for the health of everyone in our community,” says Zuckerberg in a Facebook post. “This book explores the reasons why some people question vaccines, and then logically explains why the doubts are unfounded and vaccines are in fact effective and safe.”

    Post by Mark Zuckerberg.

    Though the science behind vaccinations couldn’t be clearer, a growing group of parents are choosing to forgo their children’s vaccinations. Recent outbreaks of measles have thrust the topic of vaccinations to the head of public health debate.

    Zuckerberg weighing in on this is even more timely, as a recent report from WIRED suggested that Silicon Valley is particularly fond having their kids of forgo vaccinations. Whether the data on daycare vaccination rates shows a legitimate trend in Silicon Valley or just lagging record keeping is still undetermined.

    “This book was recommended to me by scientists and friends who work in public health,” says Zuckerberg of his choice.

    Despite saying this, some on Facebook are already questioning his motivation.

    “Is this your choice to post this or have you been asked to?” asks one commenter.

    “It’s my choice,” says Zuckerberg. “Who could make me do this?”

  • Chris Christie: Parenting Trumps Being A Public Official

    Chris Christie did his best to avoid getting himself into a sticky wicket during a trip to London on Monday, sidestepping questions about his disagreement with President Obama on vaccination measures in the U.S. However, he did say that his own children are vaccinated.

    After a sudden outbreak of the measles in 14 states, Obama warned citizens to get their children vaccinated, which was followed up by the Center for Disease Control’s agreement that there could be a serious, very large outbreak if the disease is allowed to spread.

    “There is every reason to get vaccinated — there aren’t reasons to not. I just want people to know the facts and science and the information. And the fact is that a major success of our civilization is our ability to prevent disease that in the past have devastated folks. And measles is preventable,” Obama told NBC News.

    Chris Christie doesn’t agree with the advice, saying that “parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well.” However, he told reporters in London that his own children have been vaccinated and that what he believes as a parent holds more importance than what he does politically.

    “All I can say is that we vaccinated ours. That’s the best expression I can give you of my opinion. It’s much more important, I think, what you think as a parent than what you think as a public official. But I also understand that parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well so that’s the balance that the government has to decide.”

    Christie clarified his statements while abroad after being labeled “anti-science”, saying all he meant was that not every vaccine is created equally, and should be treated as such.

    “There has to be a balance and it depends on what the vaccine is, what the disease type is and all the rest. And so I didn’t say I’m leaving people the option. What I’m saying is that you have to have that balance in considering parental concerns because no parent cares about anything more than they care about protecting their own child’s health and so we have to have that conversation, but that has to move and shift in my view from disease type. Not every vaccine is created equal and not every disease type is as great a public health threat as others,” Chris Christie said.

  • Jonas Salk Gets A Google Doodle On His 100th Birthday

    Jonas Salk is the subject of today’s Google Doodle as the company celebrates what would have been his 100th birthday. Unfortunately, he passed away in 1995.

    Salk was an American medical researcher and virologist, who is credited with discovering and developing the first successful inactivated polio vaccine. He went to New York University School of Medicine, where he is said to have stood out because of his academic abilities as well as the fact that he went into research rather than becoming a practicing physician.

    Jonas Salk

    When Salk developed his vaccine, polio was considered the scariest public health problem in the U.S. 3,145 people died and 21,269 were left with paralysis from an epidemic in 1952. Most were children.

    As far as the actual Doodle goes, I find it a bit difficult to identify the Google logo in this one. It’s one of the most difficult the company has ever displayed in my opinion. Still, it’s a very fitting image honoring someone that had a tremendous impact on the well-being of kids.

    Images via Google, Wikimedia Commons

  • Whooping Cough Cases Worry Maine Residents

    Whooping cough cases are on the rise in Kennebunk, Maine.

    Superintendent Andrew Dolloff wants parents to take precautions at home before sending their children to school.

    Parents have been asked to not only vaccinate their children against whooping cough, but to be vaccinated themselves.

    Said Dolloff, “We don’t want to create hysteria, but it is important to share when there are situations where there is a contagious disease that we want folks to be aware of.”

    A student at the Middle School of the Kennebunks contracted the disease earlier this week. This is the sixth known case of whooping cough within the school district and the fourth at the middle school alone.

    “We just always take it upon ourselves to notify parents that this is out there,” said Dolloff. He added that school officials have been trying to warn parents about the serious nature of the disease and giving them all the necessary information.

    When students are diagnosed with whooping cough, the school sends them home for a minimum of five days. It is a mandatory measure that is meant to help prevent the contagious illness from spreading to other students.

    The Center for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that children be given five doses of the vaccine to protect against whooping cough.

    The problem is that even if a young child if properly vaccinated, it’s possible for the vaccine to wear off.

    The CDC strongly recommends a booster shot for adolescents between the age of 11 and 18 to counteract this.

    Whooping cough is a very serious illness. It can progress to pneumonia and lead to seizures or brain damage. If not properly treated, it’s possible that an infected child could die.

    In order to prevent the spread of whooping cough, it’s best to keep your hands washed and remember to cover your mouth when you cough.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Flu Vaccines Cut Risks For Children, Shows Study

    The backlash in the U.S. against vaccines seen over the past decade seems to be dying down. Incidents such as the recent Mumps outbreak at Ohio State University have demonstrated just how dangerous anti-vaccination views are, though anti-vaccine fear mongering is still prevalent in the popular culture.

    Despite criticism, the science behind vaccines is still marching forward. This week a new study by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention showed that flu vaccines are beneficial even to very young children.

    The study, published today in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, shows that the flu vaccines can help cut a child’s risk of flu-related admission to a pediatric intensive care units by as much as 74%.

    “These study results underscore the importance of an annual flu vaccination, which can keep your child from ending up in the intensive care unit,” said Dr. Alicia Fry, an influenza researcher at the CDC. “It is extremely important that all children – especially children at high risk of flu complications – are protected from what can be a life-threatening illness.”

    The CDC recommends yearly flu vaccinations for all children six months old and older. This is especially true for children with conditions such as asthma or diabetes, who can often experience serious complications when coming down with the flu.

    The study looked at over 200 children between age six months to 17 years admitted to 21 different pediatric intensive care units around the U.S. Only 18% of flu-related admissions to the facilities were for children who had received proper flu vaccinations. Over half of the children admitted had another medical condition that complicated their illness.

    “Because some people who get vaccinated may still get sick, it’s important to remember to use our second line of defense against flu: antiviral drugs to treat flu illness,” said Fry. “People at high risk of complications should seek treatment if they get a flu-like illness. Their doctors may prescribe antiviral drugs if it looks like they have influenza.”

  • Mumps Outbreak Spreads Outside OSU Campus

    The recent mumps outbreak on The Ohio State University’s campus has officially spilled into the general Franklin County area.

    Twenty-eight cases of mumps were documented in Columbus since the beginning of February, but had previously been limited to OSU students and faculty, ages 18 to 48. As of the time of Columbus Public Health’s press release updating the public on the outbreak, 56 cases of mumps had been reported throughout Franklin County. Out of those, 40 were confirmed to have stemmed from the campus outbreak. Victims range in age from four to fifty years age.

    They recently updated this data to confirm a total of 63 victims with 45 stemming from OSU cases.

    With news of the outbreak broadcast from local and major news sources and prevention tips offered by the CDC and the OSU campus health source, how has the disease spread so quickly?

    Even with proper hygiene and precautions, the mumps vaccine is only 80% effective and is contagious even before symptoms arise. Mumps can also share several symptoms with the common cold symptoms, such as headache, fever, and weakness. It is markedly different mainly in the painful salivary gland swelling it causes. So, early diagnosis is both essential and incredibly difficult. It is understandably hard to contain the disease once an outbreak occurs.

    Fortunately, though painful and unpleasant, mumps rarely fatal and the infection usually passes in a couple of weeks. However, the CDC reports that mumps is more likely to cause serious complications such as hearing loss in children, orchitis in men, and mastitis in women who have not received their MMR doses. In extremely rare cases it can cause paralysis and seizure.

    Considering the dangers, Columbus Public Health Commissioner Teresa Long recommends any unvaccinated Franklin County residents “get vaccinated as soon as possible.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Jenny McCarthy Responds To Twitter Bashing Over Views On Vaccination

    Jenny McCarthy has definitely rubbed a substantial number of Twitter users the wrong way over the past few days. A number of users have even taken the time to express their disdain.

    It all started on Thursday, Mar. 13 when McCarthy tweeted a harmless question for her 1.13 million Twitter followers. She asked, “What is the most important personality trait you look for in a mate?”

    The tweet also instructed everyone to reply using the hashtag #AskJenny. It’s definitely safe to say some of the answers weren’t very nice. Her question actually prompted a barrage of responses in reference to her thoughts on vaccines.

    “Somebody who gets that refusing vaccines because of ‘toxins’ and then shilling for e-cigs makes you a pathetic hypocrite,” one user tweeted. Another person told McCarthy, “Someone who doesn’t spread false info causing disease.” One person even went so far as to blame her opinion for the resurgence of the measles in New York City.

    According to E! News, McCarthy whose son was diagnosed with autism back in May 2005, has often argued the theory of vaccines being associated with autism in children.

    However, the View co-host has since offered some clarity in regards to her perspective. The publication reports that while she and the autism community are “not anti-vaccine per se,” they are undoubtedly “anti-toxin and anti-schedule.”

    In 2008, McCarthy posed a question in reference the topic during an interview with Larry King. She asked, “Isn’t it ironic, in 1983 there were 10 shots and now there’s 36 and the rise of autism happened at the same time?”

    “We need to get rid of the toxins, the mercury—which I am so tired of everyone saying it’s been removed. It has not been removed from the shots.” However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a contrasting conclusion, which revealed that “in the 2012-2013 season, 90 percent of children who died from the flu had not been vaccinated.”

    McCarthy waited until the dust settled before she responded to the bashing tweets. “Thank you to all the haters who tweet my name. You make my Q SCORE higher and higher,” she tweeted. “It’s because of you I continue to work. Thank you!”

    Image via Jenny McCarthy, Facebook

  • Jenny McCarthy Thanks Haters On Twitter

    Jenny McCarthy walked right into a Twitter hate-fest last week when she posted a question to her followers: “What is the most important personality trait you look for in a mate?”

    The actress and former model was promptly slammed on social media as word spread about her post and people took the opportunity to bring up her anti-vaccination stance.

    (image)

    McCarthy is still getting slammed on the micro-blogging site this morning:

    But one of her latest tweets suggests that she’s not paying too much attention to her critics, which has angered many more in itself:

    McCarthy has stood by her belief for years that her son Evan’s autism was caused by his vaccinations and has spoken out against vaccines ever since. Her conclusion that the two are linked came from a paper written by Andrew Wakefield, which has been discredited due to fraudulent research and the fact that no other scientist agrees with his findings. However, she still sticks by her beliefs and has written books on the subject, causing many to question whether they should let their children receive vaccines. Some of her 1.1. million followers took to Twitter over the weekend to defend her.

  • Jenny McCarthy Twitter Slammed Over Anti-Vaccine Beliefs

    Jenny McCarthy was slammed hard on Twitter because of her strong crusade against childhood vaccines. The cohost of The View has an 11-year-old son named Evan who she believes developed autism as a result of having his childhood vaccines. This past Thursday she took to Twitter in hopes of gaining positive feedback but instead received lots of unkind remarks.

    McCarthy asked her Twitter followers what they would look for in a mate. She didn’t expect to be the target of a backlash of people slamming her anti-vaccination beliefs.

    That’s what she received, however, and the following includes Jenny’s tweet as well as a small sampling of the remarks Twitter users posted.

    See if you think it was fair of Twitter users to answer her question in such off-track ways.

    Of course some of those who replied to Jenny McCarthy’s question were a bid rude, too.

    It’s pretty plain to see that Jenny McCarthy’s crusade against childhood vaccines is so firmly attached to her name that she can’t even ask a simple question without it being thrown back in her face.

    Do you think she deserves this sort of Twitter backlash? Do you think people are uneducated about the perils of childhood vaccines? Is it possible that Jenny McCarthy hasn’t done enough research on the topic she is so vocal about?

    Image via YouTube

  • New Flu Vaccine: No More Needles?

    New Flu Vaccine: No More Needles?

    It’s not an easy thing to own up to, but a lot of people are afraid of needles. The dreaded “shot” has kept many an adult out of the doctor’s office. Even as we tell sobbing little kids that it’s important to get flu vaccinations to prevent illness, how many have passed on the opportunity themselves?

    Now it’s finally looking like the nightmare may be over for those with a needle phobia.

    A patch is being developed by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology that may make it possible to take care of flu vaccinations entirely on your own. The researchers found subjects were successfully able to apply the flu patch to themselves with little instruction.

    Surprise, surprise: The subjects also stated that they preferred the patch to a needle in the arm.

    Mark Prausnitz, a professor of biomolecular engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, says that his team dreams of flu vaccine patches that are readily available in stores or by mail for persons to have and apply themselves.

    “We want to get more people vaccinated, and we want to relieve health care professionals from the burden of giving these millions of vaccinations.”

    This burden is a greater reality than many Americans realize. It’s not uncommon for vaccines to “run out”, making them unavailable for the most vulnerable members of the population who need them—children and the elderly.

    The patch features 50 tiny needles (don’t faint, they’re actually very small…) that barely break the surface of the skin.

    The study is meant to demonstrate that this method of administration has greater possibilities than the traditional shot administered in doctor’s offices and at pharmacies.

    There is additional evidence that suggests this method may also be more effective at protecting from the flu than a shot.

    Those of us that utterly despise needles and are seeking any and every alternative no doubt are hoping for more research and funding that will allow this considerably less scary alternative to become the new vaccination standard.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Study Suggests Staggered National Flu Vaccinations For China

    A new study from a combined team of American and Chinese scientists is suggesting that China implement a new national flu vaccine strategy. The paper, published today in the journal PLOS Medicine, states that China should use a staggered flu vaccination procedure for different regions of the country.

    “This research suggests the need for staggered timing of vaccination in three broad epidemiological regions,” said Dr. Cecile Viboud, co-author of the study and a researcher at the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Fogarty International Center.

    The suggestion centers on three general regions of China – the north, the south, and the mid-latitude regions. While the northern regions of China experience a flu season similar to the ones seen in the U.S. and Europe, the southern portion of China has been observed to have its flu season during the spring months.

    Researchers are specifically recommending that northern China receive flu vaccination shipments starting in October, while southern Chinese provinces should be prioritized starting in February. Flu statistics in the third middle region will, according to the study’s authors, need to be expanded upon before suggestions can be made for vaccination timings.

    “The situation of mid-latitude Chinese provinces is more complex, due to semi-annual patterns of influenza activity, and longer epidemic periods,” said the study’s authors. “Denser sampling over a longer period of time will have to be done to establish the optimal timing of vaccination in those areas.”

    The study’s suggestions are working towards becoming part of a comprehensive, country-wide vaccination plan for China. Thought he Chines government has offered flu vaccines since 1998, the NIH estimates that only around 2% of Chinese citizens are immunized each year. It also estimates that between 11 and 18 Chinese people per 100,000 die of the flu each year, many of them in China’s rural countryside.

  • Universal Flu Vaccine Closer After 2009 Pandemic

    Each year, researchers work to discover new strains of influenza and develop a new vaccine. The procedure is costly and time consuming, which is why scientists for years now have been working to develop a universal flu vaccine. Now, researchers at the Imperial College London have come closer than ever to that goal.

    In a new study published in the journal Nature Medicine, the researchers describe how patients with swine flu had less severe reactions if they had more CD8 T cells. T cells are a type of immune cell the body uses to fight viruses. The study suggests that vaccines that cause the body to produce more CD8 T cells could be the key to fighting all types of influenza infections.

    “The immune system produces these CD8 T cells in response to usual seasonal flu,” said Ajit Lalvani, leader of the research and a professor at Imperial College London’s National Heart and Lung Institute. “Unlike antibodies, they target the core of the virus, which doesn’t change, even in new pandemic strains. The 2009 pandemic provided a unique natural experiment to test whether T cells could recognise, and protect us against, new strains that we haven’t encountered before and to which we lack antibodies.

    “Our findings suggest that by making the body produce more of this specific type of CD8 T cell, you can protect people against symptomatic illness. This provides the blueprint for developing a universal flu vaccine.”

    The 2009 pandemic Lalvani refers to is the swine flu outbreak of that year. He and his colleagues took blood and nasal swabs from 342 staff and students at Imperial. As the pandemic wore on, study participants were followed-up on and asked about any flu-like symptoms. Researchers were able to discover how patients with fewer CD8 T cells experienced more severe flu symptoms.

  • HPV Vaccine Adoption Stagnating, Says CDC

    HPV Vaccine Adoption Stagnating, Says CDC

    The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics have announced that HPV vaccination rates fell from 2011 to 2012. The data was taken from the 2012 National Immunization Survey – Teen (NIS-Teen) and shows a slight decline in vaccination rates for girls aged 13 to 17.

    “Progress increasing HPV vaccination has stalled, risking the health of the next generation.,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC. “Doctors need to step up their efforts by talking to parents about the importance of HPV vaccine just as they do other vaccines and ensure its given at every opportunity.”

    It is currently estimated that vaccination coverage for the 3-dose HPV vaccine is around 33%. The CDC believes that raising coverage to its “Healthy People 2020” goal of 80% coverage would prevent 4,400 cases of cervical cancer and 1,400 deaths from cervical cancer.

    The NIS-Teen showed that the lack of a doctor’s recommendation, “safety concerns,” and “gaps in understanding” about the HPV vaccine were two of the main reasons parents cited for not having their daughters vaccinated. 84% of the girls in the survey who did not recieve the HPV vaccine received other vaccinations during the year. The CDC believes it could raise vaccination coverage for at least one dose of the HPV vaccine to 93% if it were given at the same time as those other vaccinations. The agency urged healthcare providers to give a “strong” recommendation for the HPV vaccine.

    “Parents need reassurance that HPV vaccine is recommended at 11 or 12 because it should be given well in advance of any sexual activity,” said Frieden. “We don’t wait for exposure to occur before we vaccinate with any other routinely recommended vaccine.”

    The CDC estimates that 79 million Americans have HPV (human papillomavirus), with 14 million new cases each year. The common infection has been linked, in rare cases, to certain types of cervical cancer. It is recommended that both boys and girls recieve the 3-dose HPV vaccine at age 11 or 12.

  • Vaccinations in Children Protect the Elderly, Shows Study

    A new study published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that vaccines given to children to prevent blood and ear infections are reducing the spread of pneumonia to older, at-risk adults. In fact, Vanderbilt University researchers found that the herd immunity effect from the vaccination of children was more effective in preventing pneumonia than a vaccine currently given to prevent pneumonia in the elderly.

    “Pneumonia is a leading cause of hospitalization in the United States,” said Dr. Marie Griffin, lead author of the study and a professor of Preventive Medicine at Vanderbilt. “The protective effect we saw in older adults, who do not receive the vaccine but benefit from vaccination of infants, is quite remarkable. It is one of the most dramatic examples of indirect protection or herd immunity we have seen in recent years.”

    The study looked at a U.S. national database for pneumonia hospitalizations from 1997 to 2009. Since the PCV7 vaccine was added to the childhood vaccine list in 2000, children age 2 and under saw a 40% reduction in hospital visits due to pneumonia. At the same time, pneumonia hospitalizations for adults over 65 accelerated, and by 2009 made up over half of the overall decline in hospitalizations for pneumonia.

    The PCV7 vaccine protects against seven types of pneumonia and bacteria that cause ear and lung infections in young children. Though researchers are worried that less common types of pneumonia not covered by the PCV7 vaccine could become more prevalent, this study provides evidence that the replacement for PCV7 introduced in 2010, PCV13, could provide another large reduction in hospitalizations from pneumonia.

    “PCV13 may cause another large reduction in pneumonia hospitalizations; perhaps another 10 percent, we hope,” said Griffin. “It is important for people to know that adults are benefiting from our childhood vaccine program. These are adults who won’t be hospitalized, won’t be getting antibiotics, or complications of hospitalizations, and won’t be dying, since the risk of death is 5 percent to 12 percent when older adults are hospitalized with pneumonia. Vaccination of infants with pneumococcal conjugate vaccines results in a tremendous public health benefit.”

  • New Drug Could Help Fight Type 1 Diabetes

    A clinical trial of a new vaccine may have found a new method to combat type 1 diabetes.

    A team of researchers at the Stanford University Medical Center conducted the trial, which found that the “DNA reverse vaccine” reduced levels of immune cells linked to type 1 diabetes. It is the first demonstration of a DNA vaccine that targets type 1 diabetes in humans.

    For those that received the vaccine, levels of an insulin production proxy were maintained, meaning those patients “may have” had less beta cell destruction than those who did not receive the vaccine. More importantly, blood levels of immune cells that destroy beta cell proteins were found to have been depleted in patients who receive the vaccine. The results of the trial have been published this week in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

    “We’re very excited by these results, which suggest that the immunologist’s dream of shutting down just a single subset of dysfunctional immune cells without wrecking the whole immune system may be attainable,” said Dr. Lawrence Steinman, a co-author of the study and a professor neurological sciences at Stanford. “This vaccine is a new concept. It’s shutting off a specific immune response, rather than turning on specific immune responses as conventional vaccines for, say, influenza or polio aim to do.”

    No DNA vaccine has yet been approved for use in humans. Researchers cautioned that the study’s results will need to be replicated in larger and longer trials, and that even then it will take years for the technology to be applied.

  • Vaccines Don’t Cause Guillain-Barre, Shows Study

    A new study published in the latest issue of the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases has found no link betweek vaccinations and Guillain-Barré syndrome. The disease is a neurological disorder that affects a person’s nervous system, leading to weak hands and feet before gradually leading to full-body paralyzation.

    The study looked at 415 cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome from 1994 to 2006. Of these patients, only 25 were found to have received a vaccine in the six weeks prior to the onset of Guillain-Barré. The study includes all vaccines, including flu vaccinations. These findings contradict a 1976 study that linked a flu vaccine to Guillain-Barré syndrome. No studies since have been able to replicate such a link.

    The study did find that 277 of the patients (two-thirds of them) had a respiratory or gastrointestinal illness in the 90 days prior to the onset of Guillain-Barré. This matches much of what is already known about the onset of Guillain-Barré syndrome, though many cases of the disease do not have any known cause.

    “If there is a risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome following any vaccine, including influenza vaccines, it is extremely low,” said Dr. Roger Baxter, lead author of the study and a co-director of the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center.

    Baxter and his colleagues claim this new study is a more accurate assessment of Guillain-Barré syndrome risk following a vaccination than previous studies. They claim that by focusing on outcome and then determining whether a vaccination took place, they were able to avoid many of the changing variables seen in other studies, such as vaccination rates.

  • Heart Disease Risk Lowered by Flu Vaccine, Study Says

    New studies show that the flu vaccine might play an important role in reducing the risk of heard disease, including the risk of a heart attack or stroke.

    Researchers from Toronto this week unveiled the research at the 2012 Canadian Cardiovascular Congress. They found that the flu vaccine provided around a 50% reduction in the risk of a “major cardiac event,” such as a heart attack, stroke, or cardiac death when compared to a placebo. This result was seen both in patients with heart disease and those without. Also, they found around a 40% risk reduction for dying from any cause was linked to the flu vaccine.

    “For those who had the flu shot, there was a pretty strong risk reduction,” said Dr. Jacob Udell, cardiologist at Women’s College Hospital. Udell’s team at the TIMI Study Group and Network for Innovation in Clinical Research led the research.

    The study looked at published clinical trials dealing with heart disease and the flu vaccine dating back to the 1960s. The combined trials had 3,227 patients, of which half were randomly assigned to receive the flu vaccine.

    Udell stated that these results reinforce the current guideline recommendations for vaccinating patients with prior heart attacks. He also believes that a large multi-national study could help demonstrate the flu vaccine’s use for heart care.

    The use of the vaccine is still much too low, less than 50 per cent of the general population; it’s even poorly used among health care workers,” said Udell. “Imagine if this vaccine could also be a proven way to prevent heart disease.”

    Another study announced this week showed that people with implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICDs) who receive a flu shot have fewer “adverse events” than those who don’t.

    “Anecdotes suggest that patients have more ICD shocks during flu season,” said Dr. Ramanan Kumareswaran of the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. “We were trying to figure out what we can do to reduce the amount of shocks in (our clinic’s) ICD population during the flu season.”

  • Addicted To Cocaine? New Vaccine Might Help

    Cocaine has always been that drug that I only hear about. I see people using it all the time in film, television and books, but I’ve never met a user in my life. I blame that on growing up in Southeastern Kentucky where meth is the poison of choice. Still, there are people out there addicted to the drug and they want to get off. To stop taking any drug is hard, but a new vaccine might just do the trick for cocaine users.

    Researchers from all over the country published a paper back in May that claims to have found a way to cure cocaine addiction through a single vaccine. It’s a novel approach that could do a lot of good in the world for those suffering from addition or withdrawal. Here’s how the researchers explain their work:

    Cocaine addiction is a major problem affecting all societal and economic classes for which there is no effective therapy. We hypothesized an effective anti-cocaine vaccine could be developed by using an adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene transfer vector as the delivery vehicle to persistently express an anti-cocaine monoclonal antibody in vivo, which would sequester cocaine in the blood, preventing access to cognate receptors in the brain. To accomplish this, we constructed AAVrh.10antiCoc.Mab, an AAVrh.10 gene transfer vector expressing the heavy and light chains of the high affinity anti-cocaine monoclonal antibody GNC92H2. Intravenous administration of AAVrh.10antiCoc.Mab to mice mediated high, persistent serum levels of high-affinity, cocaine-specific antibodies that sequestered intravenously administered cocaine in the blood. With repeated intravenous cocaine challenge, naive mice exhibited hyperactivity, while the AAVrh.10antiCoc.Mab-vaccinated mice were completely resistant to the cocaine. These observations demonstrate a novel strategy for cocaine addiction by requiring only a single administration of an AAV vector mediating persistent, systemic anti-cocaine passive immunity.

    If that went over your head, here’s the simple version – The researchers have found a way to deliver a protein-based gene via virus that bonds to cocaine in the bloodstream. This protein prevents the cocaine from ever reaching the brain, thus stopping the effects of the drug.

    So couldn’t this vaccine be abused by people who would want to take cocaine without the negative side effects? The protein stops all the effects, including the high, thus making cocaine worthless to people who took the vaccine. It would be especially helpful for those trying to quit as they would no longer experience the high that they seek. Of course, there still is the problem that people may turn to other drugs once cocaine loses its splendor.

    Still, this is the kind of innovation that’s needed in the war on drugs. You can have all the law enforcement in the world, but people are still going to do drugs. You win if you can take away the only reason people use the drug in the first place.

    [h/t: Sci-News]