Vaccines and the power of retail

[marydell]

Most of you probably know that I'm very pro-vaccine. In particular, I personally love the flu shot and want everyone to get it, since Charlie is allergic to the egg it's cultured in and therefore has to rely on herd immunity to avoid flu (he gets all the other vaccines), and this is most likely true of other members of our particular herd, as well as our larger community, nation, and so forth.

So I'm enjoying seeing how pharmacies and stores with pharmacies in them are flagrantly pimping the flu shot.  A few weeks ago at Jewel (the leading big grocery around here) I was buying apples. There was a sign by the apples saying "an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but a flu shot will keep you healthy all year! Available in the pharmacy!"  And today at CVS the red-light-bulb sign outside was showing "get a flu shot and receive 10% off your entire CVS purchase!"

I feel hopeful that the power of retail pushiness is one thing that can overwhelm the power of Andrew Wakefield's lies (thanks to haddayr for the link).  I really look forward to a day when not getting a flu shot in the fall is looked on as the risky choice.  I also look forward to a day when kids are no longer dying of whooping cough--you know, like the good old days back when I was a kid and we talked about stuff like the possibility of eradicating the classic infectious diseases, instead of talking about containing them like we're doing now.  But that may be too much to hope for, until WalMart opens a pediatrics clinic, anyway.

Comments

[jenett]

I'd been thinking about that. (I drive by the Walgreens which has a large sign outside advertising them all the time.)

I usually get one, and made an exception this year because adding more stuff to the over-complicated health recovery has not seemed the smartest move. (And in specific, I'm trying to do stuff that reduces inflammation, since I'm experimenting with how that affects some of the minor-but-tedious symptom stuff.)

(Plus, since I'm basically going out for Feldenkrais sessions, grocery shopping, picking up books on hold at the library, and to see people who will cancel if they feel sorta sick, my chances of picking anything up are pretty low in the first place, and the chances I'd pass it on before noticing symptoms are even smaller.)

But if someone hires me within flu season, I will be going and getting one the next day, and coping, because herd immunity is a most excellent thing indeed.

[marydell]

That sounds like an excellent plan. And, FWIW, chronic inflammation and the need to avoid same strikes me as a perfectly sensible reason not to get the shot, (as long as you're not high-risk for respiratory problems)--like allergy or other real conditions. The reasons that make me go "whuh?" are 1. the shot gives you the flu! 2. It's just the government trying to get your money (said by someone I work with; our company gives us the shot for free). 3. Thimerisol=autism! 4. I don't get the flu very badly so it's no big deal (said by someone with elderly parents).

[trinker.livejournal.com]

From your mouth, to the Ineffable...I wish that it may be so.

[unhappytriad.livejournal.com]

It's pretty discouraging how many of my patients don't get the flu shot because they don't believe it works. They know one person who got the shot one year and then got the flu anyway and that's it--they're convinced it's a useless scam.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

All hail retail, then! I certainly hope with you.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Our Walgreen's makes us listen to a brief ad for flu shots before renewing any prescription by phone.

I would be more annoyed by this, except their slogan is, "Arm yourself for the ones you love!" So it amuses me mightily. "Here I am with my quarterstaff for my grandma, and my poisoned dagger for Auntie Ellen, and...."

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Having been that one person one year, I get my flu shot each year anyway. I know it doesn't provide 100 percent protection but simply reduces the odds considerably. Ever since I started getting immunised against influenza I've gone through most winters without getting the flu (except for 2009, when I came down with the flu on the same day that 70 of my colleagues were laid off).

[pnkrokhockeymom.livejournal.com]

I agree with this post SO HARD it is almost like exercise.

[ckd]

Yeah, they're really selling it hard around here too.

It doesn't matter to me, though; my employer does a flu shot clinic so you don't even have to go down the street to the pharmacy. (In my case I got mine at the doctor's office, but I was there for a regular visit anyway.)

[marydell.livejournal.com]

I get mine for free from my employer as well.

This doesn't stop one or two coworkers from saying that the whole thing is a scam by the government to make money.

[(Anonymous)]

I too have had the shot and gotten the flu the same year (last year in fact). But I have a general grasp of the process: each year's vaccine contains only the 3 strains they guess will be the most common, and sometimes they guess wrong. That is apparently more information than some folks are prepared to grapple with.

[unhappytriad.livejournal.com]

grr...anonymous reply was me.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

That makes no sense.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Presumably a scam involving an elaborate medical manufacturing process is simpler than raising taxes in our current political climate.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Hee! That's awesome!

Phone thingies that force you to listen to ads are extremely extremely annoying.

[raqs.livejournal.com]

I just can't even believe in this day and age there can or should be such a thing as "pro-vaccine".

can you imagine our great-grandparents being asked if they'd like to have fewer people and kids dying from preventable infectious diseases? can you imagine the looks on their faces as they said "WHY IS THAT EVEN A QUESTION??"

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Although anti-vaccination movements are as old as vaccination/innoculation itself, so some of our great-grandparents may have had qualms about it. Before the false link to autism was popularized and thereby became the standard reason to refuse vaxes, I would encounter people online who thought their children would develop stronger immune systems if they weren't interfered with and were allowed to experience the classic childhood diseases. I think the only answer to that is "probably true, for your surviving children."

I don't think vaccines are all perfect, and some people do have bad reactions to some vaccines--deadly reactions, sometimes. But a lot MORE people have deadly reactions to the diseases that are prevented by vaccination.

[raqs.livejournal.com]

Yeeaaahhhhh.... my grandmother would say that people who were against vaccines in those days would most likely be referred to as "crazy people".

Possibly "stupid people".

Certainly not a respectable-sounding "anti-vaccination movement"! :-)

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

I got mine at CVS, and they took my insurance, so it was FREE; I discovered that their clinic won't do under-18s, so I made an appointment with our regular doctor for the teenager.

Who hates shots. And I said, "This is NOT OPTIONAL. You have had the flu the last two winters running, and because you're susceptible to bronchitis you missed TWO WEEKS of school each time, and this is NOT HAPPENING this year. Your arm will probably be sore for several days. Mine was. SUCK IT UP AND DEAL."

I also had to point out to the teenager that HPV strains can be carried on people's HANDS, so Gardasil was NOT OPTIONAL either.

[ljmouse.livejournal.com]

I know someone who had cervical cancer at 22 -- she'd married her high school sweetheart at nineteen. Turns out he'd been cheating on her. She'll never have kids.

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

Ouch. The kid professes a lack of interest in penetrative sex generally (which seems to go along all of a piece with body, orientation, and identity ideas), but I just said "Fine. IN CASE you change your mind, or in case of unforeseen untoward incidents? YOU'RE GETTING THE SHOTS."