Yeserday, Amy wrote:
>>From:    sargentcolburn
>>Do I know that every year a small handfull of children are made ill
>>by the polio vaccine?  Yup.  Would I get the vaccine for my children?
>>Yup. Is Evan's daughter immunized?  What do you think?
 
>But have any of them been REvaccinated?  No?  Why is that?  That is the
>issue here.
 
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No, nobody gets REvaccinated for polio because it is a one shot deal.
Literally.  One shot at from two to six months of age.  This was
definitely *not* the issue my post dealt with.  My post dealt with the
horrific ignorance that is, paradoxically, the result of many years of
a sucessful childhood immunization program in this country.
 
It is unfortunately human nature to say "Well, I haven't gotten it, I
haven't seen it, therefore it can't be a big deal."  I hear that all the
time at work, from parents that are really angry that the school nurse
is threatening to throw their kid out of school if they don't get their
immunizations.  The parents hope that if I just look a little *harder* at
the kids immunization record, the necessary shot will magically appear,
and they won't have to make an apointment for their kid to get it.
 
They get downright abusive sometimes.  "Mumps never hurt anyone!" (Yeah,
it just sterilizes the occasional little boy, no biggie, Mom.)  "For
christ's sake, I'm busy!"  (So is the hepatitis A virus, but maybe if it
eats your kid's liver we'll just chock it up to natural selection.  The
apple doesn't fall far from the tree.)  These snappy rejoinders do go
through my head, but so far I have managed not to give voice to any of
them.  My favourite, of course, is "Nobody gets that anymore!" (Well,
that could be because of decades of a massive government sponsored
childhood IMMUNIZATION program,in which children are IMMUNIZED against
the illness.)
 
Then there's the really scary one.  "I'll take the risk."  Why scary?
Let's look at that statement.  What it REALLY means, is "I'll let my
minor child take the risk."
 
Alexandra in MA
[Posted in FML issue 4646]