By Jennifer Sotelo, Atalissa
If you are bone weary with a throat on fire, aching muscles and chills that make your teeth chatter… it could be because you have the flu. The Center for Disease Control estimates 15 million illnesses from influenza this season so far, 180,000 hospitalizations and 7,400 deaths, the highest level on record since they started keeping track around 30 years ago. The CDC knows that the entire nation is suffering from a flu epidemic that has not even reached its peak and yet influenza has been removed from the new schedule of recommended vaccines for children that they just put out.
Like hepatitis A and B, dengue, meningitis, RSV, rotovirus and COVID-19, access to the flu shot will be based on “shared clinical decision making,” a term that means different things to different people, but boils down to a doctor visit. Can nurses and pharmacists still give them? Nope, no lining up for the jab from the school nurse for an RSV or flu shot unless there is an order from a doctor. No stopping by CVS either. According to KFF Health News, more than 100 million Americans lack access to a primary care physician.
The CDC compares the U.S. to Denmark, a country the size of Wisconsin whose people have access to universal healthcare and rigorous testing for hepatitis B, something our country has failed at miserably. Here, only a third of pregnant women who test positive for it receive follow-up care. Now that Denmark is the model, we have the lowest number of vaccines in our schedule than any developed country except Denmark.
Iowa uses CDC recommendations to set requirements for vaccines needed to attend school, but many doctors are turning to the American Academy of Pediatrics who stand by the previous schedule. “You know, meningitis is incredibly deadly, so even though rare, you sure don’t want it to happen to your kid,” said Dr. Jason Wilbur, a family medicine physician in Iowa City. He noted that conflicting information from the CDC and from family physicians will only add to confusion over vaccines and is likely to cause a lack of confidence in them.
The CDC themselves put out a statement last year saying that health care providers should “provide a strong recommendation for influenza vaccination for all eligible persons to prevent influenza and its associated severe and potentially fatal complications.” Confused yet?
