Los Angeles Times Health

Advisory on more kids’ flu shots spurs questions

In a study based on the 2003-04 flu season — one that influenced the new recommendation — CDC researchers reported on details of 153 pediatric deaths from flu. Of those, 16 children would have been newly covered by the recommendation — that is, they were older than 5 and did not have a chronic health condition. Arguing that this number of deaths is greater for flu than for other diseases for which we have vaccines, the authors of the study called for expanding vaccination in children.

Other experts disagree. They point out that 18 of the deaths in that study were in children younger than 6 months — a group in which vaccination is not recommended, either now or in the new recommendations. And 12 of the 153 children had been vaccinated, yet they still died.

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