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An example of how misguided belief is used to generate profit

Girl's Death Moves Parents to Secure New Guidelines

By Susan Levine
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 7, 2006; Page B01

As he waited his turn at the microphone, in an Atlanta auditorium filled with doctors and scientists, Gary Stein wondered whether what he had to say would make much difference. These were the experts, he realized, the people who spend a lifetime studying viruses and vaccines. They already knew all the facts, the statistics.

Still, they didn't know 4-year-old Jessica.

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Doris and Gary Stein read to Katie. On the wall is a painting of daughter Jessica, who died of the flu at age 4.
Doris and Gary Stein read to Katie. On the wall is a painting of daughter Jessica, who died of the flu at age 4. "Not a day goes by that you don't think about what [Jessica] would be doing," Gary Stein said. (By Gerald Martineau -- The Washington Post)
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So Stein began talking, as a father who once had a little girl with hair the color and shimmer of champagne, a child who loved dress-up and Barbies and who was as healthy as they come until the day in January 2002 when she caught the flu. Less than 72 hours later, she was dead. Stein thought he could get through the main points of his remarks without stumbling. But as he stood before the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, explaining how his Falls Church family had been devastated, he choked up.

"Nothing and no one will ever fill the void left by Jessica," Stein told the gathering.

"It hit me pretty hard," he admitted later. It may have hit the experts hard, too.

The next morning, the 15-member committee voted for a surprise revision in national policy: It unanimously recommended that starting this fall, all children between 2 and 5 years old be vaccinated annually against influenza.

The previous recommendation only advised flu shots for children ages 6 months to 23 months and those 6 months and older with chronic illnesses. As long as they are generally healthy, children older than toddlers tend to just get sick from the flu. They go to doctor's offices or outpatient clinics but are seldom admitted to the hospital.

Children still suffer a "substantial" amount of influenza, however, said Raymond A. Strikas, an associate director at the National Immunization Program, which is part of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And that was the major impetus for the committee's decision late last month. Its expanded coverage even includes parents and older siblings, because they also suffer by getting sick themselves or taking time off work to care for ailing youngsters.

All told, nearly 17 million additional people now will be urged to get protection against the flu, bringing the total to more than 120 million men, women and children across the United States.