Anti-GM protesters kept from tearing up wheat crop by police

[proverbialwisdom]

20. Another grossly misleading oversimplification. Not up to speed? FORBES on the CDC here.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gerganakoleva/2012/05/11/revised-recommendations-for-vaccines-are-being-phased-in-cdc-report-says/

Revised Recommendations for Vaccines Are Being Phased In, CDC Report Says

5/11/2012 @ 5:01PM |2,312 views

112 comments

Can vaccines be more useful for some people than for others?

Until now, most physicians have recommended immunizations for all infants and children, as well as for adults at various ages who may have missed shots. But new guidelines that take into account the strength of scientific evidence and individual health to determine whether specific vaccines should be recommended or simply optional for patients are being used in medicine for the first time, a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.

The recommendations are based on a framework for evaluating science used by more than 60 major organizations, including the American College of Physicians and the World Health Organization, and will each fall in one of two categories, reflective of evidence that a vaccine is essential to good health. Category A recommendations will include vaccinations considered necessary for all people of a certain age or those who are at an increased risk for contracting a vaccine-preventable disease. Category B recommendations will provide guidance to physicians in the context of individual cases where patients with varying health conditions may or may not benefit from a vaccine.

More.

The new rules are modeled after an existing system for evaluating scientific evidence, called Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE), in which the evidence backing each intervention is ranked according to type and quality. The recommendation categories are based on those rankings. For example, randomized controlled trials, considered the gold standard in generating scientific evidence, are ranked highest and warrant instructions to doctors that a vaccine “should” be administered, whereas clinical experience without consistent results is used for suggesting that a vaccine “may” benefit patients.

The move toward standardizing recommendations is expected to improve transparency, consistency, and communication in the health care setting and between physicians and their patients.

The news update was published this week in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.


Gergana Koleva, Contributor
I write about the intersection of consumer fraud, bioethics and health

Related thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002312035#post101