I have a few questions regarding this years flu vaccine. Hopefully you can help me sort this out.
For a child who is 2 and in daycare 5 days a week and had been following this https://www.drfuhrman.com/shop/ChildBookReviews.aspx diet was in for a checkup and the pediatrician recommended a flu vaccine. We refused. The daycare is also requested a confirmation of shot or a signed form stating the reason we are refusing the vaccine. We were concerned about mercury and the pediatrician offered a vaccine without mercury in it but said that the actual amount in the vaccine is like having a serving of fish and is negligent.
I wanted to draw my own conclusions about the vaccine.
First I looked at it’s Safety
I looked it up and the mercury for 6 OUNCES OF CHUNK WHITE TUNA is 52.7 micrograms per gram (1). The fluzone vaccine contains 25 micrograms of thimersol (mercury) per dose (2). So in effect the pediatricians statement is true given a double dose. That still means that it’s 4 times above the epa recommended level (1). I also understand that their relative safety had not been fully studied (4 5).
So my Question: Is my research about the mercury accurate to your understanding? What are the other possible side effects of the other ingredients in these vaccines for toddlers like (formaldehyde, Chick Embryo, Octoxinol-9, Triton X-100,Gelatin,Sodium Phosphate,Sodium Chloride(Salt)) which I am not sure how much of is in there (3). And maybe the question is not of a single shot but the danger of getting it done 2x each year for life as they recommend.
Next I looked at Effectiveness. How do I determine how effective a flu vaccine is in a given year? The pediatrician said that this year they have a formulation that should be more effective then 2007.
I am not sure what to make of the CDC statements for 2 types of vaccines(6) There are 2 kinds inactivated influenza vaccine (IIV) and live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV). From what I read, The IIV vaccine is recommended for children older then 2 and LIIV for children younger then 2
For (IIV) they had some good news and said Influenza vaccines (especially two-dose live attenuated vaccines) are efficacious in children older than 2 years.” However for the (LAIV) they simply compared efficacy and not effectiveness which wasn’t good enough for me (6 7). So I looked further on pubmed for answers and glad I did.
I found these statements on pub-med as a source of the cdc statement
” Influenza vaccines are efficacious in children older than two but little evidence is available for children under two. There was a marked difference between vaccine efficacy and effectiveness. No safety comparisons could be carried out, …” (4,5,9) This is misleading in my opinion.
Since I looked at the data (4,5,9) for various years, it suggests the effectiveness for IIV 33%-38% and efficacy 79 – 82% Which to me means it’s chances of (prevention of influenza-like illness) are about 1/3, very poor. For the LAIV given to children under 2 it’s even worse, 28%-36% and efficacy 59 – 65% which is similar to placebo.
However looking at another internet source it interpreted the same study differently then I did. It said “For children older than 2, … flu shots prevent influenza in 59 percent of children who receive them. A nasal spray vaccine made from live virus — approved since 2004 for children over 5 — is even better, with 79 percent efficacy.” (8)
Based on what I saw, that statement needs to be qualified with “prevention of confirmed influenza (Inactivated vaccines(IIV) ” which doesn’t mean that much since it’s against a lab produced virus!. It does not mean “the flu shots prevent influenza in 59 percent of children who receive them”.
So the way they interpreted these numbers from a study is a bit misleading. I was looking at the effectiveness and that is 33%.
I couldn’t find where they got the Flumist numbers, but I suspect that they chose the higher number as well…
So what to make out of all this for a 2 year old? I am concluding that although the vaccine works pretty well under lab conditions (efficacy) it is not effective enough (33%) to warrant a flu shot and risk the side effects and exposure to the chemicals in the actual vaccine. Unless I misinterpreted the data… Which is where I ask for some input
Nevertheless I believe the best protection is trying to adhere to the DPYC recommendations and eating for health; which should have better numbers then these anyway!!
1.http://www.pbs.org/now/science/mercuryinfish.html
2.http://www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic/fluzone13.htm
3.http://forum.baby-gaga.com/about360275.html
4.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15733718?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=2&log$=relatedarticles&logdbfrom=pubmed
5.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18425905?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed
My question has more to do with my logically interpreting the data on the effectiveness of the flu vaccine. Can anyone find a flaw in what I did and my conclusion?
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