<
https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/01/anti-vaccine-nonsense-will-likely-kill-thousands-this-season-fda-officials-say/>
'The US may be heading to a "dangerous vaccination tipping point," with
immunization rates falling so low that population-level immunity is now at
risk, and we will likely see thousands of needless deaths this respiratory
virus season, two top officials for the Food and Drug Administration warned in
a recent
JAMA commentary.
FDA Commissioner Robert Califf and top FDA vaccine regulator Peter Marks noted
the profound benefits of vaccines—which save millions of lives in the US each
year—and their established safety, which is monitored both passively and
actively through multiple overlapping federal safety monitoring systems. And
yet, "an increasing number of people in the US are now declining vaccination
for a variety of reasons, ranging from safety concerns to religious beliefs,"
thanks to the rise of anti-vaccine misinformation spread on social media and
elsewhere on the Internet.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year found that,
for the third consecutive year, vaccination rates among kindergartners had
continued to slip, with rates of non-medical vaccination exemptions rising to
an all-time high. There are now 10 states with vaccination exemption rates over
5 percent, meaning that even if clinicians and health officials manage to
vaccinate all non-exempt children, the state will not be able to reach the
target of 95 percent coverage needed to curb the spread of disease on a
population level.
Califf and Marks lamented that the efficacy of vaccines that prevent
"disturbing" suffering and deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases, such as
the extremely contagious measles, is no longer visible for people in the US.
Thus, vaccines' benefits are under-appreciated, and vaccination rates are
slipping, particularly in small pockets of the country.
"Regrettably, pediatric vaccine hesitancy now has been responsible for several
measles outbreaks in the US, including a recent one in central Ohio involving
local-acquired cases in 85 children, 36 of whom (42 percent) had to be
hospitalized for complications," Califf and Marks write.'
Via Violet Blue’s
Pandemic Roundup: January 11, 2024
https://www.patreon.com/posts/pandemic-roundup-96291169
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
