Pickens County School District Swine Flu Vaccinations

From The Pickens Sentinel:

"... swine flu vaccinations will be offered to students and staff.

The vaccinations will be [free of charge] and administered during school hours, according to Julie Thompson, spokesperson for the school district.

“Since young children have a higher risk of complications from the flu, clinics will begin in the elementary schools,” she said. “Once those are completed, the clinics will move to the middle and high schools.”

School district officials will distribute packets to all elementary schools by today, Wednesday, Nov. 11.

Those packets will include a letter from superintendent Henry Hunt, a letter from DHEC, a parent consent form and a vaccine information sheet, Thompson said.

District health officials are asking that parents complete the consent form, signing in the appropriate place to either give or deny consent for the vaccination.

Parents must return those forms by Monday, Nov. 16, even if they do not want their child to be vaccinated, said Angela Watson, school district coordinator of nursing.

“If each child returns a form, we can be sure that the parent has the information,” she said. “Only children of parents who give consent will be vaccinated.”

Clinic dates have not been set yet because DHEC officials do not know when the vaccine will arrive, according to Thompson.

However, both school district and DHEC officials anticipate the clinics will begin the week of Nov. 30.

Watson said vaccination will not be required for students to attend school.

AT LIBERTY TO SAY COMMENTARY

I have a lot of thoughts on this:

First and foremost, this is an unproven vaccine that has been fast tracked due to paranoia. The vaccination does NOT guaranty that one is permanently immune to this strain. There are multiple strains of H1N1. To put this another way, one could STILL get H1N1 even if they get the vaccine.

Second, I am of the opinion that this is much like a computer virus. I am a Mac user. I do not visit questionable websites that may load viruses onto my computer. I maintain my computer by backing up and optimizing on an almost daily basis. This is a comparison to my life. I eat healthy. I cook the majority of the meals for my family. I make sure they eat healthy. I exercise. I make sure my family exercises and maintains healthy complexions and healthy weights. We stress washing hands and cleanliness in our household.

Third, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. But one could argue Ben Franklin's saying, "An ounce of prevention is a pound of cure." I am of the opinion, and it could be my own paranoia, that this may CAUSE some breakouts. Mass vaccinations WILL cause H1N1 to mutate and become more resistant. It has happened with bugs and pesticides - it WILL happen with vaccinations such as this.

I am in no way recommending that you avoid this vaccination because of some far fetched government conspiracy. If you feel you need it, you should definitely get it. I just recommend that you don't make this a case of Joneses.