Why the CDC Ended Flu Vaccine Recommendation for Children
15 of years of data show as low as 19% effective rate
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have released data backing their decision to end the recommendation that all children receive flu vaccines.
The CDC made the announcement this week. Parents are now encouraged to speak to their healthcare providers and weigh the risks and benefits of the shot, the Epoch Times reports.
Deputy Health Secretary and acting CDC Director Jim O’Neill defended the downgrading of influenza vaccine guidance, pointing to extensive scientific review in which HHS and Food and Drug Administration officials said that no randomized, controlled clinical trials demonstrate that flu vaccines reduce hospitalizations and mortality in children, or transmission from children to elderly individuals.
Study on mortality rate
The claim is backed by a 2018 review from the Cochrane Collaboration, which concluded, “at present we could find no convincing evidence that vaccines can reduce mortality, hospital admissions, serious complications, or community transmission of influenza.”
The CDC says on its website that the flu vaccine, which is updated each year to try to improve its effectiveness, has ranged from only 19 percent to 60 percent effective against infection since 2010
The CDC previously said that all people aged 6 months and older should get a flu vaccine every year, with stated benefits including preventing people from contracting the flu, being hospitalized, and dying.
Democrats were quick to attack the decision, falsely claiming the CDC is blocking access to flu vaccines. “Children are dying from the flu. Making vaccines harder to get will cost lives,” Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) wrote on X.
HHS said in response that it has made no changes to flu vaccine access, supply, or coverage. Officials have said that insurers must still cover the influenza vaccine and other shots the CDC no longer broadly recommends for children.
–From the Epoch Times News Service | By Zachary Stieber
