In light of the, in my view extremely ill-advised changes at the FDA to discourage vaccine use, including in children. This is driven by RFK, Jr’s long-standing lucrative relationship with trial lawyers, a relationship he has refused to end. He is doing his best to deliver for his trial lawyer pals to keep the money train coming. The reaction from vaccine and infectious disease experts has been a little overdone. They are zealously publishing articles claiming exaggerated effectiveness for CV-19, flu and other vaccines. Here are a couple of examples.
The first is from the New England Journal of Medicine and purports to review effectiveness studies for CV-19, flu and RSV vaccines for this winter season. I would note that by definition these studies have very limited follow-up periods. Almost all the studies had very wide confidence intervals, an indication of poor trial sizing or other methodological issues. The pooled analyses showed relatively mediocre effectiveness, even against serious outcomes. Few of these trials were randomized control ones. 55% of the studies were deemed even by these researchers to have a moderate to serious risk of bias. A pooled analysis of poorly done studies doesn’t make the results any better. (NEJM Article)
Next up is a review of flu vaccines for adults. The truth about most flu vaccines is that they have very limited effectiveness. The review focused on newer high-dose, recombinant and mRNA flu vax. The researchers say that the high-dose and recombinant vax had better effectiveness than the traditional vaccines but may also have more adverse events. This review also noted potential issues with the underlying studies. (Annals Article)
Finally, this is the kind of paper that may help explain why CV-19 vaccine effectiveness lessens over time. It measures antibody levels in adults aged 75 and over, the group most at risk from CV-19, and other respiratory illnesses. While levels are high two weeks after vax, they have declined substantially by a year later. These studies, which can track T cells and memory cells as well, are what we need more of, to help with our understanding of how the immune system reacts to vaccination. (SSRN Study)
A few points
A – I agree RFK jr is a lunatic and should not be the head of any organization for the reasons Kevin Mentioned.
B – I am extreme pro effective vaccination.
C – I am marginally anti vaccination of ineffective vaccines, though I am a pro vaccination of ineffective vaccines for individual that are high risk.
D – I have never had a flu vax since my risk factors are very low. Same with never had a covid vax since my personal risk factor was extremely low.
Much of the vaccination pushes, including very uncommon viruses that are pushed on late night TV commercials is driven by the medical science of paranoia . A good example is the infectious disease expert at a major southern California university hospital who commented to me that without all the protocols, covid would have killed 2million americans including 500k children.