An update on my Hepatitis B vaccine post from a few days ago.
On NPR this morning, I heard a doctor explaining more about the HepB vaccine.
During the bizarro Trump/Kennedy autism press conference earlier this week— which I did not listen to in order to preserve my sanity — I guess Trump also called for the HepB vaccine to be delayed until children are 12 years old! Because, he thinks, the disease is only sexually transmitted.
I had not heard he said that in any of the coverage. That's so much worse than the one-month delay the CDC panel had been discussing.
According to the doctor who spoke on NPR, half of the 20,000 annual cases that used to be routine (before the HepB vaccine) were transmitted from mother to child, but half were from other transmission. The virus can stay alive on surfaces up to seven days, so if a child with an open cut on their skin comes in contact with it, they can be infect.
Kids got infected at child care, through contact with another child during sports, and in other ways.
25% of kids who got HepB died, and the others lived with serious illness. That's what Trump wants to return to.
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