On Sept. 18, the vaccine advisory committee for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted to change its recommendation on the combined vaccine for chickenpox and measles, mumps and rubella, called the MMRV vaccine. We spoke to experts about claims made at the meeting as well as the implications of the vote.
Speaking before Congress, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. misleadingly claimed that Europe doesn’t vaccinate children against chickenpox because a study shows that when you do, “you get shingles in older people.” While that is a theoretical concern, studies have not borne that out — and parts of Europe do vaccinate kids.
In the midst of a chickenpox outbreak in his state, Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin said that he had not vaccinated any of his children against the disease, choosing instead to purposely expose his kids to an infected person to get the chickenpox — a practice that public health officials say is dangerous.