Open Thread: To Get the Shot or Not?
By Shelby Knox on Tue, 11/17/2009 - 15:23
So last week, after a marathon weekend of organizing that involved shaking hands with hundreds of people and literally running around DC without a coat or scarf, I returned home with a couple of souvenirs: a high fever, a cough, chills, and the worst body aches ever. I checked my inbox and found an email from someone I’d been working with, announcing the test he’d had done on his similar illness had come back as the dreaded H1N1. Ugh – if nothing else, I’d definitely been exposed to the swine flu.
Now I never bothered going to the doctor to get myself officially counted as a statistic – I’m already counted as one of those under-insured young Americans – but it certainly felt like something new and horrible and dramatic. During my confinement I had a lot of time to read the really scary news articles on the growing numbers of infected and dead from this latest pandemic. The internet makes it really hard to distinguish between actual information and full blown fear-mongering – some “fact sheets” would have me sequestered in my apartment until after Thanksgiving while others suggest bizarre cures that sound more like medieval torture. (I’m sorry – I’m not putting raw garlic up my nose no matter how much you think it kills bacteria!)
So my question now is one that parents across the country are facing: to get the swine flu vaccine or not? While NYC public schools expected an onslaught of parents signing up to vaccinate their children, so far only about 23% actually have. It seems like everyone I’ve asked has an anecdote about a family friend in their hometown who had some sort of horrible reaction to it, from paralysis to loss of motor skills. But almost every public health official claims to the risks of getting the flu far outweigh risks associated with the vaccine.
So a question to our diverse parenting community: are you going to get your child vaccinated for swine flu? Why or why not? What resources are using to inform yourself on this decision?
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Very timely post...
Thanks for bringing up this topic, Shelby. I was just talking with some of my parent friends about this. Out of the three of us, one of us definitely planned on vaccinating, one of us was on the fence, and one of us (me) had decided against it.
I'm a very pro-vaccination parent. But, I'm also very pro getting informed and very, very pro taking the advice of my reasonable and smart pediatrician. When she tells me that she isn't comfortable recommending the vaccine for my daughter, given the lack of long-term studies, I listen up.
Our situation is such that her risk of exposure is (hopefully) limited. She doesn't go to school or daycare, yet. She's past the stage at which she licks the subway. We don't even go out to eat much these days. I feel comfortable with my decision, and I know that I weighed the risks and benefits to get here.
BUT. Parents are made to feel as though they ought to leave no stone unturned when it comes to protecting their children. Pad every corner. Blow on every bite. And, definitely, give every shot. Making a conscious choice to forgo an available protection feels a bit like tempting fate. If Win gets the swine flu, I'll feel like a fool for not getting the shot.
My daughter is one of those kids who slept on her tummy, ate peanut butter before the age of 1, and, no, she didn't get the swine flu vaccine. But I'm not a lax parent, not by any means. I'm just trying to be selectively cautious, and a little more reasonable than the world - into which word I'm sweeping the media, the medical community, and fellow parents - might want me to be.