By: Christina England, 10/21/2013

If you thought things in the world of vaccines could not get any worse, then you were wrong. Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City has called for a public hearing on Wednesday, October 23, 2013, recommending that all children under the age of five whose parents want them to attend day care facilities be vaccinated with the annual flu vaccination and pneumococcal vaccines before they are accepted.

According to the ‘statement of basis and purpose,’ these vaccines are needed because children serve as a major source of transmission in communities. The statement says: “Influenza causes an estimated 200,000 hospitalizations and an average of 36,000 (range 3,000-49,000) deaths annually in the United States (CDC, 2010). Approximately 20,000 hospitalizations and 30-150 deaths occur in children under 5 years of age each year. Children typically have the highest attack rates of influenza, which can be as high as 40%, and children serve as a major source of transmission within communities. Each year, an estimated 15%-42% of preschool children contract influenza, and 38 million school days are missed due to influenza illness (CDC/ National Center for Health Statistics, 1999).”