<p>SLS, a young woman in my dorm died of meningitis a few years back. Literally within a matter of hours. </p>
<p>My dad has had meningitis twice. Once when I was a toddler and once when I was a child. The second was a strain that didn’t get stopped by the vaccination. He caught them both working at a hospital. At the time he was young (20s and 30s) and very healthy (plumber, hockey player, etc). It was scary because it’s not the group you would think has to fear these illnesses.</p>
<p>That is so sad, romani. </p>
<p>Nobody ever thinks of Meningitis until they hear about how truly dangerous it is. It was off my road map as a mother. I didn’t know that much about it till sent S1 to college. Then, I made the younger kids get the vaccine asap!</p>
<p>Also - Meningitis does require a booster depending upon when you take the vaccine.</p>
<p>My children’s pediatrician didn’t recommend the chicken pox vaccine when it first came out because she and the other doctors in the practice wanted to be conservative and wait to see whether vaccine recipients would have adverse reactions. The next year she told us they’d changed their minds after seeing two cases of necrotizing fasciitis (flesh eating-bacteria) secondary to chicken pox in the practice. What she told me about the case she oversaw at the local hospital is too graphic to repeat here.</p>
<p>We waited on chicken pox vaccine for a few years - our pediatrician thought the same thing. Got youngest child vaccinated before preschool attendance. Other kids had to tough it out with chicken pox. One of them had to have his levels for immunity tested, because he had such a mild case as a child. Did that before went off to college. </p>
<p>Chicken pox can be a terrible thing - not just one of those little childhood diseases - but can kill you.</p>
<p>Sue and shellz, your theories are just that. I do have empathy for “the sick”, “the young” and “the troubled”. If you feel that a person not getting a flu vaccine automatically makes them a damned person set out the disease the masses, you can believe that, however foolish it may sound.</p>
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<p>In general, people who don’t get flu shots aren’t deliberately trying to make other people sick. But their failure to follow the recommendations for immunizations does put others at risk, especially those who cannot get the immunization themselves (such as infants under the age of 6 months) or who are at high risk of severe, potentially fatal complications (such as chronically ill or elderly people).</p>
<p>Niquii…I am actually ok with whatever choices you/others make regarding getting/not getting vaccines. I never said otherwise. It’s your rather unsympathetic responses that get me. You say you care for people…your blas</p>
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<p>And now you do know. Not getting vaccinated can put others at serious risk, and you can’t always tell who those people are just by looking at them. </p>
<p>You say you understand this. You say you care about people. So I don’t understand what the problem is.</p>
<p>There are always those folks that brag about never taking a sick day, then going to work or school or the grocery store and end up infecting lots of others, too. A cough, a sneeze can transmit germs, as the act of touching doorknobs and phones and all kinds of things. </p>
<p>Many viruses are active and contagious before we even know we are ill. Incubation periods can be days or even weeks for some illnesses. </p>
<p>A virus may hit one person easy, but a certain respiratory virus goes right into my lungs and I can be sick for weeks. The flu might make one person feel under the weather, and another one will be down for a week. </p>
<p>It isn’t common in our country to see people wearing surgical masks in public, but I have to say a little thank you to those that do this. Maybe they are immuno compromised or have something yucky that is contagious. My doc office makes us wear these in waiting rooms when we have bugs that are active.</p>
<p>And don’t forget the perfect attendance awards at school. I have seen so many sick kids dragging themselves to school when clearly they should be home in bed. Not sure who to blame…the parents for allowing it, or the school for dangling the bait. Ba certificate or cheap trophy is not worth infecting the other kids, or the school staff!</p>
<p>@LasMa There is no “problem”. Sue brought up a scenario in which a cancer patient was behind a non-vaccinated person in the grocery line. Sue said the non-vaccinated person would have never known that their germs had been the cause of the cancer patient’s death. In which I responded that the cancer patient would not have known that the non-vaccinated person’s germs were the cause of their death. The recently infected cancer patient would’ve only known that they had come in contact with the virus. There’s not much to debate over this. Germs can come from anywhere and anyone. </p>
<p>I don’t feel we disagree on this fact.</p>
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I interpreted the past discussion as a hypothetical situation, therefore, I’m assuming the above quote no longer applies.</p>
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<p>This is exactly why I said you didn’t seem to have a good understanding of influenza, its course, how and when it is spread, and variations in individual response. Yet you continued to insist you did all the while making statements which made it clear that you actually didn’t.</p>
<p>It’s one thing to have specific reasons for refusing a vaccine. It’s also another thing to walk around infecting others during the period just before symptoms begin, when one doesn’t know he is sick. But it’s altogether another thing to state that in spite of having what one believes at the time to be the flu, one willfully continues to go about one’s business, probably infecting people right and left who may be far less able to deal with the consequences of this virus. I think it was that just as much as anything else which caught everyone’s attention and gave the appearance that you were being cavalier about the less fortunate and your potential role in adding to their suffering.</p>
<p>I hope that you will decide it’s okay to be wrong, to re-think one’s position, and at the very least, consider that if you don’t get a vaccine and the odds don’t go in your favor, that you will do what you can to safeguard your fellow man who, in spite of looking young and healthy, may actually be vulnerable in a way you cannot fathom.</p>
<p>Thanks to this thread for informing me that apparently I need to get the Tdap vaccine! Noted and I think the local Walgreens has one…hopefully I don’t have the same issue with it that I did with my last tetanus shot (the serum doesn’t agree well with me and the vaccine sits in a lump in my arm for a month or so).</p>
<p>I remember my neighbor having chicken pox and being encouraged to go play with her…guess who had them down her throat and was taking oatmeal baths less than a week later. </p>
<p>In terms of the other ones, I got the HPV vaccine right when it came out and I’ll admit, that’s the most painful shot series I’ve ever had. I got the swine flu vaccine at my university AFTER having had swine flu…misery. Other than that, I tend to avoid the flu vaccine, but I also don’t go to work when I’m sick with anything beyond a cold and practice good disease prevention habits (frequent hand washing/hand sanitization after an illness, coughing/sneezing into an elbow, etc.)</p>
<p>Niquii, so you actually are going to get a flu shot?</p>
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I believe if a non-vaccinated person unknowingly infects someone then, yes, they are responsible for infecting the recently infected person. However, I don’t believe they are subject to shaming or the stigma that they are intentionally endangering people’s lives.</p>
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Please, read the post that preceded your post, Nrdsb4. The statement you are quoting is 1) half of a sentence and 2) in the context of a hypothetical situation.</p>
<p>The point is that the cancer patient is being affected by your choices. The cancer patient has only two choices, a) refuse treatment, maintain a normal immune system and most likely DIE or b) have treatment affecting the immune system and risk becoming deathly ill if others are not vaccinated and become sick (even if they don’t yet know they’re sick.)</p>
<p>I understand and respect that some people make different choices. I have a friend who has chosen not to immunize her children over fears of adverse reactions. I think it’s foolish but we’re still friends. What I think I and other posters are having a hard time coming to terms with is your acceptance of the science behind immunization but your willingness to risk harming others because you happen to have a relatively strong immune system.</p>
<p>I do recommend waiting before getting newly introduced vaccines (other than influenza) because you should make sure they are safe for the general population beyond the clinical sample. And there is a strain of bacterial meningitis not covered by current vaccines. But that strain represents a very small percentage of cases. All of this talk about meningitis reminds me to get my booster soon. Thanks.</p>
<p>Sue, you and other posters have all the right to feel such a way. </p>
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I’m unsure. I might because I am living on campus with large groups of kids. I’ll see how it gets closer to exam time and if large numbers of people are getting sick. I don’t want to get sick; especially, if I’m under prolonged stress.</p>
<p>On another note…</p>
<p>I remember reading a study finding that immunization numbers are highest among recent immigrants. As this is a population that generally has less access to medical care than the general US populace, it would seem counterintuitive. The researchers explained the results thus: In the US many childhood diseases have been largely eradicated so parents haven’t seen the devastation that can come from a bout of diphtheria or polio. These parents may decide that the very low risk of a bad reaction outweighs what they see as a very low risk of contracting a disease. Conversely, people born in countries where such diseases are still common have seen firsthand how debilitating and even deadly such diseases can be and they jump at the chance to immunize their children.</p>
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<p>I think you’ve missed the point of the last two pages.</p>
<p>BTW, you can’t wait until the flu breaks out around you and then go get a shot. It takes several weeks for immunity to develop.</p>