90 Percent Of The U.S. Kids Who Died From The Flu This Year Didn’t Get Their Vaccinations

[proud2BlibKansan]

This year’s particularly severe flu season is finally winding down. Fortunately — despite the fact that hospital emergency rooms overflowed with unusually high numbers of sick patients, several cities declared a state of public health emergency, and the CDC officially declared it an epidemic — the fatality rates weren’t significantly higher than usual. The CDC reports that 105 children died from the flu this winter, an average toll.

But the agency also noted that, even though all but four of the children who passed away were old enough to get a flu shot, 90 percent of them did not get vaccinated. CDC officials recommend that all children over 6 months old get a flu shot, but Americans still aren’t necessarily following that advice. This past winter, less than half of Americans got their flu shots.

In fact, more broadly, Americans aren’t getting all of the vaccinations that the CDC recommends. The federal agency recently reported that “unacceptably low” numbers of adult Americans are getting their shots for infectious diseases. That could partly be because some lingering stigma surrounding vaccines has perpetrated myths, like the false idea that getting the flu shot will lead to contracting influenza — or the misguided right-wing fearmongering that vaccines lead to autism or mental retardation.

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/03/22/1761901/kids-flu-vaccinations/

[graham4anything]

1. Quack Wakefield should be imprisoned for each death, and abuse charges filed against those

that believed that stuff over their own doctors and even the US TV doctors saying Wakefield was 100% bullsheet.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. So much misinformation

It's just tragic.

[graham4anything]

5. What also gets me is those that don't get a shot, and pass the flu to others

is the people that don't get it, then get sick, go to school and work, and infect those mothers who might be pregnant and the small babies who can't get the shot.

There should be laws.

One of the things people seem not to realize is the Flu and other diseases like it need hosts to survive.
If a certain percentage of a town gets the shot, (and the more the better), the less chance of others, however, in this day and age with international travel and one crowded restaurant could theoretically pass it on to everyone who doesn't have a shot, and in those with a bad immune system it could lead to death.

Hopefully soon all forms of the flu will be included in a single, or perhaps two shots a year.

[Sherman A1]

7. Agreed

I don't know about laws, but some common sense and common decency. If you can break the chain at any point, you not only help yourself and family, but others in your area. It only takes one Restaurant or Retail Worker who can't afford a flu shot or comes to work sick because they can't afford to take off to spread the flu to many. Had that person not gotten the flu because the person who gave it to them had gotten a shot, many more would not have suffered.

[TheBlackAdder]

11. Flu shots are a best guess.

I have four children.

I've had them get the flu shots every year, up until a point where they became violently ill 3 years in a row within a week of receiving them. They stopped getting their shots about 12 years ago after our one physician stated that it's just a best guess and many times the injection might not be at the proper strength to trigger your natural defenses.

Instead, they are fed a healthy natural diet, proper sleep and exercise. They take real (not those gummy) vitamins every day.

If one kid gets sick in a year, that's the norm, two or more... it doesn't happen. If they are sick, they don't go out and are resigned to be in their rooms getting vitamins, illness appropriate food and KAZ inhaler discs in a steam inhaler. The KAZ treatment even stops my chronic bronchitus... I haven't had to go on a 10-day Z-PAK in 5 years, where I used to have to get them 2-3 times a year.

The last flu in our house... 12 years ago.

[Ilsa]

14. ITA. I think it's a best guess.

Yes, the flu shot will diminish the severity of the flu. But even a dozen of those that died got the flu after having the vax. It's hit-and-miss.

And some insurance won't cover it. Or they won't cover the intranasal vax, which is substantially more expensive and harder to find.

The fact is, not everyone who could get vaxxed will, and even some vaxxed people get those diseases and spread them around.

[graham4anything]

15. Most people who get the flu, got it before immunity period(which takes a few weeks)

Towns all over NJ and NY and CT give it free at the municipal health deparments each year,
or at very low prices.
And some of the big chains that offer it, will also offer it free.

The odd thing is, some years, not many show up and it's free.

But the expresssion "put a ring on it" was made for the flu shot

It's like wearing seatbelts, of course some don't die in major accidents, but most do who don't wear seatbelts.

The flu shot can NOT give you the flu.

And the cost? Well, if one gets the flu and is out of work for a week, and has to go to the doctor because it turns into pnemonia or broncittis the doctor bills will instead of $20.00, be in the tens of thousands if it gets really bad.

Shame someone like Jim Henson got the flu, got pnemonia and didn't bother going to the doctor til it was so bad nothing could save him.

[Ilsa]

23. I know the shot cannot give

You the flu.
People take bets on stuff like this. They bet they won't get it, or if they do, they are betting it's a mild version.
I think they are more likely to get the shot if they've actually had the flu and been through that misery.
That being said, alot of people still don't like getting the shot, which may be free. More might get the intranasal vax if it was just as cheap or free.

[graham4anything]

25. In NYC every year, some tv stations have a promotion and give anyone who walks up free shot

I know PIX-11 morning show (with Dr. Steve) did so the last few years, they set up a table
and anyone who stops by can get either. 100% free, no ID needed (so you can fill out a phony name if one is worried.)
(no cash or credit card needed as its 100% free).

Other stations do the same (and NO one is not on tv, those segments are separate and usually the TV doctor picks a few who volunteer to be on tv and grimace).

NYC though is very proactive towards wellness, as are parts of California

and there is zero reason for anyone over 50 not to get the pnemonia shot or a variant of it.
While of course it is for bacterial and not non-bacterial pnemonia, that shot alone is the difference between life and death for some people.

[Ilsa]

27. I'm thousands of miles

From NYC. And CA. That isn't offered everywhere.

I take my vaccination most years. Sometimes I don't get around to it. I usually try the alternate routes, too. For example, I tried the intradermal vax this year, but I had to pay for it. I wasn't impressed with it being less painful overall.

The objective is to get as many people immunized as possible. The drug companies could make that easier by offering free immunizations by any route approved by the FDA. But they don't. They won't. They have other medicines to sell, and our state governments don't pay for all flu vaccinations, either, by subsidizing the costs of a comprehensive vax program.

I know there are people who can't get vaccinated. My son had a horrible reaction to his last vax, and cannot repeat that one. People have allergies and immune system problems.

Ultimately, like it or not, we all have some degree of authority over our own bodies and what goes into them. We each have to know our own risk factors.

Do I wish everyone would take it? Sure. It would greatly decrease an unnecessary burden on our healthcare system. But I know that's not going to happen, and like smoking, drinking, and drug abuse, we have to deal with that reality.

[tblue37]

18. What's wrong with gummy vitamins? I can't swallow the

huge vitamin pills, and once you cut them they are really disgusting, because they get all powdery and bitter tasting in your mouth--and the edges are jagged and hard to swallow.

I was so relieved when they came out with gummy vitamins for adults, because I really cannot get a whole adult sized vitamin down my throat, so i had pretty much stopped taking vitamins most days because I just couldn't face trying to swallow one. Now you say there is something wrong with them? Don't they also have to meet manufacturing and efficacy standards, just like any other OTC supplements?

[BuddhaGirl]

42. Gummy vitamins usually contain sugar

Maybe that's what the poster meant.

[tblue37]

59. Ah! Well, since I ingest little sugar in other ways, I don't think

the tiny bit in a daily vitamin gummy will do much harm.

Thanks.

[TheBlackAdder]

62. Shop around for smaller pills.

If you go to a good natural health food store, they offer various vitamin options -- including several smaller capsules.

With many of the gummies, they are not just laden with various forms of sugar but they are also not complete spectrum vitamins.

I have yet to find a good gummy for my kids, chewables, yes, but gummies no. As soon as they can, they go right to a young adults tablet. Trader Joe's has a nice medium size Woman's tablet (take two) that my 5'3" 18-year-old 105lb daughter takes and it doesn't make her sick. Some pills get the 18-year-old sick, such as this one teen tablet, my 15-year-old daughter tried taking the same teen vitamin and it got her sick too(I threw them out). You have to experiment, but there are a bunch of options out there.

[HockeyMom]

3. I can only speak from my own experience

My kids, now 29 and 34, never got a flu shot in their lives. I am 64 and never got a flu shot in my life either.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

4. I've never had flue shot either.

Vaccination when I was a child, yes. Flue shot, no.

[RedCappedBandit]

6. Same here

[tblue37]

19. I am 62. I get one every year since I got pneumonia several

years ago as a complication from a case of the flu. I got one this year, too. It didn't prevent me from getting the flu--there's no guarantee that it will prevent it altogether, you know. But my bout of the flu this year was much milder and much shorter than any I had ever had before I started getting the shots, and that is what the shots are supposed to do if they don't prevent the flu altogether. It was also the first time since I started getting the shots that I actually contracted the flu at all.

[Logical]

28. I hope you are smart enough to know that means nothing. n-t

[hfojvt]

36. yeah the article does not mention another statistic

which I can only guess at, but with a whopping 105 children dying from the flu and only 50% of all people getting the shot - let's say 10% of the 300 million Americans are under age 18 (I figure it is more, but I am not gonna look it up or over-estimate it) and let's say 80% of all kids get the shot. That leaves 6 million kids who don't get the shot, out of which 105 of them died of the flu. So approximately 99.998% of kids who didn't get the flu shot - did NOT die from the flu.

[HockeyMom]

40. or Seniors

but DOCTOR says I MUST.

[Raine]

58. Same here, never had a flu shot and never had the flu. I wouldn't let

let them pump that crap into me if they paid me. I take care of my own health with eating right, taking vitamins and exercising. Yeah it's harder than taking a shot but I don't trust big pharma, it's all to make money. It always suprises me that liberals are so willing to give such trust to big money interests because it's "science".

[TheBlackAdder]

8. 76 Million Children in the US. 105 Died from Flu, 94 Did not have a vaccination.

94 out of 76,000,000

Less than kids climbing trees, but billions aren't spent stopping that.

[HiPointDem]

21. +1

[bhikkhu]

32. You do know how vaccinations work?

Back in the last days of smallpox, millions were vaccinated. At some point you could say that the last death from smallpox was at a disproportionately high cost. Any disease is carried and spread by those who don't get vaccinated. We eradicated smallpox - a disease that had killed and disfigured millions over the ages, almost entire populations in some cases - by pushing hard for general vaccination.

Influenza is caught and spread disproportionately by those who don't get vaccinated. The ones who died are the tip of the iceberg; it bred and mutated, spread and lived on best in the ones it didn't kill.

[HiPointDem]

37. flu isn't like smallpox. and flu vaccines aren't particularly effective (about 50%

in any given year).

your whole storyline is bull:

Influenza viruses are a common cause of respiratory disease in humans around the world. In addition, they cause clinically important disease in a wide variety of other animals as well, including poultry, horses, pigs and even marine mammals. But influenza viruses also infect ducks and other waterfowl, and in these species, infection targets the gastrointestinal tract rather than the respiratory tract, and the infections are completely subclinical. The subclinical nature of these infections, the fact that all 15 HA and 9 NA subtypes of influenza exist among waterfowl, the migratory behavior of waterfowl and the ability of influenza viruses to persist in cold lake water all contribute to the capacity of waterfowl to form an immense, reservoir for influenza viruses in nature.

http://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/pbs/zoonoses/influenza/influenzaindex.html

...is why.

[bhikkhu]

38. Yes, influenza can "jump species", as smallpox did in its history

but that's rare enough to be a notable occurrence.

If vaccination only stops 50% of influenza, that's still a huge improvement over nothing. Imagine if we could stop 50% of gun deaths? I look at it as the same kind of argument - if we can't prevent every every case of influenza, why bother to cure half of them? If we can't pass a law that would stop all gun crime, why bother with a law that would just reduce gun crime?

[TheBlackAdder]

61. Yeah, I do. I've posted some links so you can learn the basics.

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/keyfacts.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/vaccineeffect.htm

There are also no hard statistics as to how much less of a carrier you become because the active virus would still be in your body for several days before getting marginalized to the point where your body can overcome it. For those several days, you are highly contagious. So, every day, when you get exposed to a carrier, you become the carrier yourself and may walk the whole season as a perpetual carrier, though you never succumb to the virus. And, that's if it is the 62% accurate virus shot, unless of course you properly care for yourself and have a good immunity to becoming ill.

[HockeyMom]

41. Having worked for a Pharmaceutical in Finance many years ago

I KNOW how and why they push these. $$$$$. As an employee, they pushed them for FREE to us. I was in my 20s then and I told them, FU, MAKE ME. They backed off when you refused.

[Recursion]

9. Anti-vacc people have a lot to answer for

Criminal trials may be a bridge too far, but I wish they weren't.

[KittyWampus]

10. Any proof that the kids who didn't get flu shots had no other vaccinations?

Also, any proof the flu shots available would have prevented the strain the children contracted?

[Ilsa]

13. A lot of parents don't see the need

for it or they preferred the intranasal, but it wasn't available to them at the same cost (cheap or insured) as the injectable. They didn't want to put the kids through getting an injection.

I didn't hear any one say that their kids aren't getting their other state mandated vaccinations.

[HockeyMom]

44. I worked with a 5 year old autistic biter boy

who was not vaccinated, at ALL. Forget dumb flu vacs/ His parents objected on religious grounds. They can legally do that, you know. Only staff who worked directly with him were told this (HIPPA regulations). None of the other teachers or children. The teacher in the class freaked over this, and went out and got her booster shots. She asked me, who worked with him 1:1, if I was going to get boosters. What friggen boosters? Never vaccinated in the first place against the majority of them. I HAD all these diseases myself as child. Booster against some disease you all ready had? NO DOCTOR would give you a booster if you had the disease, and were still ALIVE

[Ilsa]

12. Most people I know that didn't get the vax

said it was because 1. They thought it wouldn't be that effective; 2. Didn't want to take the time; 3. Don't like needles.

None of them said anything about vaccine injury or autism.

[graham4anything]

16. Those might as well have told their kids to go play Frogger on the Long Island Expressway

It's sad.

(then there is that other vaccine that prevents a major cancer,same thing there).

It reminds me of the old joke or saying
About a man who falls into the ocean, and is drowning and is not worried because he thinks God will save him.

but it's not funny in real life.

[dsc]

17. I would like to see a study and not just have stats thrown out

People who don't get flu shots are, almost certainly, more likely to not get other forms of medical care than those who do get flu shots. I think at least a look at the other medical care received by those who got the flu shots and those who didn't is in order. I have gotten flu shots and not gotten them and haven't had the flu since I stopped drinking over a decade ago.

[HiPointDem]

20. misleading article. vaccination coverage rates for childhood diseases are

mostly at all-time highs.

who's pushing this story about legions of 'anti-vaxxers'?

[proud2BlibKansan]

26. Well this is merely anecdotal

but we are seeing more and more kids in our district who are not being vaccinated.

[HiPointDem]

35. that may be. yours is a poor district, i think? do you have any reason to

believe they're 'anti-vaxxers'?

I'm going by CDC statistics.

[proud2BlibKansan]

39. They seem to believe the false rumors

Many of these parents are telling us they don't want their kids to be autistic.

[HiPointDem]

47. OK. but the statistics don't seem to bear out declines in immunization rates.

and in my state, at least, children have to be immunized against the major childhood diseases to attend school.

so maybe you're talking about why they aren't getting the *flu* vaccine specifically?

[liberal_at_heart]

22. My daughter got the flu this last year. We just made sure she was hydrated and waited it out.

Dehydration is usually the biggest problem you have to worry about with the flu especially in children. Because children's body weight is less than an adults a certain percentage of water loss is more devastating for them compared to adults. My daughter is full grown, but we still made sure she was fully hydrated.

[GoldenEagle16]

24. My son has asthma so the entire family gets flue shots

flue is potentially deadly to asthmatics.

[Paul E Ester]

29. Vaccines are not without risk

800 children in Europe, maybe more, have had their lives ruined from taking the H1N1 swine flu vaccine.

For most of the children the "H1N1 swine flu vaccine" would have been just a few days of flu had they not been vaccinated. Instead they now have a chronic apparently lifelong illness.

Emelie Olsson is plagued by hallucinations and nightmares. When she wakes up, she's often paralyzed, unable to breathe properly or call for help. During the day she can barely stay awake, and often misses school or having fun with friends. She is only 14, but at times she has wondered if her life is worth living.

Emelie is one of around 800 children in Sweden and elsewhere in Europe who developed narcolepsy, an incurable sleep disorder, after being immunized with the Pandemrix H1N1 swine flu vaccine made by British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline in 2009.

Finland, Norway, Ireland and France have seen spikes in narcolepsy cases, too, and people familiar with the results of a soon-to-be-published study in Britain have told Reuters it will show a similar pattern in children there.

Their fate, coping with an illness that all but destroys normal life, is developing into what the health official who coordinated Sweden's vaccination campaign calls a "medical tragedy" that will demand rising scientific and medical attention.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/22/us-narcolepsy-vaccine-pandemrix-idUSBRE90L07H20130122

[proud2BlibKansan]

33. Neither is death.

[GoneOffShore]

45. Had there been a flu vaccine in 1918 my grandfather

Might have been able to help raise his children.

Instead my father and his two sisters were raised by their mother and grandmother.

[HockeyMom]

60. Both sides of my family (poor immigrants) were in NYC

back then. They all survived that flu. Maybe it is just nature as survival of of fittest. Sorry.

[GoneOffShore]

63. It apparently had little to do with "survival of the fittest"

Many factors were involved - exposure, occupation, age(though it did strike all ages).

There is a very good account(though the prose is a little purple) of the epidemic, written by John Barry - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29036.The_Great_Influenza

[aroach]

30. They were provided free at school here

Schools in my town provided the flu mist for free. You could opt for the flu shot instead if your child has asthma or some other reason that the mist would not be advisable. I really appreciated this as it would have cost me a fortune to pay for an office call and get these vaccines on my own and we probably wouldn't have been able to get them. Vaccines are not covered by our insurance. Can you believe that?

My husband's employer also gives free flu shots to employees so I was the only one in the household who did without this year.

[jwirr]

31. My family was lucky that we did not lose anyone. What you are saying did indicate itself with us.

My grandson, a very healthy adult, did not get the shot and he had it for at least a week and when it was over he was pretty dehydrated and could hardly walk. The children, ages 2 to 6, all had shots and their mother and I did also. All of us had what was very much like the 24 hour flu. I may not have had it at all it was so mild.

[Zorra]

34. If industry/government did not have a long, sordid history of bullshitting us, prolifically,

early, and often, specifically for the purpose of making wealthier private interests even wealthier, maybe people would have more trust in vaccination programs.

These people and entities have a history of deceiving people, and hurting people, for profit.

WMD's in Iraq. Uh-huh.

I never had a flu shot. Both my kids were born after Vietnam, Nixon, and during Reagan. They never got a flu shot, and have never had the flu.

I simply will never be able to put much more than token trust in this government that is totally controlled by wealthy private interests.

It will remain this way until we institute a genuine people centered democracy, and take control of private industry and use it specifically and only for the good of human beings.

[tabasco]

43. Moron kook parents say "it's God's will!"

See - it's not their fault.

[HockeyMom]

46. I survived

HAVING Rubella, Measles, Mumps, Chicken Pox. Vacs against it? Boosters against it????? Read my other posts. Most of these diseases I had either an INFANT or under 6 when I got them. I actually had Measles and Mumps AT THE SAME TIME when I was 6 months. I should be DEAD with that as a baby by what the medical ($$$$) field says today.

Hypochondriac society.

[tabasco]

49. I see. .....

So, based on your lone experience, you have deduced what is best for humankind at large.

BRILLIANT!

[HockeyMom]

50. There are MORE of us

than those who died. Read the statistics and don't feed the pharmaceutical industry, which I worked for.

[Skittles]

51. good thing you weren't pregnant when you had those

[HockeyMom]

52. Babies and 6 year old don't get pregnant

WHY didn't doctors say I didn't need vacs or bosters?????? I worked with little kids in public schools. I was NOT VACCINATED!!!!! Oh, my. I was EXEMPT because I HAD those diseases and DOCTORS said I had MORE immunity than any vac could give. I have worked with kids who had measles, chicken pox, etc., and FLU, and never got it. WHY, WHY, WHY????

[Skittles]

53. maybe hysteria gives natural immunity

[HockeyMom]

55. Hysteria from people

who think doctors are gods, and don't trust their own bodies.

[Skittles]

56. um---no

just garden-variety hysteria

[HockeyMom]

57. HIPPA

As I said, I worked 1:1 with a little boy who was not vaccinated at all. Forget FLU shots. His parents objected on religious grounds. Only staff who worked directly with this child were legally privileged to know this under HIPPA. NO other children's parents in the school, or even in his classroom, could know this information. I have no idea how many other kids in that school were not vaccinated. HIPPA, since I didn't work with them.

I suppose most parents would be "shocked" to know children can go to public school without vacs, let alone silly flu shots. For what it's worth, little Timmy was never out sick in all the 2 years I worked with him, not even for the flu. His parents were from Europe and they traveled back and forth. Timmy never got sick while all the other kids in class had their colds, strep, flu, etc. I didn't catch anything either. I had food poisoning, though. Contagious? Vaccination against that? I suppose I was the perfect person to work with Timmy. Me and my "natural immunity", as the doctors called it. I have no idea what it was like having whopping cough and measles at the same time. 6 month olds don't remember very much.:evil grin:

[OldDem2012]

48. How many of those not getting the flu shot are doing so for economic reasons? nt.

[HockeyMom]

54. They give free flu shots to the eldery

My husband got a free flu shot at the supermarket. No, thanks. I cannot even remember the last time I had the flu, even working with very young children, which my husband doesn't. Maybe 10 years ago?