Read some good news today in the Herald online: free swine flu (H1N1) vaccine will be offered to all Miami-Dade county schoolchildren who have parental permission. The vaccinations will be available as nasal spray and injection beginning in mid-October. Broward county schools are also offering free H1N1 vaccinations to all of their public school children. According to WPLG's justnews.com, federal stimulus dollars are being used to cover the cost of the vaccinations.Now, the next obvious question (at least for me): should you get your child vaccinated against the swine flu--is there any danger? I read this interesting post by Dr. Adrienne Randolph from Children's Hospital of Boston. Dr. Randolph has done quite a bit of research on swine flu in children. Ultimately, she recommends getting your kids vaccinated--she will be getting her three children vaccinated. But she does acknowledge that "in 1976-77, with the last swine flu vaccine, as many as 1 in 85,000 people vaccinated came down with Guillain-Barré syndrome — a neurologic condition that paralyzes the muscles, causing respiratory failure. In contrast, there were very few confirmed deaths from swine flu that year." Ummmmmm....SCARY! But she goes on to point out that in her opinion, the swine flu of 2009 is much more serious, damaging, and deadly to children that the previous outbreak in the '70s.
Beyond that, there are folks that fear the vaccination because they feel it has been rushed to market (lack of long-term testing) and are choosing to get their kids the regular seasonal flu shot but not the H1N1 vaccine. Others have heard and are spreading the rumor that the H1N1 vaccination contains squalene--which is not true, according to the CDC. Still others feel that eating healthy foods and boosting the immune system naturally is a better solution than a vaccination that "tricks" the immune system.
Let's be honest, parents today are downright suspicious of vaccines. We're all hesitant to put substances in our children's bodies that may cause them harm, either long term or short term. So as vaccine-shy parents, we're wondering--what is the greater risk, the vaccine for H1N1, or the risk that if our child comes down with the swine flu, he/she could be one of the children seriously affected by the illness, resulting in severe respiratory distress, or even death.
One last thing--when researching this little blog post, I came across a LOT of misinformation on the dangers of the H1N1 vaccine that was pretty well disguised as and presented as fact. Please everyone, remember to read supercritically when you're doing your "research" via the internet. I'd say the best source of legitimate online information about the H1N1 vaccine is the CDC website.
Photo credit: scyza/sxc.hu
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1 comment:
I appreciate your very balanced tone of this sensitive issue. As a parent of a daughter with a medical exemption for vaccines-due to a very serious reaction to the hib (influenza) vaccine as an infant I have been monitoring this situation very carefully. She is also highly allergic to most antibiotics so in our case I often fear the treatment far more than the disease.
I would respectfully disagree that the CDC is the best source for vaccine information as they are hardly impartial and follow the mainstream medical party line of vaccinate vaccinate vaccinate-despite known risks that are often both more serious and more prevalent than the illness itself.
I also think that for those of us in Miami the decision making process is different than someone in Michigan. Swine flu, luckily, has been far less common here than in other states, and as far as I know, far more mild. The virus doesn't survive as well here as it does in a cold, low humidity environment.
I think that for most healthy individuals in Miami(those without compromised immune systems, etc) it is actually less risky to try to avoid getting the swine flu with frequent hand-washing and by keeping sick kids home than it is to vaccinate. Either way, it is a scary choice to have to make and again I appreciate your balanced tone.
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