Today’s blog
Lynn Murphy Mark
Cold and flu season
I am currently manifesting my annual cold and my head feels like it’s full of cotton. The last time I felt this way, in 2022, it wasn’t a cold at all, it was COVID. Not so this time around, at least not so according to one of the test kits that live in the pantry. Now that we’ve re-arranged the shelves I found a bunch of kits that were sent gratis, thanks to the US Government.
I am completely boosted for COVID and up to date on my flu shot. I am also grateful that these preventive measures are available to all. When I was a middle school nurse in New Mexico we were required to administer flu vaccines to our students. Because they are fairly young kids we used the nasal mist version of the vaccine. Every once in a while a child’s parent would ask me to give their child a flu shot instead of the mist. For some reason, if it comes through a needle it gives the impression of being more effective.
Anyway, I would load up my vaccine cart and make the rounds of the classrooms. Armed with the signed permission slips I would be at the door of the classrooms spritzing flu juice up little noses. With some kids, you would think I was a firing squad shooting real bullets at them. The drama was amusing to a point, but when one has 750 cherubs to vaccinate speed is of the essence.
We school nurses were also charged with making sure that students were up to date on their childhood vaccines: measles, mumps, whooping cough, chicken pox, smallpox, tetanus, polio, hepatitis, and HPV and meningitis for a certain age group. The state of New Mexico provided our school district with the vaccines. All we had to do was round up children who were missing some vaccines and get their parents to sign permission slips. The greatest challenge was children who were undocumented, and who had crossed the border without their vaccination certificates. When you’re escaping persecution you don’t always have a chance to pack everything. Those kids had to start over again by receiving the required vaccines as though they were new born babies.
Occasionally there would be an anti-vaxxer parent. They had to provide me with a document from their church stating that it was against their religion to receive vaccines, or a doctor’s note saying there was a medical reason for a child not to be vaccinated. Thankfully there weren’t many of those children. I am a staunch supporter of the value of receiving vaccines thus eradicating many illnesses that used to kill or injure children.
Trypanophobia means “fear of needles”. That may be the case for some people who refuse to take vaccines, but the preponderance of anti-vaxxers are driven by anger, grievance and resentment. The word “mandate” infuriates these people and spurs the development of conspiracy theories – like the one that stated that Bill Gates would be implanting micro-chips in vaccines. A poll of 1,640 people showed that 28% of them, (and 44% of republicans in the group), were on board with the conspiracy theory about Bill Gates arranging for the American population to be injected with mini tracking devices. These numbers astound me.
I read somewhere that in Pakistan, polio has resurged because the Taliban bans aid workers from vaccinating children. Back in 2010, in California, an outbreak of whooping cough happened in groups of unvaccinated children resulting in 10 deaths. Measles outbreaks have happened all around the USA. As it happens, measles is very contagious. Nine out of ten unvaccinated people will contract the disease if they are exposed to a person with the infection.
I know that one can find studies to support any point of view, but I choose to respect the CDC, our public health departments, the National Institute of Health (NIH), and other scientifically based organizations. Call me gullible, but I believe the research. As for my cold, I will be drinking Mucinex with regularity for a few days.