RFK's Kook-Filled Vaccine Advisory Board Clearly Has No Idea What It's Doing

[erronis]

https://www.wonkette.com/p/rfks-kook-filled-vaccine-advisory
Robyn Pennacchia

The brand new and startlingly unqualified Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted Thursday against recommending the MMRV vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (chickenpox), for children until age four, suggesting that children under four should only get the MMR vaccine and then get a separate chickenpox vaccine.

Their reasoning for this is that some studies show a very slightly elevated risk for febrile seizures — which can happen any time an infant gets a fever — for the combined vaccine as opposed to the two separate vaccines. Febrile seizures are rare to begin with and generally treatable with ibuprofen and other fever-reducers.

However, they also voted that participants in the Vaccines for Children program for low-income families could decide whether they want the MMR vaccine and a separate chickenpox vaccine or the MMRV vaccine … and then reversed that vote at their meeting this morning.

This may seem like something that’s not a big deal, but the fact that they are making any changes at all to the recommendations for older, established vaccines is not a great sign. There’s a reason the MMRV exists, and that is because the fewer separate vaccines a child has to get, the more likely they are to actually get them and to get them on time. That’s pretty important because it can impact their overall effectiveness.

Effectiveness matters, because do you know what also causes febrile seizures? Chickenpox. Which, by the way, is much more dangerous for an infant than a five-year-old. It is also much more dangerous than getting a febrile seizure from a vaccine.

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