The Scarlet Letter

I hate this time of year: flu season. And not for reasons you think. I am in a small minority of health care people who doesn't agree with the whole flu shot for whoever can get their hands on it frenzy. I just received an email from my daycare provider encouraging all parents to get not only the flu vaccination, but the H1N1 vaccine as well. Every year, the infection control nurse has a list and "you don't want to be on it" she threatens every year. Yeah, basically threatening people if you don't get immunized. Ridiculous. If you believe you need the vaccine to protect you or your kids, fine! Don't tell me I am a lesser person cuz I don't get it. I believe there is something to be said about natural immunity. If a person has a medical condition/disease, I completely agree with vaccinating that person. But it isn't necessary for a healthy person in my opinion. We could immunize ourselves to the point where a little head cold could become deadly if we keep this nonsense up. Frankly flu's are viruses and nothing works against them but good old fashion R & R. And DO NOT tell me by vaccinating myself I am protecting others. If this is the pathetic theory we're going with, why not vaccinate against staph infections, pink eye, stomach viruses? We are walking petri dishes, carrying millions of different bacterias and viruses on us all the time. Anyone is susceptible to contracting something at some point. I also go by personal experience. I worked at the Billings Deaconess Hospital for a few years. One fall/winter I think every room we had was filled up with people who had influenza. I had not gotten a vaccination that year and never did get sick. I was in and out of these rooms all night. Obviously, we had precautions in place and they worked! I did get the vaccination awhile back and I got sick! Doctors and public health nurses tell you this is not the case, but in my experience it is. I think, for me, natural immunity was better than the "dead virus" inside of me. It's a personal decision, and it should be left at that. You won't start a holocaust if you don't get the flu shot! Everyone will get sick and everyone responds differently to the same strain. In fact, I have a bit of the sniffles right now. This H1N1 thing has sent people into a frenzy, OVER THE SNIFFLES. I don't think it's a government conspiracy, but I do question the amount of attention to this particular disease and how quickly a vaccine for it has come out. Pushing a brand new vaccine on worried parents is almost criminal. What are the long term effects of this vaccine? I have had a few parents just worried sick over this and what to do. Was there a similar situation with the bird flu? Not that I can recall. It's the FLU, people, the FLU. Let's worry about bigger issues, like cancer and genetic disorders. Sorry to rant, but enough already. Anyway, now if you see me wearing a scarlet letter, now you'll know what it's for... *hint,hint*