Swine flu is a threat we all know very well. Even if you’re a freshman, you’ve probably heard about the CSULB H1N1, or swine flu, outbreaks. Classes were cancelled, people wore masks and we experienced massive use of hand sanitizer.
Now, we have the option of the H1N1 vaccination. It can be administered via injection or through a nasal spray. If you have a needle phobia, like I do, you will be much happier with the nasal spray. Still, no amount of fear will keep me from being vaccinated.
Isn’t it better to just get vaccinated? Then you don’t have to worry about getting the disease, right? There are some who believe that the risk of side effects from the vaccine is worse than suffering the actual disease.
Recently, Isabella, a 4-year-old Mississippi girl contracted H1N1. She was given medication and sent home with her mother. The medicine made the girl even more ill, so she was taken to a hospital.
The doctors realized she had low oxygen levels and was in more serious condition than originally thought. She was rushed to the nearest pediatric intensive care unit, where she underwent invasive lung surgery to remove scar tissue from a secondary infection.
Her mother was asked if she would immunize the girl’s 2-year-old brother against H1N1. She responded “No.” She is worried about what critics said and it made her nervous.
This is ridiculous. Her daughter nearly died and she won’t immunize her other child because she is “nervous?” That is not a legitimate reason.
I am not a parent, but I cannot imagine watching a child go through such agony. I know it must have been very difficult for her to watch, but why put her son at risk when a simple shot could protect him?
Some parents worry about Guillain-Barré Syndrome, a side effect of the 1970’s version of the H1N1 flu vaccine. It was a dangerous paralysis that occurred in about every 1-in-100,000 persons vaccinated.
There have been many improvements since the 1970’s and this syndrome only occurs in every one-in-1 million cases. While this may be scary to some parents, they should realize there is a much larger chance their child could contract the flu and have complications, than the child having GBS from the vaccine.
There are a lot of arguments that parents should be allowed to decide whether or not to vaccinate their children. I completely agree.
I worry, however, that parents will not research the vaccine. I worry they will listen to what friends say and make quick judgments instead of learning the truth. If, after all of the research they still feel the vaccination is dangerous, they may opt their child out.
But, parents have to ask: Does a small chance of a side effect trump the vaccine’s life-saving potential?
Meg Kolstad is a sophomore communications major and a contributing writer for the Daily 49er.