That is lame I'm afraid.

HERD IMMUNITY IS ALL GOOD AS LONG AS I CAN RIDE ON THE BACKS OF THE HERD

That's incredibly lame. And angry-making.

Wtf.

Free-rider syndrome, much? OUCH.

I wish your kids the best, and hope they're up and causing kid-kinda trouble soon.

The five-year-old's fever abated and returned, but the 12-year-old has had pretty mild symptoms so far.

Shortsighted and rude. What a pleasant combo.

Get the kid vaccinated. I didn't have a voice and was coughing up green slime for six weeks.

brujita, unless I'm misunderstanding this quite terribly, it's craniac's sibling's kid who is unvaccinated, so craniac doesn't have any say over that.

We vaccinated our two non-sick kids today, the day the vaccine arrived. My brother is the one with the unvaccinated one-year-old. Their only child, and he's adopted, and they are very, very protective.

Sorry, impress on BROTHER how important it is to get his kid vaccinated. I'm prone to sinus/bronchitis and this was much, much worse.

It's such a risk. It's really odd to me how people who are (generally) otherwise very skeptical, evidence-based, non-Noodly-Appendage-loving types are suddenly convinced that a century and more of hard medical evidence and statistical argument is meaningless when it comes to their little snowflake. It's a really clear situation: the flu makes people die. Vaccinating people makes less people die. How do you think your way around that obvious fact? Does 1918 really seem so preferable?

A lot of people don't seem to get that the flu makes people die. They think of it as a severe cold that you'll have for a few days. Or that H1N1 is perhaps more likely to make people die than the usual seasonal flu. So that's problem number one.

Yeah, I'm going back and forth with a friend of mine who is an OH SO CONCERNED parent (I shouldn't mock, it's good to be concerned) but she is just nutty about worrying about all vaccines, esp the flu shots. I'm trying to tone down my stridency about vaccinations, because noone likes getting told they are wrong (which she IS, GRAGH) but it's difficult.

Let me preface this by saying I'm chomping at the bit to get my flu shots. After having had the flu the past couple of years and feeling like it was going to kill me, I'm not going to fool around with H1N1.

However, let me also say that I understand the reluctance about having foreign substances injected into the body, with that hint of "we know what's best for you". A leaflet we got from the state told us that some of the vaccines still contain thimerosal, which while it may not be associated with autism (I think I'm beyond the ago for that), I still may not care for the idea of a mercury compound being injected, and whatever marginal effects it may have. It may be harmless as they say, but remember too how medical opinions flip flop so often. Remember how the dental industry defended mercury amalgam to the hilt, until maybe a decade ago, when they stopped, and started suggesting removal of amalgam fillings? Grrrr. Batstards. And don't get me started on the topic of margerine (yes, I am that old).... So there is something of a lack of trust for the authorities telling us that this is unalloyed good.

However, if people start dropping dead in droves, I'd expect even the most hesitant to line up for their shots. But from what little I've heard about the southern hemisphere's experience with H1N1, somehow I'm not expecting that to happen.

Anyway, get yer shots. I am.

And please forgive me for being more verbose than usual. I just got a new keyboard and I'm trying it out...

My wife is one of THOSE people. . .Mothering Magazine anti-whitemansmedicine types.

I can't even talk immunizations to her anymore. Our kid skipped a few as a tot and then had to get them to get into college, much to her disgust (as in why the fuck was this not done when I was young?).

The argument that you are trading the infinitesimal (but real) risk of a serious reaction for a more protected population is hard to make with these people. What happens is that they are shifting this (infinitesimal) risk to others, and probably getting a free ride, if the majority of people around them are immunized.