ACIP meeting today: results

Today's themes: 1) No one wanted to take away any vaccines. 2) Baby Steps.

Another frustrating day. Two vaccines were considered by the new ACIP Committee, which is still finding its way, and today 5 new members were added.

Today the MMRV vaccine and the birth dose of Hepatitis vaccine were considered. Tomorrow the COVID vaccines for children will be in the hot seat.

Both issues today were as cut and dried as they come in the vaccine world.

Varicella (chickenpox) vaccines are not even needed, and many countries don’t use them, as virtually no one dies from varicella, vaxed or unvaxed. Even children with leukemia are saved with monoclonal antibodies and antiviral drugs if they do get a severe case. When I looked up the numbers (6 years ago) only 1 child died from varicella in a year in the US.

Nonetheless varicella vaccine is mandated in most of the US. It can be given alone or as a combination vaccine with the MMR. The MMR is usually given at the 12 month old visit and so when the combination is used, the varicella vaccine is also given then.

It has long been known that when you give the vaccines together at this young age, instead of separating them, the result is twice as many post-injection seizures as would be caused if the vaccines are given separately. Instead of about 1 seizure in 3,000 doses, you get about 1 in 1,500 doses. Therefore, 85% of kids receive the vaccines separately.

The question for the ACIP members was whether to make a recommendation that would force all children under age 4 to receive them as separate injections—eliminating the 15% who (today) receive them together.

Seemed like a slam dunk to me—of course you avoid the seizures, which can be life-threatening.

A few disagreed and wanted things to remain as they are. But the majority went with the change. The members got confused due to the next vote, which had to do with federal payments if a child did get the combined vaccine at a young age—should the feds still pay for it? Almost everyone said yes, it should. Okay, whatever—though the way you make real change is medicine is to alter what the government pays for.

Second issue was the Hepatitis B vaccine, currently given to most children on the first day they are alive. CDC wants it given within 12 hours of birth. However, Dr. Kuldorf calculated that probably only about one half of one per cent of babies had a Hep B antigen positive mother, and should be vaccinated (and given a monoclonal antibody and possibly a drug too). For the rest of the 99.5%, there is no good evidence it does anything useful. The briefers and kibitzers in the audience (aka liaison members of medical and nursing organizations) insisted the vaccine was “safe and effective” so why not give it—you never know who might need it later….

The problem with that argument is that there was virtually no good data on HOW safe and HOW effective this shot actually is. And CDC strangely chose NOT to offer its own VSD data, from which one could derive whether Hep B-vaccinated kids do better or worse than the unvaccinated, longitudinally.

The question for the ACIP members was whether to postpone the first shot until 1 month of age. Not for the small number of kids who need it, who have Hepatitis-infected mothers. Just for those who don’t need it.

That is it. Not to stop the shots. Not to reduce them. Just to delay by one month.

The committee did not have time for this vote. Steve Bannon had me on tonight and he made the point that this is a turning point for the committee—which previously has just been adding vaccines right and left, and never took anything away, that I can recall.

And that is why the industry is in a tizzy. Though the science is clear that these two vaccines really called out for a change.

Tomorrow will be interesting—it is clear that children risk more than they benefit from COVID shots. Stay tuned. I will live blog again, till 3 pm. It starts at 8:30 am. I may do another Bannon show tomorrow.

Here is the link:

https://live.childrenshealthdefense.org/chd-tv/events/events-cdc-acip-meetings/cdc-acip-meeting-sept-19/