Opinion: My son had rotavirus before he could get the vaccine. Ending universal rotavirus vaccination is a tragedy
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The Department of Health and Human Services has removed the rotavirus vaccine, along with five others, from the list of universally recommended childhood immunizations. This makes the U.S. an outlier<\/a>. According to the International Vaccine Access Center<\/a>, more than 130 countries universally recommend rotavirus vaccination. Globally, the vaccine has the potential to prevent over 100,000 deaths every year.<\/p>\n I am an infectious disease epidemiologist and have spent decades studying diarrheal diseases. I started my career in the U.K., pursing a Ph.D. on the viruses that cause diarrhea, including rotavirus. I know the health impact of these infections on children worldwide \u2014 and I\u2019ve seen it up close as a parent. It turns out that knowledge is not enough to avoid these highly infections pathogens.<\/p>\n