Parents as Protectors

America is obsessed with medical autonomy. Everyone feels entitled to make decisions about their own health. While I agree everyone should have control over their own bodies, there is a gray area. Children. The current standard gives parents great range in what they can have done or what they can decide to withhold in terms of health care. Vaccines always come up as a hot topic. While the majority of parents adhere to the accepted standards of immunization there is a small, but vocal minority who objects to vaccination.

An advisory panel on Wednesday recommended all kids up to age 18 get the flu vaccine. Though the vaccine is already recommended for those 6 months to 5 years old, this new proposal is a huge expansion, affecting nearly 60 million kids. The expanded recommendation is an initiative by the CDC to protect the entire population. Children are one of the major sources of flu in the community. School aged children pick it up, pass it around, and then bring it home. Everyone has had the flu, and while it may have been terrible it was transient, so it is hard for people to take it seriously. But in reality, people die from the flu every year, children and the elderly are particularly susceptible. Vaccines, like all things, have risks. But they are very minimal and less severe than the flu. Obviously people with reactions to a previous flu vaccine, those with contraindicated disease state (GB syndrome), or certain allergies (for example eggs since the vaccine is grown in eggs) should not get the vaccine but in general it is a harmless vaccine.

With all the fear mongering of pseudo scientific studies (like the joke of a paper that tainted MMR by suggesting a correlation with autism), old world views of medicine, and popular misconceptions it can be tough for a parent to find the truth about a particular vaccine. So who really is better qualified to determine if your child needs a certain vaccine? The doctors that have years of training to understand the risks/benefits and wade through the abundance of misinformation or parents who may or may not be fully informed on the topic or who may be prejudiced by misinformation? To me the choice is obvious. I don’t want your 9 year old little Johnny vaccinated because I care if he gets sick, I want him vaccinated to protect the newborn he saw, the grandparent he hugged, the kid who’s toy he shared, and community he lives in.

When you decide to not vaccinate your child, you put everyone’s children at risk.

 

Damn Its Cold

Remind me not to visit Minnesota any time soon.

The temperature in International Falls, Minnesota, fell to a record 40 below zero Monday, just a few days after the northern Minnesota town won a federal trademark making it officially the “Icebox of the Nation.”

Not that Philly wasn’t at least a little chilly today.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, had a “Code Blue” alert in effect, sending outreach crews to coax homeless people into shelters. Monday’s low was 10 above zero.

Read More About the Cold Weather

Crazy for Christmas

While its normally against my no lame-old-people -TV policy, I might have to check out HGTV tomorrow night.  Sunday, Dec. 9, @ 9 they are airing a special “What’s With That Decked Out Christmas House?”  I love insanely decked out houses.  I think its great if someone want to be that excited about the holidays.  Plus as a kid, those lights meant Christmas was soon, so it attaches an emotional significance.

“What’s With That Decked Out Christmas House?”
It’s a holiday twist on the series, What’s With That House? Every neighborhood has one … the house that just doesn’t fit in. And for the holidays, these houses actually go out of their way to stand out! What’s With That Decked Out Christmas House? has host George Gray taking viewers behind the closed doors of the most-talked-about houses in the neighborhood to meet the characters who live there and check out their unique take on holiday decorating.