Liz SzaboDec 5
Tracy Hoeg: Voting to stop universally vaccinating newborns against hep B vaccine would "put us in line with peer countries." Note: Which peer countries is she talking about? Taiwan began immunizing all babies on first day of life 6 years before the U.S., with huge success. #ACIP
Show threadLiz Szabo
I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this footnote. I’ve never seen anything like it
Dec 5 at 2:02pmWeb
Show threadLiz SzaboDec 5
Tracy Hoeg of the FDA questioned why we should give a baby a blood test before vaccinating them. Says that we don't have a confirmed correlate of protection. #ACIP
Show threadLiz SzaboDec 5
Andrew Johnson of CMS says the proposed voting language would not prevent babies who get federally provided insurance from being covered with no out of pocket costs. #ACIP
Show threadLiz SzaboDec 5
Meissner. The recommendation is that after a series of 3 doses, if a person who has a blood level of this amount, that person is reliably protected against hep B. There has not been a documented case of anyone developing hep B if you achieve this titer. #ACIP
Show threadLiz SzaboDec 5
Meissner: We know antibodies will decline over time but there will be an immune response to a booster in someone who responded and is otherwise healthy. #ACIP
Show threadLiz SzaboDec 5
Meissner: "The fact that hepatitis has not occured in someone who has received the Hep B series is about the best proof you're going to get that the vaccine is effective." #ACIP
Show threadLiz SzaboDec 5
Milhoan: Says he was taught in medical school in 1992 that we vaccinate infants against hep B to provide herd immunity. Note: Doctors tell me that is not true. They say we are trying to save that baby's life and prevent liver cancer, cirrhosis and liver transplants. #ACIP
Show threadLiz SzaboDec 5
Meissner responds to Milhoan. I think we are confusing what we know and what we don't know. A titer of 10 million internationall units within 3 mos after the 3rd dose is sufficient. But is that same titer after a single dose sufficient? #ACIP
Show threadLiz SzaboDec 5
Meissner responds to Milhoan's questions. "The harm is not giving three doses. The harm is not giving three doses as prescribed." #Acip
Show threadLiz SzaboDec 5
Adam Langer from the CDC's hepatitis center: 25% of infants who receive 1st dose have protective titer. But we would be making a really huge assumption that one dose that just happened to get the baby's titer up above 10 is lifetime protective. #ACIP
Show threadLiz SzaboDec 5
Adam Langer: The U.S. is a unique country. Denmark has 6 million people. The population of NYC is 8 million. In Denmark, 95% of pregnant women are screened for hep B. That rate in US is lower. In Denmark, health care for citizens and immigrants is fee. #ACIP
Show threadLiz SzaboDec 5
Adam Langer. Denmark and other high-income counties are not true peer nations. If we have any peer nations, it's Canada. But recent studies in Canada have shown that universal Hep B birth dose is going to be needed to achieve elimination of hep B in Canada. #ACIP
Show threadLiz SzaboDec 5
Langer, CDC scientist and expert on hep B, says Hoeg's comparison of the U.S. to Denmark (where health care is free for everyone) is not a good comparison. #ACIP "Let's talk apples to apples and not apples to oranges."
Show threadLiz SzaboDec 5
Why not just test a baby's blood to see if they are protected? Docs say sll the efficacy trials of hep B vaccines have looked at whether people actually get the virus after vaccination, not just what their blood test says. So we don't know if the blood levels actually work. #ACIP
Show threadLiz SzaboDec 5
Malone: Claims "We face the dilemma of inadequate data." Is he talking about evidence for this new blood test he's proposing? Or for hep B vaccine in general? #ACIP
Show threadLiz SzaboDec 5
Malone says "we are torn" by two conflicting points of view between doing the best thing for the most number of people and making individual decisions. "It reflects a fundamental, frankly philosophical disagreement about the role of public helath in medical practice." #ACIP
Show threadLiz SzaboDec 5
CDC's Adam Langer: "CDC recommendations are our best recommendations at the policy level or at the population level for the entire country. It's simply not possible for us to look at every single individual case and make a decision about what's best for that particular baby" #ACIP
Show threadLiz SzaboDec 5
Langer: "We're saying that at the population level, in the majority of cases, this is what the science shows." #ACIP
Show threadLiz SzaboDec 5
Hibbeln just pleaded to respond to Malone. Malone rasied his voice ad pointed his finger to cut him off, speak over him. HIbbeln protested that Malone let other people talk. Malone spoke over Hibbeln "No, no, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. You're on the queue. You're on the queue." #acip
Show threadLiz SzaboDec 5
Levi: "I don't know what the outcomes of this vote will be. I know what I'm going to vote." #ACIP
Show threadLiz SzaboDec 5
Meissner. Sighs. "First of all there's no question that parents have the key decision making in the administration of vaccines but society also has to make recommendations in terms of an infant who is too young to make decisions for himself or herself." #ACIP
Show threadLiz SzaboDec 5
Meissner. "What we're doing is making a recommendation based on what we know and what we don't know. And we know that three doses given to the existing schedule are safe and are effective in preventing hepatitis B." #ACIP
Show threadLiz SzaboDec 5
Hibbeln: "It's not that I did or did not like decisions on data, and it's not a matter of me liking or not liking. It's a matter of whether there was data presented to evaluate the questions. " #acip
Show threadLiz SzaboDec 5
Hibbeln: Milhoans' comments that babies are different from adults and their blood/brain barrier and immune system. "But it's completely still a hypothesis that this impacts whether a dose should be given before or after 3 months." #acip