I just read a post on the
Med Nauseam blog about the
NIH press release on the NIAID H1N1 vaccine trials on children.
After receiving one dose of this year's swine (H1N1) flu vaccine, children developed a theoretically protective level of antibodies to the July 2009/California H1N1 strain (the vaccine strain) at these rates:76% of 10 - 17 year olds [pretty sucky]
36% of 3 - 9 year olds [dismal]
25% of babies aged 6M to 35M [atrociously bad]
These data were obtained 8 - 10 days after the vaccination. "It is anticipated that the immune response to the 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine will ... continue to rise for several weeks following vaccination," states NIAID Director Dr. Fauci in the NIH press release. My bet: the "continued rise" will be negligible.
No wonder the CDC was considering giving children two doses of the vaccine. It doesn't work. Was the H1N1 vaccine deemed too dangerous to administer twice to children?
Looking at a different vaccine for perspective, toddlers receive two doses of MMR. The second MMR shot is not a euphemistically-named "booster," but a re-vaccination of all kids due to the fact that a few do not mount the theoretically protective level of antibodies the first time.
I want to know how well the antibodies correlate to actual H1N1 protection if a vaccinated person comes into contact with the vaccine strain. Those studies have not been done. In an upcoming article, I will explore this issue. This past weekend, I had fun reading package inserts for the three injectable H1N1 vaccines and the nasal spray version. You won't be shocked to find that only one product insert cites one study testing efficacy in real life. The results do not favor efficacy.
Oh, and if a child gets the nasal spray vaccine, it is a live attenuated virus. The package insert says the transmission rate is 2.4%. They are shedding and spreading for weeks. In other words, for every 100 people that child comes into contact with, 2 - 3 will be infected with H1N1 by the child's vaccine.