Baby Girl in India Dies Day After Getting the Pentavalent Vaccine
A four-and-a-half-month girl died in India on June 15, 2019 a day after she was given the “five-in-one” pentavalent vaccine (diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae type B) at a rural child care center in the village of Kudluru, India.1 2 Soon after she was vaccinated, the baby developed a fever. When the […]
What’s So Effective About a Flu Vaccine That’s Less Than 10 Percent “Effective”?
Sometimes topics for opinion pieces just fall out of the sky. Last week, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that the new estimate for the effectiveness of the influenza vaccine during the second half of the 2018-2019 “flu season” was only nine percent. That’s pretty bad even by influenza vaccine […]
Autism Affecting Up to 1 in 36 Children in America
In April 2018, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report estimating the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the United States at 1 in 59 children. The figure was based on a 2014 survey of eight-year-old children across 11 residential communities in the country, so clearly it was out of […]
North Carolina Pharmacists Now Can Give Flu Shots to Younger Children
North Carolina’s Governor Roy Cooper signed legislation (HB 388) into law that allows children over 10 years of age to receive the influenza vaccine at local pharmacies without being required to see a pediatrician and without a prescription. The law takes effect on Oct. 1, 2019.1 2 The minimum age at which a child is […]
Infant Boy in India Falls Unconscious and Dies After Vaccination
A one-month-old boy died in Telangana, India on May 11, 2019 shortly after being vaccinated at a rural child care center in the town of Kamareddy. The child’s parents said that the baby became unconscious after receiving the vaccine and they subsequently took him to a private nursing home where physicians there declared him dead […]
Polio-like Guillain-Barré Syndrome on the Rise in Peru
The government of Peru declared a 90-day health emergency earlier this month following an outbreak of Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) that has killed at least four people in the country. According to the Institute of Neurological Sciences (INCN) in Lima, Peru, the emergency was declared because the cases “have unusual and atypical characteristics that require rapid […]