Across America and within the walls of East, students and parents alike are boycotting vaccines. This is due to the growing idea that vaccinations cause more harm than help, and a plummeting rate in the effectiveness in flu shots.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), three to four viruses are anticipated to be the most common for the upcoming flu season. These are the ones the annual flu vaccine is equipped to protect against.
Last year, the flu vaccine had an overall effectiveness of about 60 percent, because the wrong viruses were predicted. This raised skepticism among many parents. Since many people who have been vaccinated for flu season still get the influenza, ideas spread that the flu shot is hit-and-miss.
Jamie Freeman, a medical assistant at Children’s Pediatrics, is completely for the flu vaccine.
Freeman observed a boost in supply for flu shots this year. The increase is possibly triggered by the amount of illnesses kids have experienced already this fall. Parents normally begin coming in to vaccinate their children towards the beginning of September.
She offers counseling to parents who believe that the health effects outweigh the risk of the flu, or others who avoid the shot due to religious reasons.
“Influenza is deadly,” Freeman said. “Most of the time, when you tell someone it’s a vaccine to prevent a deadly disease, they’ll get on board with it.”
Danielle Voorhies, parent of junior Sierra Voorhies, views this as a form of pressuring her into something she doesn’t want to do.
“The flu is one of those things which is constantly changing,” Voorhies said. “The chances that you actually might catch [the virus] and that you might have been inoculated for the same thing are far remote.”
Voorhies believes that the negative consequences for vaccinating children for flu season outweigh the positive. Her main oppositions to vaccinating her children for influenza are the numerous side effects it may include. They range anywhere from aches and pains to Guillain Barré Syndrome, which causes temporary paralysis, according to the CDC.
“A couple decades ago, you went into the doctor, the doctor told you something, you said it was gospel, it was law, and you lived by it. That was it,” said Voorhies. “Now you go home and do some research. You weigh the risks, and decide for yourself.”
Freshman Willa Wimmer thinks of not vaccinating as selfish to the general public. She doesn’t believe that there’s any reason not to, as long as it doesn’t affect peoples’ health in a negative way.
“You can’t depend on other people not to have the [virus] so you don’t get it,” said Wimmer. “Some people have the virus in them and they build immunity. Other people don’t necessarily have that immunity.”
Wimma has an aversion to needles and near-panic attacks preceding shots. For kids who don’t do well with shots, there is the option of a nasal spray flu vaccine instead.
Studies by the CDC show it’s more effective against fighting the influenza in minors than the actual flu shot.
The question among parents as to whether or not all of this is necessary, still persists.
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