"The face that helped alter the nation's flu policy"

While RFK Jr. decries last month's ACIP recommendation to expand flu vaccination to include children between 6 months and 5 years (yes, because of thimerosal), today's Washington Post presents the sad story of the family of a 4-year old girl who died from influenza, prompting her parents to advocate for wider vaccination. An excerpt...

"As he waited his turn at the microphone, in an Atlanta auditorium filled with doctors and scientists, Gary Stein wondered whether what he had to say would make much difference. These were the experts, he realized, the people who spend a lifetime studying viruses and vaccines. They already knew all the facts, the statistics.

Still, they didn't know 4-year-old Jessica.

So Stein began talking, as a father who once had a little girl with hair the color and shimmer of champagne, a child who loved dress-up and Barbies and who was as healthy as they come until the day in January 2002 when she caught the flu. Less than 72 hours later, she was dead. Stein thought he could get through the main points of his remarks without stumbling. But as he stood before the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, explaining how his Falls Church family had been devastated, he choked up."

Very sad, but a must-read. Reading it side-by-side with RFK Jr.'s piece, it's hard to believe both authors are discussing the same decision by the same group about the same vaccine. (Without wading too far into the murky depths of the thimerosal debate, it's worth noting that central to earlier arguments about its safety were concerns about the total amount of thimerosal administered from all vaccines together. Now that flu vaccine is the only pediatric product containing it, the position seems to be that any thimerosal is unacceptable.)

One can assume that Jessica's story alone did not persuade ACIP to change the flu vaccine recommendation, but, amid debates and controversies, it reminds all of us of the real-life consequences of infectious diseases and immunization policy.