When vaccinations number in the hundreds per day and thousands per week, the job probably feels somewhere between overwhelming to impossible. But not for two pharmacists on a mission to somewhere extraordinary.
Despite the $12 billion dollar investment by the federal government for vaccine development and distribution, there is no well-defined, reliable plan to efficiently administer them to the public. Unfortunately, rapid distribution (continue reading →)
This column is in no way intended to suggest the MMR vaccine is an alternative to the COVID-19 vaccine, however for those who are not at the front of the line, the information might be worth a second look. To me, the study findings were so remarkable that I sent my 78-year-old mother to get her first MMR the very next day.
If the FDA signs off on Pfizer’s crowning glory, that leaves every one of us with an important decision to make about our health and our lives. What will it be?
Can We Have a Reasonable Discussion on Vaccines?
In a world where opinion is shaped through social media, a public health strategy based on trying to “educate people” by shoving “facts” in their face when the facts are in dispute is not going to work very well. In reality, it may backfire and produce exactly the opposite result from the one you intended. And that is exactly what is happening here.
So what does this mean exactly? Most likely the mumps portion of the MMR vaccine is less effective in the Marshallese population in particular due to some genetic difference in their immune response. It is also possible this virus is “drifting” by changing a protein here or there or an H or N molecule as similar to the influenza virus. So all in all, there are likely small changes in the natural mumps virus altering the landscape for everyone; however those with Marshallese background are naturally more susceptible.
