Harvard Vaccination Guru Speaks Swine

Still confused about whether the swine flu vaccine is safe?

Don't know whether you should be vaccinated?

Here's an interview published in today's Boston Globe with Dr. Marie McCormick, professor of maternal and child health at the Harvard School of Public Health and the lead advisor on an expert committee that reviewed data related to the safety of the swine flu vaccine.

In response to whether she will get vaccinated, McCormick said, "When it becomes available, I will certainly have it. I do see patients in the fall, and all my patients are younger than 3, so it’s really both for their protection and mine."

Gender and the HPV Vaccine

I need to take a minute to post about a non-school-health related topic: a recent study published in the British Medical Journal concluded that vaccinating males against HPV is not cost-effective. News outlets everywhere have reported on authors' conclusions.

However, are the underlying framework and assumptions of the study authors misguided?

William Saletan published a provocative (go-figure) post on Slate.com on the topic, and I think it is right on. If you have any interested in gender disparities and gender norms this is a very, very interesting topic right now!

Just as a refresher: the vaccine was developed and is currently being used to vaccinate girls. Check out a previous VH post on the male/female controversies of the HPV vaccine that I published earlier this year.

Mandated H1N1 Vaccination: Right or...Oh, so Wrong?

A good friend and former colleague inspired this post (thanks Joanne) after realizing how media attention to mandated H1N1 vaccination among health workers has grown in the past few weeks. NPR, Time, the New York Times, ABC News all are covering what is an unprecedented move to require health care workers to be vaccinated against swine flu.

While many hospitals and clinics are requiring employees to get vaccinated, the state of New York is requiring all health care workers with patient contact to receive the H1N1 vaccine or face job loss; resistance to this mandate among health care workers has been overwhelming. Fear of side effects and privacy issues top health workers' concerns. However, an August poll shows a vast majority of the public to be supportive of these vaccine requirements among healthcare employees.

There seem to be several streams of thought regarding this issue:

1. Vaccination of all health care workers is needed to protect the public against swine flu spread by providers who come into contact with sick patients
2. Mandatory vaccination is needed to protect other patients in the hospital setting with compromised immune systems (meaning they easily can come down with an illness, like the flu).

But many nurses object, saying that they have never gotten flu in past seasons, so why now? Why this flu shot? Additionally, opponents to mandatory vaccination highlight the fact that the vaccine is not effective 100% of the time. Nurses also worry about the potential side effects of vaccination, particularly whether it would cause them to get sick with the flu.