Alliance for Aging Research’s Post

If you are an adult aged over 25, this picture probably reminds you of the misery of chicken pox when you were young. (And I hope you got it while young, as getting it as an adult can be very nasty indeed.) However, some good news from the UK - in the future, British children are much less likely to experience this itchy misery. The UK's Joint Committee on Vaccination & Immunisation (JCVI) has just made a recommendation to include universal vaccination against chickenpox (varicella) as part of the childhood immunisation schedule. The same decision was taken in the year 2000 in Canada, 2004 in Germany, 2005 in Australia and 2013 in Brazil. Why the delay in the UK? In part it seems that the data on hospital admissions was inaccurate. As the JCVI says "hospitalisations are frequently due to secondary complications of varicella infection including cellulitis, invasive group A streptococcal infection or childhood stroke, and therefore are not always recorded as a hospital admission related to varicella." Such data coding is rarely seen as glamorous work, but it is vital so that healthcare systems can allocate resources correctly. This is as true for Botswana as it is for Britain.

Society faces a risk even more toxic and deadly than Covid-19: that the conduct of science becomes indistinguishable from politics. And that extrememism becomes normal. To suggest that parents favoring vaccination of their children be targeted by Child Services, it beyond crazy. With the latest comment from Dr. Prasad, he proves that he is wrong about everything about vaccinating children from COVID . There were 6 pediatric randomized-controlled trials involving nearly 25,000 children. One of them found “the observed vaccine efficacy was 100%.” Not bad. Unsurprisingly, dozens of observational studies from around the world have since shown the same thing, a vaccine that limits SARS-CoV-2 infections also limits rare but grave harms from SARS-CoV-2. When Dr. Prasad, who judges studies by their results not their methods, casually dismisses all of them as “flawed”, what he really means is, “Since I relentlessly encouraged unvaccinated children to get COVID, I don’t want these studies to be true.” https://lnkd.in/e_XpPS_E

𝗨𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗡𝗢𝗡𝗦𝗘𝗡𝗦𝗘: 𝘐𝘧 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘦 what Christine Stabell Benn claims in a LinkedIn-article that the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccine as a non-live vaccine, has detrimental non-specific effects on child mortality, it seems odd that child mortality has dropped markedly in Guinea-Bissau even after the DTP vaccine was introduced 30 years ago. Benn claims the detrimental non-specific vaccine effects of DTP are much harder on girls than boys, so attention should be drawn to the fact that the reduced child mortality applies to both girls and boys. Graphs shown below; Source: IHME.   Further, around 50% of the infants would have died in a massive Swedish study by Olin and co-workers (link in comment), 𝘪𝘧 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘦, what Benn claims. I am confident that we in Denmark, as the neighboring country, would have picked up on it if child mortality had sky-rocketed in Sweden after the DTP vaccine was administered to >80.000 infants in 1997. Spoiler alert: It didn’t! Graphs shown in comments; Source: IHME. Benn stresses that no prospective study has proven the hypothesis of detrimental non-specific effects of DTP to be wrong, conveniently omitting that it is unethical to randomize children using standard-of-care as intervention. That leaves the world to trust that “𝙤𝙗𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩 𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣” as “𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙣𝙤𝙣-𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙛𝙞𝙘 𝙚𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙨 𝙘𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙗𝙚 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙪𝙞𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙙 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙗𝙞𝙖𝙨” quote from Tielemans and co-workers in the BMJ 2017 (link in comments below). It is a comforting relief for the world’s children that WHO upholds the DTP vaccine for its specific lifesaving effects (link in comments to the report). #vaccines #NSEvaccNeverReplicated #research #WHO #childmortality

Did you know that pneumococcal disease is one of the leading causes of hospitalizations and death in Canada? Fortunately, there are pneumococcal vaccines that can help prevent or protect against this vaccine-preventable disease, but uptake rates amongst older Canadian adults in long-term care settings are well below national targets. The IFA, a leader in vaccine advocacy for older people, is proud to share its Technical report on this issue in advance of #WorldPneumoniaDay (12 November): https://lnkd.in/g9yjVgTg. Following this report, the following steps include focusing on advocating to governments to improve vaccination policy in long-term care. #WorldPneumoniaDay #StopPneumonia #EveryBreathCounts #PneumococcalVaccination #LongTermCare

Raj Naik, MD, FAAP, CMIO at Gundersen Health System and Co-chair of the Advisory Council Immunize WI shared so much great information during our webinar, "Navigating Immunizations: Meeting Patients Where They Are." His focus was identifying and overcoming communication barriers with patients hesitant to receive vaccines. For example, he said most patients with hesitancy fall into three main categories: safety concerns, complacency (the vaccine is not necessary) or freedom of choice. Dr. Naik then tailors his message to that concern. "Confidence in how you present this is very important," he said. Thanks, for the great information, Dr. Naik!

The evidence is building that two doses of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) for children are as effective as the current three or more. Why does this matter so much for child survival? PCV is the most expensive childhood vaccine. It cost Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance $US4 billion between 2009 and 2020 - more than any other vaccine. Fewer doses reduce costs and help countries introduce and sustain high PCV coverage. It's also more convenient for families. That means a big boost to drive PCV coverage from the current 60% to above 90% and many, many more children who survive childhood. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eDUr4V64 #ISPPD13 #ChildSurvivalAction David Goldblatt Shabir Madhi Marta Bertrán Pérez-Hickman Courtney Paige Olwagen ron dagan LAYMYINT YOSHIDA Anthony Scott Matthew Coldiron Brenda Kwambana-Adams Grant Mackenzie Kim Mulholland Gail L. Rodgers, MD Fiona Russell Annick Raïssa Ouelhore SIDIBE

High-performing public health supply chains must be equitable, people-centered, resilient and sustainable. VillageReach is intentional in building equity into our supply chain programs. We created a four-step Equity Guide to help decision-makers identify and address the supply chain barriers that limit access to immunization and other health products in under-reached communities. Learn more about our Equity Guide and how we consider equity in our programs. https://bit.ly/3tnkhag TechNet-21 Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance

‘Doctors knew Covid vaccine’s side-effects killed my daughter. But they didn’t tell us’ At least four of the petitioners said they have received confirmation from the government’s Adverse Events Following Immunisation (AEFI) committee that their children died due to side-effects caused by the vaccine. #CovidVaccine | #Petitioners | #Confirmation | #Government | #Adviser | #Immunisation | #Committee | #Healthnews Read more:

Have you heard about the Bridge Access Program? It's an incredible initiative offering free updated COVID-19 vaccines to uninsured and underinsured adults. With over 30,000 active providers, it's easy to find a convenient location. Check out Vaccines.gov to locate a participating provider near you and help us spread the word about this program! #AmplifyingCommunityPower #AdvocatingforHealthEquity #AdvancingCommunityCollaboration

HCPs: Vaccine exemptions among kindergartners in the United States rose to 3% during the 2022-2023 school year, exceeding 5% in 10 states. A rise in vaccine exemptions can mean a higher risk of disease outbreaks, especially when reaching 5% or more. Discover 8 tips to improve vaccine uptake in your practice and prevent the delay of vaccination in your kindergarten-aged patients here: https://bit.ly/3xFGzAm