Letter to Editor in Capital Gazette About FluMist in Schools
Thank you to AofA reader and supporter Josh Mazer for sharing his letter.
Vaccinations
Over four weeks I received a letter, a robocall, and a text from the school board about the availability of free FluMist vaccine in my children's schools. I visited the public website of AstraZeneca to learn more.
Thirty-two percent of the kids taking it will get runny nose/congestion; 13 percent headache; 10 percent lethargy; 9 percent sore throat; 6 percent decreased appetite; 4 percent muscle aches; and 7 percent will spike a fever to 100 degrees or more. Four strains of live attenuated influenza viruses will be shed from nasal passages for up to 28 days. Two-point-four percent of unvaccinated kids will contract FluMist strain influenza virus from the shedding.
On Sept. 22, the county school health and support clinical services director informed me that the AstraZeneca website is wrong. She refused to provide any written data about FluMist, instead referring me to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. There is nothing on the CDC website contradicting the information supplied by the manufacturer.
Anne Arundel County school policy explicitly states kids who have a fever of 100 degrees or more have to stay home.
The school board is engaged in a contradictory policy mandate. The CDC and FDA both verify the non-serious side effects of FluMist. The introduction of FluMist into county schools makes some kids get flu like symptoms, or flu, and then have to stay home. Further, no in school provision exists for parents who do not want their children exposed to the viral shedding.
The board defers to CDC recommendations on vaccine policy. Both share a complete lack of accountability if your child gets sick, misses school, or suffers a more serious adverse reaction. One wonders if there is a financial incentive in the form of state and federal grants tied to FluMist. What other explanation is there for this backward and contradictory policy?
JOSH MAZER
In Canada they're bemoaning math performance in students. I think eventually they will clue in to just how impaired the student population is now.
Posted by: For Shelly | October 15, 2015 at 08:29 PM
So basically the same symptoms you may get from the flu, you may get from the flu mist and by giving everyone the flu mist more people who didn't take the flu mist will get the same symptoms as those who took the flu mist. Ha Ha, you can't make this stuff up. We are truly a "dumbed" down society. I wonder how that happened?
Posted by: NanNJ | October 15, 2015 at 06:23 AM
Quality education in our public schools have gone way down.. everyone knows this. Perhaps if they stopped turning the schools into "Vaccine Clinics" they might have time to educate children?
Posted by: Shelley Tzorfas | October 14, 2015 at 05:26 PM
last years vaccine never worked ,so what does ya do-go back and get it again this year, well the dumb sheeple do.
MMR RIP
Posted by: Angus Files | October 14, 2015 at 05:04 PM
"The Anne Arundel County Department of Health and Anne Arundel County Public Schools announced today that the 2015 administration of free FluMist vaccinations to thousands of county elementary school students has been canceled due to a delay in the manufacturing and shipment of the vaccine.
“The FluMist vaccination program has been a very successful partnership between the school system and Department of Health for the last decade. This manufacturing delay is an unfortunate turn of events,” said Dr. David C. Rose, Acting Health Officer for Anne Arundel County. “The FluMist vaccination program simply could not move forward without knowing when we would receive an ample supply of the nasal spray vaccine. We hope to resume the program next year."
The Department of Health currently has no FluMist vaccines available, and doesn’t anticipate any arriving before December. That would be too late in the flu season to begin the vaccination program on a countywide basis.
FluMist, which is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, is a safe nasal spray vaccine that contains the live but attenuated (weakened) flu virus. Nationally, elementary schools with high flu immunization rates often notice reduced illness not only among the vaccinated students, but among their families as well.
The injectable form of the flu vaccine is widely available.
Under the program, children in kindergarten through fifth grade who had written parental consent could receive nasal vaccine at their elementary school. Forms were sent home with students last month.
Dr. Rose and Schools Superintendent George Arlotto urged parents to contact their primary care physicians to set up appointments for the vaccine.
“Obviously, we want to do everything we can to keep our students healthy and in school,” Dr. Arlotto said. “Our partnership with the Department of Health has helped in this and many other ways, and we look forward to continuing to work in order to assist our students in light of this development.”
The Department of Health will explore setting up clinics to offer the vaccine when an ample supply is available."
Posted by: Ottoschnaut | October 14, 2015 at 01:25 PM
Excellent letter, Josh! A number of years ago, my children's high school had an on-site influenza vaccine clinic. I, and at least one other mother, called and wrote the school principal and the entire school board for the district. I also kept my children home from school the day of the clinic in protest, and I kept our son with "autism" home for a few days. I would have loved to keep them out for an entire month, but it's hard for a high schooler to miss a month of school! I will say that for the remainder of my 3 children's time at that high school, they never had another on-site influenza vaccine clinic day. I hope your letter will end with the same result. Brave to you, Josh!
Posted by: Laura Hayes | October 14, 2015 at 09:49 AM
From CIDRAP:
"Lacking the proof that the vaccine provides consistently better protection, the [ACIP] work group thought it better to go back to the original recommendation rather than have a preference for one product over another," the CDC's Joseph Bresee, MD, told CIDRAP News.
The CDC said that flu vaccine effectiveness (VE) estimates for the 2013-14 flu season were presented to the ACIP in October. The data showed that LAIV had "no measurable effectiveness" against H1N1 viruses in children, while the effectiveness of IIV was estimated at 60% and was statistically significant....
The latest VE estimates from the US Flu Vaccine Effectiveness Network indicate that neither IIV nor LAIV has yielded significant protection in children ages 2 through 8 this season, the CDC reported."
You have to wonder if the live up the nose version was considered not protective because so many of the recipients contracted flu - from the vaccine, and if the dead injected version wasn't deemed effective because the recipients were sufficiently weakened by the vaccine so that they contracted whatever strain of flu they encountered that they would have been able to fight off had they not gotten the vaccine. Also, there are the studies showing changes in bacterial carriage in mice from the live up the nose: http://mbio.asm.org/content/5/1/e01040-13.full
But the ACIP isn't saying don't give your kids the up the nose. They're just saying they don't have a preference. So, even though year before last and last year the up the nose did squat to protect recipients, but sickened them and shed to others, the ACIP based on that doesn't say to avoid the up the nose. Not that the injected one works any better, according to the ACIP. But keep getting either one, is their "expert" advice.
Posted by: Linda1 | October 14, 2015 at 08:27 AM
ACIP drops preference for nasal-spray flu vaccine in kids.
Why just drop it for kids? It has the same affect on adults who may come into contact with more people than children.
FluMist is influenza...
"At least one vaccine strain was isolated from 80% of FluMist recipients; strains were recovered from 1-21 days post vaccination"
"The duration of FluMist vaccine virus replication and shedding have not been established" In other words, people who take FluMist become contagious with influenza.
This is important because FluMist is pushed on children, teachers, hospital workers, first responders, and others who are in close contact situations. How many people receiving FluMist will avoid contact with immunocompromised individuals for at least 3 weeks? How do they even know who to avoid?
How do people figure out which strangers among them have received FluMist anytime recently?
However there could be another reason for pushing this product. It is know that this product sheds and what a better way to start outbreaks across the country and than the various health departments and the CDC can do another False Flag and say outbreaks are happening because not enough people have gotten the Flu shot. It would be the same thing with Disney all over again with every MSM outlet carrying the trumpet for the CDC, with every MSM berating ill responsible people for not getting the shot and spreading the Flu because unvaccinated people who are not sick are dangerous don't you know.
Has anyone noticed the number of articles over the last week about how adults & children are not getting the measles vaccine and there is a "very real" chance of a measles outbreak because the number are so low. The CDC is in prep stage for another False Flag. With the back to school push on vaccines there is bound to be outbreaks among the vaccinated and to distract from that the articles are setting the public up for a repeat of Disney. The other articles talk about how "Travelers" are not getting the MMR and they are setting themselves up to be infected. Travelers-Disney-Outbreak of Genotype B3 from the Philippine in which that person has never been identified or found yet the CDC led MSM never really published that fact.
Something is rotten in Atlanta.
Posted by: Danchi | October 14, 2015 at 08:06 AM
I am indebted to another Facebook post of Josh's yesterday but it looks as if the ACIP have already dropped official support of nasal flu vaccine:
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2015/02/acip-drops-preference-nasal-spray-flu-vaccine-kids
Posted by: John Stone | October 14, 2015 at 07:17 AM
"One wonders if there is a financial incentive in the form of state and federal grants tied to FluMist. What other explanation is there for this backward and contradictory policy?"
Great letter Josh .. your closing comment reminds me of an old saying .. when seeking reasons for public policies that defy common sense .. you should always ...
FOLLOW THE MONEY.
Posted by: Bob Moffitt | October 14, 2015 at 06:52 AM