Flu shots.
Oct. 15th, 2004 02:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaNormally, I get my flu shot at work. They're eager to vaccinate us because our immunocompromised patients would otherwise be at high risk of catching the flu from an infected employee.
I asked a couple of the nurse practitioners whether we were getting flu shots this year. One of them told me that the patient clinics haven't received any flu vaccine yet. Apparently, there's been some discussion about rationing within the patient population - saving the vaccine for patients with lower CD4+ cell counts.
So I called my primary care provider. They don't have the vaccine, and they're not expecting to get any in. The nurse advised me to call the health department. So I checked the health department website, and discovered that they don't have any vaccine and aren't expecting to get any in. They recommend calling your primary care provider.
I knew my midwife's office wouldn't have the vaccine, but I called to ask if they knew where I could get it. Nope.
Employee Health at the hospital doesn't have it, and won't be getting the injectible vaccine. They might be getting a few doses of FluMist, the intranasal vaccine, which pregnant women can't take.
I knew there was a shortage, but I had no idea it was this bad.
If it were just me, or just me and the Li'l Critter, I'd be willing to take my chances. I mean, if I were to get the flu, the danger to the baby would be either from (1) fever, which can be safely controlled with Tylenol during pregnancy, or (2) dehydration, which can be treated with an IV. The flu wouldn't kill me, and it wouldn't kill the baby.
But if I got the flu, it might kill one of my patients. I'm not being hyperbolic. I have patients whose ability to mount an immune response is damn near zero.
Meanwhile, in![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
childfree, a healthy college student is bragging about managing to arrange a flu shot for herself. I quote: "I'm feeling good about it, because I keep telling myself I'm taking one away from some little brat who really doesn't need one."
I asked a couple of the nurse practitioners whether we were getting flu shots this year. One of them told me that the patient clinics haven't received any flu vaccine yet. Apparently, there's been some discussion about rationing within the patient population - saving the vaccine for patients with lower CD4+ cell counts.
So I called my primary care provider. They don't have the vaccine, and they're not expecting to get any in. The nurse advised me to call the health department. So I checked the health department website, and discovered that they don't have any vaccine and aren't expecting to get any in. They recommend calling your primary care provider.
I knew my midwife's office wouldn't have the vaccine, but I called to ask if they knew where I could get it. Nope.
Employee Health at the hospital doesn't have it, and won't be getting the injectible vaccine. They might be getting a few doses of FluMist, the intranasal vaccine, which pregnant women can't take.
I knew there was a shortage, but I had no idea it was this bad.
If it were just me, or just me and the Li'l Critter, I'd be willing to take my chances. I mean, if I were to get the flu, the danger to the baby would be either from (1) fever, which can be safely controlled with Tylenol during pregnancy, or (2) dehydration, which can be treated with an IV. The flu wouldn't kill me, and it wouldn't kill the baby.
But if I got the flu, it might kill one of my patients. I'm not being hyperbolic. I have patients whose ability to mount an immune response is damn near zero.
Meanwhile, in
childfree, a healthy college student is bragging about managing to arrange a flu shot for herself. I quote: "I'm feeling good about it, because I keep telling myself I'm taking one away from some little brat who really doesn't need one."
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-10-15 12:23 pm (UTC)So, I said...
As opposed to healthy adults, with immune systems fully developed, and who are aware enough to such precautions as basic hygiene and want it to avoid inconvenience?
Lets accept, arguendo, that you're not going to a clinic to take it away from someone who has a compromised immune system, your response... about little brats, and your explation, that your doctor has an eldery/sick client base don't really mesh... because that's one of your doctors patients who isn't getting it. One of those older people, or people with cancer; who might be weakened from chemo.
If you want to be selfish, go ahead, but don't lie to yourself about what you're doing.
I doubt I'm gonna get much love.
TK
no subject
Date: 2004-10-15 01:33 pm (UTC)Aw, Terry, you know you'll always get love from me.
The thing that struck me is how precisely she's projected her own attitude onto others. She justifies her choice with this whole routine about how awful it is that parents will try to get their children vaccinated even though the kids aren't really at elevated risk, and even though it means depriving the elderly and sick.
It's so nice of her to worry about the tiny speck in the eyes of these imagined parents, when she's got that great big beam in her own. Selfless, really.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-15 02:27 pm (UTC)Yeah, but somehow I suspect not from her. Which is fine.
I spotted that too. Maybe, just maybe, she'll take a lesson, but I'm not holding my breath.
Sort of like the idjit in ginmar, who pulled a "prove a negative," and told me it he didn't have the responsibility back his positive case, because that issue wasn't deciding his vote.
He's not gonna like it either.
Been a cranky day. :)
Tk