I hate having to defend the NHS, but this article is rather misleading. The Meningitis B vaccine was only approved a year or two ago and it takes time to ramp up production. With any new vaccine, it takes years to produce enough to vaccinate everyone, so the NHS had to decide who would be vaccinated first. Their decision was to limit it to the smallest babies.
BUT: In the USA, the FDA made a quite different choice: they approved the vaccine for 10 to 25 year olds, which I think is the age group most at risk for meningitis. College medical clinics are pressing students to get vaccinated:
One agency or the other must be prioritizing this wrong, and (for once) I don't think it's the FDA. I'm no expert, but logically I would expect college freshmen to be exposed to many more bacteria than babies a few months old. I fail to see the logic behind the British decision - but note that the toddler in this article would not be vaccinated according to either policy.
In the USA, priorities are also set by ability to pay: the two shots together cost $370. Now that I've heard about this, my teenage grandkids will be getting shots soon, whether insurance pays for it or it comes out of my pocket. But a lot of families couldn't come up with the cash, including many with higher incomes but worse spending habits.
Is the cost also a factor in the NHS's limits? The shots are available for cash in clinics in the UK, so the NHS didn't buy out the entire supply.
2 comments:
canadian is no better northern border hospitals get lots of canuks looking to jump the line by "gasp" paying for care. personal observation not rumor
I hate having to defend the NHS, but this article is rather misleading. The Meningitis B vaccine was only approved a year or two ago and it takes time to ramp up production. With any new vaccine, it takes years to produce enough to vaccinate everyone, so the NHS had to decide who would be vaccinated first. Their decision was to limit it to the smallest babies.
BUT: In the USA, the FDA made a quite different choice: they approved the vaccine for 10 to 25 year olds, which I think is the age group most at risk for meningitis. College medical clinics are pressing students to get vaccinated:
http://studenthealth.sa.ucsb.edu/services/medical-services/meningitis-b/new-meningitis-b-vaccine/meningitis-b-vaccine-faqs
One agency or the other must be prioritizing this wrong, and (for once) I don't think it's the FDA. I'm no expert, but logically I would expect college freshmen to be exposed to many more bacteria than babies a few months old. I fail to see the logic behind the British decision - but note that the toddler in this article would not be vaccinated according to either policy.
In the USA, priorities are also set by ability to pay: the two shots together cost $370. Now that I've heard about this, my teenage grandkids will be getting shots soon, whether insurance pays for it or it comes out of my pocket. But a lot of families couldn't come up with the cash, including many with higher incomes but worse spending habits.
Is the cost also a factor in the NHS's limits? The shots are available for cash in clinics in the UK, so the NHS didn't buy out the entire supply.
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