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There is an urgent need to evaluate immune response kinetics with the aim of monitoring vaccination coverage. [1]

The critical consideration – do the rates of new vaccinations exceed attenuation rates of previous immunization, based on published rates of vaccination and assumed attenuation rates? We based our analysis on 2021 population-based trends in the administration of primary and booster vaccines [2], comparing rates of increasing population protection with rates of attenuation over time. We proposed attenuation scenarios involving selected rates of such losses and compared their effects on vaccination status with and without booster shots. All of this is hypothetical...

vaccineThis past Sunday, April 12th, marked the 60th anniversary of Jonas Salk s polio vaccine being deemed safe, effective and potent after the largest clinical trial for a vaccine in history. The inactivated polio vaccine was licensed by the federal government that very same day! The Salk vaccine was found to be 80 to 90 percent effective in preventing polio.

David Oshinsky, the director of the Division of Medical Humanities at NYU Langone Medical Center and the Pulitzer-prize winning author of Polio: An American Story,...

The Problem

Recently, one New York clinic  was accused of misrepresenting itself to the state’s department of health to fraudulently obtain vaccine doses – which it then dispensed to people otherwise not eligible. Governor Cuomo wants to stop that practice at all costs, recently proposing a law making it illegal to “cut in line.”

On an international level, there is concern that money will grease the way to vaccine-ability, meaning that rich countries will procure more vaccines than poor ones. Some...

For Biden’s vaccine mandate to survive judicial muster, it must both prevent grave danger in the workplace (as I wrote) and be shown to be necessary, meaning that reasonable alternatives must be unavailable. These standards must be proven by substantial evidence (not scientific certainty) such that a reasonable person would support OSHA’s position.  The default position favors OSHA, as courts admonish that deference must be given to OSHA’s determination.

Have we reached the point where we are running out of time? If grave danger is looming, and a segment of the population throws a tantrum, does a mandate become ...

Source: American Academy of Pediatrics  Credit: American Academy of Pediatricians

August is National Immunization Month which seems as good a time as any to evaluate how we are doing at getting the science based message about vaccines out to the public. Numbers actually show we are doing a good job in converting anti-vaxxers. A poll conducted by the University of Michigan found that:

  1. 34 percent of parents think vaccines have more benefit than they did one...

The study, currently a preprint, was conducted by the CDC and FDA using the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VDS). The VDS differs from VAERS in that it gathers information from specific health systems, in this case Medicare beneficiaries, about specific concerns; VAERS, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, is voluntary, passive surveillance.

The study design is termed self-controlled case series, SCCS. Each participant acts as their own control, thereby eliminating time-independent factors, such as co-morbidities, and each participant has experienced an outcome. The SCCS tries to identify a temporal linkage between, in this instance, the receipt of a COVID or high-dose influenza vaccine and the onset of a stroke. Strokes...

For as long as anti-vaxxers have been around, the American Council on Science and Health has used sound science to expose their lies and distortions. The coronavirus pandemic, and the need to produce an effective vaccine to counter it, provided a new and intensified effort to squelch vaccines.

A non-profit organization based in the United States and United Kingdom called the Center for Countering Digital Hate has produced The Anti-Vaxx Playbook to expose the anti-vaxxers for what they truly are: anti-science fearmongers.

The report reveals the messages and strategies anti-vaxxers are using to exploit the COVID pandemic and disrupt the rollout of the...

Today, Vladimir Putin announced that Russian regulators have approved the world's first coronavirus vaccine. He's so confident in it that he claims that one of his daughters has been vaccinated already. So, who wants to sign up for Putin's vaccine?

Not me. There's a lot that we can't verify, including Putin's claim that his daughter is vaccinated. There is no published data on safety or efficacy for outside scientists to examine. That data won't be available until September. Notably, the vaccine hasn't completed Phase III clinical trials, which constitute the largest and most important phase of testing because the vaccine's safety and efficacy are assessed in...

 

 

 

The images come mainly from PowerPoint presentations to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Links to our sources are at the end of the article.

 

 

Who's at Risk of Severe Disease?

Current US hospitalization rates are highest for people ages 75 and up, with roughly 25 hospitalizations per 100,000 population; then, infants under six months and adults ages 65 to 74. The two latter groups experience about 10 hospitalizations per 100,000 population.

Hospitalizations continue to reflect racial...

153988137Vaccination rates in Hollywood s elite schools have dropped drastically low, according to an investigation by The Hollywood Reporter that looked into vaccination rates in Los Angeles County schools. The schools with the lowest rates are clustered in the affluent Westside, where some schools have vaccination rates as low as South Sudan, where only 65 percent of children are vaccinated.

The same LA neighborhoods are being plagued by pertussis, or whooping cough. Thousands of children and babies in California have been infected...