Living Healthy in a Toxic World

October 16, 2006

By Julie Deardorff

Flu vaccine shortage: hurrah!

In what is now becoming an annual nationwide event--and something of a joke--we’re experiencing our third annual delay in flu shots for young children, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, which today sent out an alert.

I’m not the least bit surprised or concerned.

As a pregnant woman who is supposed to get a flu shot and the mother of a toddler, who is also supposed to get a flu shot, I’m happy to skip it altogether. Despite what health officials keep saying, I just don’t think the flu is a pressing health issue.

Plus, don't we all know people who get the flu shot and come down with the flu anyway?

Before AAP spokespeople fire off angry letters about how irresponsible I am, consider that I’m hardly alone.

Only about one-third of children between the ages of 6 months and 2 years get a flu vaccination, according to a survey released earlier this month by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the reason is because parents don’t take the flu seriously.

The other reasons we like to avoid hauling our children in for a flu shot--if it’s available--are summarized nicely by my friend and colleague Christi, mother of two:

• I go to the doctor or clinic and wait for-flipping-ever to get in.
• While we’re there, I figure we’re exposed to all kinds of horrible germs anyway.
• It’s hard to find the time in the day to go, and I try to reserve the missed work for occasions that are absolutely necessary.
• There are more pressing reasons to make my kids endure a needle, and so I like to keep them in reserve. (That last one is probably an excuse for not adding one more thing to my to-do list. Still, it’s a factor.)

I’ll add one more:

Until all flu shots are thimerosal-free, I’m staying far away from the vaccines, despite the official government recommendations and my expected social responsibility to keep a germy toddler healthy.

Yes, I know that officially the mercury preservative thimerosal, which has been removed from almost all vaccines, does not cause autism, though plenty of parents with autistic children will beg to differ.

But why take the risk, especially because they can make the flu vaccine without it?

Will you vaccinate your toddler if you can get the vaccine?

Source: Chicago Tribune