re than 1 million doses by July 2004, making widespread disruptions less likely. Wyeth, the sole manufacturer of Prevnar, a vaccine that protects against several pneumococcal bacteria, has had problems with supplies of the vaccine for two years.

Children should normally get their first shot of Prevnar at two months, another at four months, the third at six months and the last somewhere between 12 and 15 months, so this recommendation will suspend the third and fourth dosages.

Children with high-risk health conditions such as sickle cell anemia or immune system disorders should continue to receive their complete four-dose series.

Before the vaccine for pnemococal infections became available, there were more than 700 cases of meningitis, 13,000 blood infections and approximately 5 million ear infections among U.S. children and 200 were killed a year. Health officials said that the infections became less common among adults and children in the United States after the Prevnar vaccine was approved in 2000 for infants.

According to data, the number of cases of the disease in adults aged 50 and older dropped 25 percent to 29 per 100,000 in 2002 from 41 cases per 100,000 reported in 1998-1999.

Yahoo! News March 2, 2004

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Dr. Mercola's Comment:

The government gave an update on the shortage of the worthless vaccine Prevnar. A worthless vaccine? Well Prevnar definitely falls into this category. If you’ve read the critical review of Prevnar I posted three years ago, I think you will come to the same conclusion. First and foremost, the vaccine does not work.

First they try to scare you by giving you these statistics:

"Before a vaccine was available, pneumococcal infections caused more than 700 cases of meningitis, 13,000 blood infections and about 5 million ear infections in U.S. children, and killed around 200 a year."

But then in the last paragraph they tell us:

“The number of cases of the disease in adults aged 50 and older fell 25 percent to 29 per 100,000 in 2002 from 41 cases per 100,000 reported in 1998-1999.”

This sure makes it sound like the vaccine works, doesn’t it? Well, let me help you “read between the lines.” If you read the first paragraph again, you will find that 5 million ear infections in children implies that there were also 200 deaths a year in children and 13,000 blood infections in children, however this is not the case. Rather it’s a matter of mixing up statistics to give us the wrongful impression that this is an epidemic affecting our children and the vaccine is the “savior.”

Now read the last paragraph again and concentrate on the part where they seek to confirm the vaccine’s effectiveness. They state that there was a 25 percent reduction of disease since the Prevnar vaccine was mandated for children, but do they cite children’s statistics? No way. They tell us the disease was reduced in adults over 50. What in the world does this have to do with kids getting the vaccine?

Folks, does this anger you as much as me? They try to scare us with 5 million ear infections and imply that the vaccine is the answer. The Prevnar vaccine has never been proven to work for ear infections. Have you ever wondered how this might possibly be related to the fact that the vaccine earns Wyeth, the sole manufacturer of Prevnar, $500 million a year? I really hope they fix their manufacturing problem quickly as I wouldn’t want them to lose any more of the money they are stealing from us.

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