I agree, which is why my GP knows I want to be updated on all the vaccines available to me as a patient. I rely on him to keep me up to date.
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Whooping cough can be quite miserable for adults, but it can be extremely dangerous to kids. Infected adults, however, can infect kids. My GP informed me it was available, told me it wasn’t strictly necessary or required for travel, but that it wasn’t a bad idea. AFAIK, there’s no particular risk from that vaccine. I can’t imagine why a doctor would deny a patient who asked for it. That actually seems sort of irresponsible from a public health standpoint, unless there was a shortage at the time. But I am not a doctor and every patient has different needs.
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y’all are reminding me I’m supposed to schedule a physical. I’d better ask my doctor what vaccines I can get.
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I had a really interesting conversation with my sister, when her daughter was a few months old. I asked her about vaccines, and she said that of course she’d be getting all her shots. But also, she said that being a new parent is scary, and that she could relate to the emotion of not wanting anyone to stick her baby with a needle, and a vaccine containing stuff she didn’t completely understand.
Her brain said “vaccines are vital for public health and the health of my daughter” but her emotions went the opposite way. Maybe if she was a different sort of person, emotion might have outweighed everything.
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Vinegar isn’t really a disinfectant though, it’ll let staph right through. You can use it as part of your defense, but I wouldn’t only use it and tea tree oil. Some things need to have hydrogen peroxide or bleach dropped on them.
http://www.abc.net.au/health/talkinghealth/factbuster/stories/2012/02/02/3407024.htm
Don’t believe little hippie sites either.
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I also prefer to get them done when I see my doctor, because I trust the staff at Austin Regional Clinic to follow strict sanitation a heck of a lot more than I trust any pharmacy in the far less sterile environment of a corner or general store.
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Yup. This is why, as exhausting and frustrating as I acknowledge it is to fight the malicious misinformation of the charlatans behind the anti-vaxxer movement, we’ll get much further tirelessly educating people who’s fear is misplaced than we will calling them stupid parents.
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I haven’t been around a child since…2004? I don’t know why the doctor said no at the time, but it’s not like I can walk into a drugstore and get this vaccine. All I can do is ask again the next time I see him.
This is part of the problems with the American healthcare system; while some preventative measures are covered by law, many others are not standardized.
But why is there an epidemic in Western Washington?
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I think you just got Poed.
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It is terrifying. You’re usually low on sleep, the kid has been crying, you’re going to have to comfort them after these shots, previous ones probably gave them a slight fever and a red spot, and to top it all off, you don’t like shots much either. I mean, you had a OB/GYN you knew for a while and trusted, but you basically got this pediatrician after you got the kid, how well do you trust them?
And then it seems like everyone is going on about one thing or another leading to give their kid autism, and you have enough shit to deal with already. It’s not going to show up for another few years, and are you going to have to blame yourself for it later? There’s so many other things you feel like are going to have really long term issues that are your fault. The children of thalidomide, wasn’t that some song lyric? It’s the doubt that gets you. The possibility that you could be doing long-term harm when you thought it was helping.
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Climate is conducive to the bacteria in the soil. Plus, we’re very blue over here, and in the wealthy Seattle area, parents think that because they’re rich and send their kids to private school that nothing bad could ever happen to them. We have a school on Mercer Island with an astounding proportion of kids who never got MMR or DTaP or anything. Like over half are unvaccinated. They’re just asking for an outbreak with a bodycount at this rate.
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Agreed. While I’m for general healthcare reform, vaccinations should absolutely be free. It would actually save taxpayers money by preventing the healthcare costs of outbreaks, which are going to be higher among those with less access and therefore more reliant on subsidized healthcare anyway…which, with medicaid being gutted, means emergency room costs. Vaccines not being paid for by taxpayers is both immoral and uneconomical. Unfortunately America shows little sign of dealing with it’s greatest pandemic, Republican politicians and their investor class paymasters.
That said, I’ve heard several recent studies that show vaccination rates are lowest among white middle-class Americans, i.e. the people who can afford to take risks with the health of poorer people’s children without the dire fear that their kid won’t at least be able to see a doctor when they arrive at death’s doorstep.
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Ah, so a lot of anti-vaxxers. Thanks for the health warning. (Maybe I can leverage it for the vaccination? “Doctor, I’m heading to the Greater Seattle area-” “Say no more, I’ve got your Pertussis vaccine right here.”) Also, the vaccination coverage for Pertussis may have changed in the last few years, so it’s worth me asking about.
I don’t blame my doctor because he thought that I was/am an extremely low risk for contracting or spreading pertussis. He has to follow both state medical protocols and my insurance guidelines.
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‘They fuck you up, your mum & dad. They don’t mean to, but they do.’
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Also, there are lots of otherwise intelligent, well-educated people who are totally ignorant of science.
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[quote=“GulliverFoyle, post:52, topic:84367”]That said, I’ve heard several recent studies that show vaccination rates are lowest among white middle-class Americans
[/quote]
In my experience, you know who LOVES vaccinating their children? Those who grew up in areas of the world where they routinely see the very real and deadly consequence of preventable, communicable disease. I rarely have time to even name the recommended immunizations before they’ve agreed.
“You’ve got a fluid-filled syringe with a needle attached? We’re good. Let him have it.”
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That’s OK. My grandchildren will get to use this data to study natural selection. Their grandchildren will, of course, be dead.
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Well they’re in New York and San Fransisco, how much further away could they get!?
(I kid, I kid, us Minneapolitans have to get our kicks where we can.)
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Heartless and macabre, sure, but maybe this whole income inequality thing will be self-correcting after all…
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The victims here aren’t the parents making bad decisions. It’s their children who will suffer for their parents being fools.
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