Tag: rotavirus vaccines

Why Did Anti-Vaccine Folks Applaud Rand Paul’s Testimony at the Senate Health Committee Hearing on Vaccines and Outbreaks?

Wait, what?

Why Did Anti-Vaccine Folks Applaud Rand Paul's Testimony at the Senate Health Committee Hearing on Vaccines and Outbreaks?

Anti-vaccine folks actually applauded Rand Paul’s testimony at the Senate Health Committee Hearing on Vaccines and Outbreaks?

Why Did Anti-Vaccine Folks Applaud Rand Paul’s Testimony at the Senate Health Committee Hearing on Vaccines and Outbreaks?

Surprisingly, many of the things he said weren’t anti-vaccine.

I guess they ignored those parts…

  • …given the choice, I do believe that the benefits of most vaccines vastly outweigh the risks.
  • I’m not hear to say don’t vaccinate your kids… if this hearing is for persuasion, I’m all for the persuasion. I vaccinated myself. I vaccinated my kids.
  • For myself and my kids, I believe that the benefits of vaccines greatly outweigh the risks…

So why were they cheering?

Because that’s not all he said…

“Today, instead of persuasion, many governments have taken to mandating a whole host of vaccines, including vaccines for non-lethal diseases.”

Sen Rand Paul

While some vaccine-preventable diseases are more deadly than others, they can all be deadly. From rotavirus and HPV to hepatitis A, these diseases can kill people.

Which vaccine-preventable disease does he think is non-lethal?

“Sometimes these vaccine mandates have run amok. As when the government mandated a rotavirus vaccine that was later recalled because it was causing intestinal blockage in children.”

Sen Rand Paul

That’s an interesting example of “the government” that has run amok…

Which “government” mandated that the original rotavirus vaccine be given to children?

As Senator Paul hopefully understands, the Federal government doesn’t mandate vaccines for anyone. And since it must be given at such a young age, even states don’t actually mandate that the rotavirus vaccine be given to children…

Even today, there are no mandates for the rotavirus vaccine.

If there were, it still wouldn’t mean giving up your Liberty, after all, vaccine mandates don’t mean forced vaccination.

“It is wrong to say that there are no risks to vaccines. Even the government admits that children are sometimes injured by vaccines. Since 1988, over $4 billion has been paid out from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Despite the government admitting to and paying $4 billion for vaccine injuries, no informed consent is used or required when you vaccinate your child. This may be the only medical procedure in today’s medical world where an informed consent is not required. “

Sen Rand Paul

No one says that there are no risks to vaccines. That’s a classic anti-vaccine talking point.

What folks actually say is that vaccines are safe, with few serious risks.

And the $4 billion that Rand Paul and anti-vaccine folks often talk about has been paid out over more than 30 years, during a time that we have given nearly 300 million doses of vaccines each and every year!

But what’s that he said about informed consent?

Why wouldn’t informed consent be given or be required before getting a vaccine?

Of course, parents get informed consent before getting vaccines.

They don’t get informed consent if they decide to skip or delay their child’s vaccines after getting bad information.

“Now proponents of mandatory government vaccination argue that parents who refuse to vaccinate their children risk spreading these diseases to the immunocompromised community. There doesn’t seem to be enough evidence of this happening for it to be recorded as a statistic, but it could happen. But if the fear of this is valid, are we to find that next we will be mandating flu vaccine?”

Sen Rand Paul

Lastly, why didn’t Sen Paul find evidence that intentionally unvaccinated kids are spreading disease to the immunocompromised community?

Maybe he didn’t look…

It happens.

Do we need it to happen more often so that it becomes a large statistic before he and others will advocate that folks get vaccinated to attend school?

Do you understand have a better understand now why anti-vaccine folks were cheering after his testimony?

“If you believe in Liberty, that’s fine, don’t get immunized. But I don’t think that you need to necessarily expose others to disease.”

Sen Bill Cassidy

It should give you a better understanding both of Rand Paul’s ideas and those of the anti-vaccine movement.

More on Rand Paul’s Testimony at the Senate Health Committee Hearing on Vaccines and Outbreaks

Can I Get Rotavirus from My Recently Vaccinated Baby?

Your two month old recently got her vaccines, including the rotavirus vaccine.

Shedding Season is not a real thing.
Shedding Season is not a real thing.

Now you have diarrhea.

Was it from shedding from your child’s rotavirus vaccine?

Does the Rotavirus Vaccine Shed?

Like some other live virus vaccines, it is well known that the rotavirus vaccine can shed.

And like with most other vaccines, this shedding isn’t usually a cause for concern and definitely isn’t a reason to think about skipping or delaying your child’s vaccines.

Why not?

“All members of the household should wash their hands after changing the diaper of an infant. This minimizes rotavirus transmission, for an undetermined number of weeks after vaccination, from an infant who received rotavirus vaccine.”

General Recommendations on Immunization Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)

If you wash your hands when you change your child’s diapers after they have been vaccinated, just like you hopefully do anyway, you can avoid any possible contact with any rotavirus vaccine virus that might be shed in your child’s stool.

Can I Get Rotavirus from My Recently Vaccinated Baby?

But what would be the risk of your getting sick if you did come into contact with shedding rotavirus vaccine virus in your child’s diaper?

Would you be at risk to get sick?

Did your baby get sick after getting the actual vaccine?

That’s the thing about shedding that many people don’t understand. These live vaccines are made with attenuated or weakened strains of viruses, so they don’t typically get you sick when you are vaccinated. And they don’t typically get you sick when you are exposed through shedding. In fact, this shedding can sometimes help build herd immunity, as more people get exposed to the weakened strain of vaccine virus.

But can they get you sick?

Yes, if you have a problem with your immune system, which is why there are warnings about giving live vaccines to folks who are immunocompromised. And there used to be warnings about giving the oral polio vaccine to kids if they were around anyone with an immune system problem.

Vaccine viruses could also get you sick if they mutated from their attenuated state and became more virulent. Fortunately, that rarely happens with most vaccines.

“The theoretical risk of HRV and PRV shedding, transmission to, and infection of immunocompromised contacts is much lower than the real risk of wildtype rotavirus infection transmitted from unvaccinated children.”

Anderson on Rotavirus vaccines: viral shedding and risk of transmission

And most importantly, since kids are much more likely to shed virus after natural infections, it is much safer for everyone to get vaccinated and protected with these vaccines.

Surprisingly, even children with asymptomatic natural rotavirus infections can shed virus for several weeks, which is likely why these infections used to spread so easily or without known contacts.

Something that will likely surprise some folks even more is the news that just because someone gets diarrhea after being exposed to the rotavirus vaccine, either because they were vaccinated or through shedding, it doesn’t mean that the vaccine was the cause of the diarrhea!

“Of note, among all six AGE cases which possessed Rotarix-derived strains, four (sample No.1, 5, 6 and 7) were suspected to be caused by other pathogens. Most likely, the infants were infected with other pathogens during the shedding period of Rotarix strain.”

Kaneko et al on Identification of vaccine-derived rotavirus strains in children with acute gastroenteritis in Japan, 2012-2015

When vaccine strain rotavirus have been detected in kids with gastroenteritis, they often have other reasons to have diarrhea.

What does this all mean?

Don’t believe all of the hype anti-vaccine folks push about shedding from vaccines.

More on Shedding and Rotavirus Vaccines

Does the FluMist Vaccine Shed?

Anti-vaccine folks like to talk a lot about shedding.

Where do they get the idea that vaccines shed?

Well, there is the fact that some live vaccines, like the rotavirus and oral polio vaccine, do actually shed.

Does the FluMist Vaccine Shed?

Remember, shedding occurs when an infectious agent, typically a virus, can be found in urine, stool, or other bodily secretions. Shedding is not specific to vaccines though. Shedding occurs very commonly after natural infections too, which is one reason they are so hard to control.

So does the Flumist vaccine shed?

Yes, it does, and it isn’t a secret.

There is actually a warning about shedding and Flumist – to avoid contact with severely immunosuppressed persons (e.g., hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients in a protected enviornment) for seven days after vaccination because of the theoretical risk that their severe immunosuppression might allow the weakened flu strain to somehow cause disease.

This warning obviously doesn’t apply to the great majority of people though.

And it shouldn’t be surprising that it sheds, after all, it is a live virus vaccine that is squirted in your nose!

Why isn’t it usually a problem?

Flumist contains attenuated viral strains of the flu that are temperature-sensitive, so even if you did get infected with the weakened flu strains from Flumist via shedding, they wouldn’t cause disease.

Another way to think about it is that the folks who actually get the Flumist vaccine don’t get the flu, so why would you get the flu if you were simply exposed to the vaccine virus by shedding?

Shedding from the Flumist vaccine doesn't cause disease.
Anti-vaccine folks are sharing this table like they uncovered some secret, but it is important to understand that shedding from the Flumist vaccine doesn’t cause disease. And this table is in package insert for Flumist!

The real concern with shedding is when it leads to folks actually getting sick.

Trying to scare folks about Flumist shedding is just like when they talk about the MMR vaccine, pushing the idea that the rubella vaccine virus might shed into breast milk or measles vaccine virus into urine. Either might happen, but since it won’t cause infection and disease, it certainly isn’t a reason to skip or delay your child’s vaccines.

What to Know About Shedding and Flumist

The Flumist vaccine does indeed shed, but unless you are going to have contact with someone who is severely immunocompromised in a protected environment, this type of shedding isn’t going to get anyone sick and isn’t a reason to avoid this vaccine.

More on Shedding and Flumist

Why Can’t My 9-Month-Old Get the Rotavirus Vaccine?

The rotavirus vaccines are typically given when infants are two to six months old.

The first dose can be given as early as 6 weeks or as late as 15 weeks though.

The rotavirus vaccines are given between 6 weeks to 32 weeks.

And the final dose can be given as late 8 months (32 weeks).

Why Can’t My 9-Month-Old Get the Rotavirus Vaccine?

What happens if your child didn’t get their rotavirus vaccine on time?

While these vaccines are usually given on either a two and four month (Rotarix) or two, four, and six month (RotaTeq) schedule, as you can see above, there is some flexibility in that timing.

Still, the first dose of the rotavirus vaccine can’t be given any later than 15 weeks and the final dose can’t be given any later than 8 months though, so there is no way that a nine-month-old would be able to get vaccinated.

What would happen if your child did?

“Vaccination should not be initiated for infants aged 15 weeks and 0 days or older because of insufficient data on safety of dose 1 of rotavirus vaccine in older infants. The minimum interval between doses of rotavirus vaccine is 4 weeks; no maximum interval is set. All doses should be administered by age 8 months and 0 days.”

Prevention of Rotavirus Gastroenteritis Among Infants and Children Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices

The rotavirus vaccines are only licensed at these specific ages, so were not studied in older infants and toddlers. If your 9-month-old did receive a rotavirus vaccine, it would be considered a vaccination error and should be reported.

So why not study them in older kids?

Since severe rotavirus infections mostly occur in younger children between the ages of 4 and 23 months, it doesn’t make any sense to wait until they are older to get them vaccinated.

“To minimize potential risk of intussusception, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that rotavirus immunization should be initiated by age 15 weeks and completed before age 32 weeks.”

Age restrictions for rotavirus vaccination: evidence-based analysis of rotavirus mortality reduction versus risk of fatal intussusception by mortality stratum

Also, although the risk is low, a small risk of intussusception after getting the rotavirus vaccine is thought to increase with increasing age of the first dose.

What does all of this mean?

It means that you should follow the immunization schedule and get your kids vaccinated and protected on time.

What to Know About Rotavirus Vaccine Timing

Don’t delay getting your child’s rotavirus vaccine or you may not be able to get it at all, as unlike most other vaccines, these vaccines have strict upper limits for when they can be given.

More on Rotavirus Vaccine Timing