Study: Kids’ Flu Shots Protect Everyone
A lot of people might look at the anti-vax folks and wonder why it matters if those folks don’t get their kids vaccinated. If their kids get sick because they aren’t protected, it’s no skin off anyone else’s nose, right? Wrong. A new study shows exactly the opposite: vaccinating kids protects the entire community.
Almost fifty Hutterite communities in Canada took part in a study that has pretty much proven the “herd immunity” theory in which vaccinating a portion of community (or herd) protects the unvaccinated members as well. “This is quite a definitive study, and it took a Herculean effort,” said Dr. Carolyn B. Bridges, a flu expert with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “My hat’s off to them.”
The Hutterites, like the Amish and Mennonites, mostly keep to themselves in close-knit farming communities in western Canada. This makes them ideal test subjects for studies like this. In half the colonies, children ages 3 to 15 were given flu shots; in the other half they were given a hepatitis A vaccine as a placebo. Less than 5 percent of adults and children in the colonies that received the flu vaccine caught the flu, but more than 10 percent did in the communities that received the placebo.
This translates into a 60% “protective effect” for the community at large, according to the study. Furthermore, although no responsible doctor or scientist would ever suggest such a thing, Dr. Bridges noted that the implications of the study are that administering flu shots just to children would protect the elderly as well as giving the flu shots to the elderly themselves.
So the next time someone asks why you care if they don’t get their kids a flu shot, just tell them you don’t want to get sick.
Photo: sullivan
Comments: (9)
Tags: Canada, flu, flu shot, hutterite, illness, influenza, seasonal flu, sickness, studies, vaccination, vaccine
9 Comments
John Ware commented on Mar 12 10 at 12:47 pmThe study demonstrates a herd effect, even across ages. The herd effect also applies within the same age subjects. Therefore the conclusion is incorrect. All kids don’t need to be immunized to protect the elderly, much less all other kids. This supports anti-vax arguments that they don’t diminish and still benefit from the herd effect, ethics (i.e, tragedy of the commons) aside.
Miki Speed commented on Mar 12 10 at 2:57 pmNext time you can assure me (and don’t think big Pharma is capable;e of that feat after their inexcusable;le track record) that flu vaccines don’t contribute to Alzheimer disease, not to mention a host of auto-immune disorders like Guillaume Barre Syndrome, multiple sclerosis, etc.; I might just sacrifice my kids for the herd’s immunity.
Laure68 commented on Mar 12 10 at 4:08 pmThis really was a great study. It is rare to be able to study such isolated groups.
Miki Speed – all the things you are scared of have no basis in fact or science. It drives me crazy when people use terms like “Big Pharma”. Yes, there are been some isolated incidents of bad behavior, but because of regulation the great majority of drugs have much higher benefit than risk. Even the bad drugs, like Vioxx, had a great benefit for the majority of the population. What you really need to be worried about is alternative medicine, which has little to no regulation, so you have no idea what you are taking. The reason we know more about the issues with real drugs is because of regulation. Most alternative medicine could not even make it to the point where they would be able to start a clinical trial.
Mistress_Scorpio commented on Mar 12 10 at 5:07 pmI’m glad my kid goes to a daycare that requires all the kids to be vax’d.
JBoogie commented on Mar 13 10 at 8:22 amWatching my precious two month old son get vaccinated was the worst thing I’ve ever seen, and I cried right along with him. But knowing that he is protected for life against crippling diseases, and knowing that my actions were responsible and the best for other mothers’ children–it was worth it. Yeah, there are small, rare risks. But I would be devastated to find out that my inability to jump off the conspiracy horse caused another child–someone else’s baby, someone else’s everything–to get sick. The flu can be fatal, especially in children.
Miki Speed commented on Mar 13 10 at 9:51 amLaure68- I have lost one child due to severe brain damage from his DTP vaccines as a baby. Big Pharma did not recognize his particular adverse reactions until threee years after he suffered the damage. I also do not place great trust in alternative. And belive it or no, my subsequent 3 children have been given most of their vaccines- INCLUDING the DTaP and MMR. But they will NOT receive flu vaccines fo r the herd immunity effect, and nor will they be receiving Gardisil until there are more unbiased studies done over the next decade or so.
So Laure- my fears ARE based in the fact that pharmaceutical companies are NOT always forthcoming- FOSAMAX is the most recent- and doctors will push any new drug the reps are pushing, Thank the goddess my Mom has a brain of her won and declined Fosamax at the urging of her drug rep. er. internist.
Miki Speed commented on Mar 13 10 at 9:56 amJBoogie- with all due respect I cried a lot harder and longer when I held mine as his brain suffered so much cortical atrophy that he never walked, talked or scratched an itch and then died from vaccine damage. (DTP- whole cell which was later formulated as DTaP with a dead cell pertussis component for more safety. Unfortunately, MY kid was one of the guinea pigs that forced them to reformulate.
I am NOT telling no one to stop vaxing, or which ones to use. I am urging you to not always trust what the drug companies are pushing though and consider things closely before you use all the new products. They are not philanthropic entities- they are profitable corporations.
Eric commented on Mar 15 10 at 11:11 amIt certainly is true that vaccinating at-risk groups helps the population as a whole. However, I think Miki Speed’s concern is (obviously) well grounded. This is why it must remain an individual choice. We are a society that is quick to legislate, and we are headed that way on this matter. Each vaccine, like any new technology, requires early adopters and skeptics. That’s how we as a society vet a new product. Keep trying to convince people to use a vaccine through studies like this one, not by using lines like the author’s last one.
JEssica commented on Mar 24 10 at 2:57 pmI think the there was a study done on flu vaccines that essentially said they were not effective at targeting the correct flu for the season. And personnally every time I get the flu shot, I get the flu (although people tell me it is not the flu, just the symptoms of the flu).
