What’s the real story about meningitis B?

Here’s a dose of reality about meningitis B.

It’s especially important if you’re the parent or grandparent of a school-age or college kid.

The U.S. is the “lucky” first country to have its government approve the new Trumenba meningitis B shot from Pfizer. And that means that the CDC will soon be making recommendations about how this vaccine should be used.

And that recommendation could include millions of our kids.

If a few cases do pop up this winter, no doubt you’ll hear the CDC hysterically shouting “epidemic” again. But even the CDC says that at any given time, up to 10 percent of us already have the bacteria in our nose or throat but will never develop symptoms.

And that also means that most of those people who had the bacteria will now have lifetime immunity to the disease.

They certainly can’t say the same for this new vaccine.

Another thing the CDC admits about the bacteria that causes meningitis, the B strain included, is that it’s pretty hard to spread. The bacteria doesn’t live very long outside of someone’s body, and can only be spread by close contact. You can’t catch in by being in the same room with someone who has it, or picking up things they’ve touched.

Meningitis is also not spread through the air. And it won’t spread rapidly, either across a campus or a community.

Now the FDA really has no idea if this new vaccine even works. Apparently that’s not on its list of requirements for drugs!

But there are some things that we know do work. And not just for meningitis B, either.

One of the most effective ways to stay well is probably one of the most repeated — wash your hands more often. More tried and true methods to stay healthy really work too.

Such as getting more sleep, eating “real” food (no…pizza doesn’t count), and including some immune-building supplements.

Good ones are vitamins C, D and E, olive leaf extract and zinc.

All of which are certainly better than allowing yourself or your kids or grandkids to take a brand new shot that they couldn’t bother taking the time to test before they approved it.

Sources:
CDC telebriefing: Status of serogroup B meningitis cases in the United States, cdc.gov