Kids’ flu vaccine leaves CDC officials ‘scratching their heads’

It hasn’t been a very good year for the CDC.

The thing it holds nearest and dearest, the flu vaccine, has had some major blows.

I recently told you about a big government study showing that the flu shot does nothing to protect the elderly.

Now, not one, but three studies have just come out saying that the FluMist nasal vaccine doesn’t protect our kids.

And one of those three was done by the Air Force.

But the other two come from the unlikeliest of sources…the CDC and AstraZenica.

Yup, you read that right, AstraZenica!

When even the company that makes the drug is admitting it’s not working, you know something has to change.

Well…not quite yet.

Because not even this was enough evidence for the CDC to change its “guidance.” (But officials did admit that more “investigation” is needed — and right away.)

And they also let it slip that “everyone was sitting around, scratching their heads” at the news.

Since a federal scientific panel advised doctors to use FluMist in place of the usual shot in the arm last June, sales of it have been rising steadily. It was squirted into the nose of almost 50 percent of kids aged 2 to 17 who got a flu vaccine.

And it did nada to protect those kids from the most common bug last winter, the swine flu.

This year’s FluMist is exactly the same formula, and the CDC is saying that it’s quite likely it will work no better. But the agency still advises parents to have their kids get it!

You know, just to be on the “safe side.”

Adding its two cents is the American Academy of Pediatrics, which issued a statement right away saying that it’s still very important to vaccinate kids. Even with FluMist.

Even if it doesn’t work.

I agree with the CDC on one thing: They have me scratching my head…

Sources:
“Vaccine spray may not work for swine flu in kids” Mike Stobbe, November 6, 2014, Associated Press, bigstory.ap.org