Anti-vaxxers

lurkergirl · September 2014

AuroraRose41 said:

I don't frequent this board often, but this post and all other anti-vaccine movements make me want to throw things at these idiots. I almost died 3 years ago because of this idiotic movement, and I most likely have permanent lung damage according to multiple pulmonologists due to a severe case of whopping cough as an adult. I was a long distance runner before getting sick, and now I can't even run a mile without breaking out into a coughing fit.

I went to college in a small town in the middle of no where, and I am pretty sure that many of these anti-vaccine people sent their kids to college there or lived in the town (huge Amish population as well). The doctors kept misdiagnosing me because I had my booster shot a year before, and kept saying that it couldn't be whooping cough. Until I ended up in the hospital, for a week, and they finally tested me for it, and it came back positive. I have read some studies that the pertussis virus that we are vaccinated against can mutate in people who aren't vaccinated, so then the mutated virus can make vaccinated people very ill as well.

I remember having one coughing fit so severe while in the hospital that I felt myself turning blue because I couldn't catch my breath. I kept hitting the call button in the room for nurses/doctors/etc to come, and they weren't coming fast enough. I thought I was going to die that night, but right before passing out from lack of oxygen the coughing stopped and I caught my breath. Only then did the nurses show up. That's not something that I would wish on my worst enemy normally, but these idiots fully deserve it.

I really hate that you went through that. But I clicked "love it" because I love that you are sharing a real-life story of the horror that these people cause with their selfish decisions. And you were (presumably) a healthy, strong, adult. Imagine the consequences for a 6 month old baby?

jerkyanne · September 2014

Http://howdovaccinescauseautism.com -seriously click this.

This to topic is probably the only parenting topic that makes me call other parents fucking morons. As a scientist it makes me sooooooo fucking angry.
And if you are one of the Nurses against Vaccinations, you deserve to lose your license and to contract the diseases you make children get.

AuroraRose41 · September 2014

@lurkergirl thanks. It was not a pleasant experience, and I couldn't imagine a baby going through it. I was a mostly healthy, strong adult. I say that because I do have a minor bleeding disorder that does compromise my immune system (a cold for me is as severe as the flu for anyone else; the flu would send me to the hospital), but other than that, yes, I was a long distance runner in the best shape possible before this.

My BF thinks that you should have to apply for a parenting license to have kids, and I couldn't agree more when I see people who are this stupid with putting their kids and other kids in so much danger.

theartistformerlyknownas · September 2014

A friend of mine had a brilliant idea. She took this pic off Cracked, cropped out their logo, and plans to pass it out so all the paranoid idiots do an about-face.

Some things, I'm all about letting your immune system do its job. I've never had a flu shot, and am all about letting otherwise healthy kids get chicken pox. But the rest... just no words for how stupid these people are. EVEN IF vaccines caused autism, I'd 10000000x rather have a living child with autism than a child killed by the measles.

short+sassy · September 2014

@AuroraRose41, wow that is scary! And hear I thought I was at least safe because I have all my vaccinations...or at least all the ones that existed when I was a kid. The chicken pox one came out long after I had caught it as a kid anyway.

Love your gif, lol. That would so be my dog. Wiping out and then deciding that lying on the floor still chewing on her ball was pretty awesome anyway.

JCbride2015 · September 2014

Is it true that the chicken pox vaccine would also protect against shingles? I had chicken pox as a kid (along with my whole first-grade class AND our young teacher who'd never had it before). It wasn't that bad. But I've heard the vaccine not only protects against chicken pox, but then because you've never had chicken pox, you also can't get shingles. That to me would be a reason to vaccinate my kid. Shingles sucks.

PrettyGirlLost · September 2014

southernbelle0915 said:

MagicInk said:

So I was just texting my mom and apparently when I was a wee baby one of my dad's cousins wanted to bring her baby to meet me. Now I was a preemie and had only been home from the hospital for a week. And cousin was apparently anti-vax and her baby was a little over a year old. And in daycare. So basically she wanted to bring her un-vaxed kid who'd been out and about with other kids to come play with the just home from the hospital premiee.

My mom, who was a big fan of keeping me alive, said hell to the no. I could meet them once I could get my vaccines. Which set off cousin. First she shouldn't pump all those chemicals into, I was too small to handle them. Second, how dare she insinuate she was a bad mom. And third her baby was healthy because of herd immunity and he would help me stay healthy.

I can't with people who get soap boxy when every shred of legit medical evidence says "NOOOOOOO". Like, knock it the fuck off.

I also don't understand how these people believe what they're saying. On a real serious note, I think it's very scary how easily influenced people are... Like really scary.

Human stupidity knows no bounds.

We all should be afraid.

PrettyGirlLost · September 2014

jerkyanne said:

Http://howdovaccinescauseautism.com -seriously click this. This to topic is probably the only parenting topic that makes me call other parents fucking morons. As a scientist it makes me sooooooo fucking angry. And if you are one of the Nurses against Vaccinations, you deserve to lose your license and to contract the diseases you make children get.

Let's start a Scientists Against Fucking Stupidity movement. . .

AuroraRose41 · September 2014

@short+sassy I thought the same thing before actually getting whooping cough. I was also shocked when the doctors finally confirmed that it was indeed whooping cough.

That gif makes me laugh every time I see it, and I mostly come on TK when I am bored or stressed out and in need of entertainment, so at least I can laugh at that if the boards are boring that day

. Also, I want to meet your dog now!

theartistformerlyknownas · September 2014

JCbride2015 said:

Is it true that the chicken pox vaccine would also protect against shingles? I had chicken pox as a kid (along with my whole first-grade class AND our young teacher who'd never had it before). It wasn't that bad. But I've heard the vaccine not only protects against chicken pox, but then because you've never had chicken pox, you also can't get shingles. That to me would be a reason to vaccinate my kid. Shingles sucks.

No, you can get shingles even if you've never had chicken pox.

PrettyGirlLost · September 2014

lolo883 said:

JCbride2015 said:

Is it true that the chicken pox vaccine would also protect against shingles? I had chicken pox as a kid (along with my whole first-grade class AND our young teacher who'd never had it before). It wasn't that bad. But I've heard the vaccine not only protects against chicken pox, but then because you've never had chicken pox, you also can't get shingles. That to me would be a reason to vaccinate my kid. Shingles sucks.

No, you can get shingles even if you've never had chicken pox.

No, I don't believe this is correct.

Shingles is herpes zoster. You get it by being infected initially with Varicella zoster virus, which causes chickenpox in children.

Like any herpes virus, once you have it and recover from it, it will remain dormant in your body for the rest of your life and will tend to flare back up in some form when you are stressed, immunocompromised, etc. As an adult it flares up as Shingles.

So everyone who had chickenpox at one point intheir life is at risk for a Shingles outbreak, and you have had to have a chickenpox- or tvaricella zoster virus- infection 1st in order to develop Shingles.

theartistformerlyknownas · September 2014

PrettyGirlLost said:

lolo883 said:

JCbride2015 said:

Is it true that the chicken pox vaccine would also protect against shingles? I had chicken pox as a kid (along with my whole first-grade class AND our young teacher who'd never had it before). It wasn't that bad. But I've heard the vaccine not only protects against chicken pox, but then because you've never had chicken pox, you also can't get shingles. That to me would be a reason to vaccinate my kid. Shingles sucks.

No, you can get shingles even if you've never had chicken pox.

No, I don't believe this is correct.

Shingles is herpes zoster. You get it by being infected initially with Varicella zoster virus, which causes chickenpox in children.

Like any herpes virus, once you have it and recover from it, it will remain dormant in your body for the rest of your life and will tend to flare back up in some form when you are stressed, immunocompromised, etc. As an adult it flares up as Shingles.

So everyone who had chickenpox at one point intheir life is at risk for a Shingles outbreak, and you have had to have a chickenpox- or tvaricella zoster virus- infection 1st in order to develop Shingles.

Correction: you can get the chickenpox virus from someone who has shingles, according to the NIH, it just gives you chickenpox rather than shingles:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/magazine/issues/winter10/articles/winter10pg16-17.html

But considering there haven't been long-term enough studies yet to know how long the chickenpox vaccine is effective for (they're saying ~20 years now) you could hypothetically be vaccinated as a child and still get the virus as an adult.

LadyMillil · September 2014

lolo883 said:

PrettyGirlLost said:

lolo883 said:

JCbride2015 said:

Is it true that the chicken pox vaccine would also protect against shingles? I had chicken pox as a kid (along with my whole first-grade class AND our young teacher who'd never had it before). It wasn't that bad. But I've heard the vaccine not only protects against chicken pox, but then because you've never had chicken pox, you also can't get shingles. That to me would be a reason to vaccinate my kid. Shingles sucks.

No, you can get shingles even if you've never had chicken pox.

No, I don't believe this is correct.

Shingles is herpes zoster. You get it by being infected initially with Varicella zoster virus, which causes chickenpox in children.

Like any herpes virus, once you have it and recover from it, it will remain dormant in your body for the rest of your life and will tend to flare back up in some form when you are stressed, immunocompromised, etc. As an adult it flares up as Shingles.

So everyone who had chickenpox at one point intheir life is at risk for a Shingles outbreak, and you have had to have a chickenpox- or tvaricella zoster virus- infection 1st in order to develop Shingles.

Correction: you can get the chickenpox virus from someone who has shingles, according to the NIH, it just gives you chickenpox rather than shingles:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/magazine/issues/winter10/articles/winter10pg16-17.html

But considering there haven't been long-term enough studies yet to know how long the chickenpox vaccine is effective for (they're saying ~20 years now) you could hypothetically be vaccinated as a child and still get the virus as an adult.

This is true for all vaccines. Immunity to viruses and bacteria can decrease over time, which is why we need to get booster shots of some vaccines every 10 years or so. The booster shot "reminds" your immune system that it has seen that pathogen before and boosts your immunity so that if you are exposed to the pathogen your immune system has a better chance of mounting an effective response. Unfortunately, vaccines aren't 100% effective at preventing you from getting infected. I don't know if scientists have figured out why some vaccinated people can still be infected. With high levels of vaccination (herd immunity) the chance that a vaccinated person who isn't protected comes into contact with the pathogen are slim, so it makes it difficult to identify vaccinated people that are still susceptible to infection until they are actually sick. "Natural" infection also doesn't lead to protection from subsequent infection all the time. Most people are protected from subsequent infections, some people get infected by the same virus a second time.

jenajjthr · September 2014

My daughter got whooping cough when she was almost 2 months old. She coughed so hard for so long that her lips were turning blue. I ended up rushing her to the ER because I had no clue what was going on. I had two older kids who never went through this. I got really lucky with her. She developed a similar cough one year later, not as bad, but still scared the crap out of me.

So yeah, Anti-vaxxers can go live in a special commune with other anti-vaxxers and stay away from everybody else in my opinion.

lurkergirl · September 2014

JCbride2015 said:

Is it true that the chicken pox vaccine would also protect against shingles? I had chicken pox as a kid (along with my whole first-grade class AND our young teacher who'd never had it before). It wasn't that bad. But I've heard the vaccine not only protects against chicken pox, but then because you've never had chicken pox, you also can't get shingles. That to me would be a reason to vaccinate my kid. Shingles sucks.

My 18 year old cousin had the chicken pox vaccine. Never had chicken pox. Got shingles last year. And yes, shingles blows!!!

APDSS22 · September 2014

lolo883 said:

A friend of mine had a brilliant idea. She took this pic off Cracked, cropped out their logo, and plans to pass it out so all the paranoid idiots do an about-face.

Some things, I'm all about letting your immune system do its job. I've never had a flu shot, and am all about letting otherwise healthy kids get chicken pox. But the rest... just no words for how stupid these people are. EVEN IF vaccines caused autism, I'd 10000000x rather have a living child with autism than a child killed by the measles.

They make less than 2% not "then". If you're going to widely distribute that I thought you would want to know.

huskypuppy14 · September 2014

My sister has had chicken pox 3-4 times. Just recently last year as an adult.

You can get chicken pox more than once, and I think you can't have shingles unless you've had chicken pox. But science is weird, and you never know. The vaccine is also only 15 years old or so? So who knows how that affects your ability to get shingles.

LadyMillil · September 2014

huskypuppy14 said:

My sister has had chicken pox 3-4 times. Just recently last year as an adult.

You can get chicken pox more than once Correct, but it isn't very common because the first infection usually creates an immune system memory of the virus, so when you are subsequently exposed your immune system responds and deals with the virus before you get sick, and I think you can't have shingles unless you've had chicken pox Correct. Shingles is caused by the same virus that causes chicken pox. the virus is able to undergo latency in your nerves, which means that after you get better the virus is still there, hiding from your immune system. For some reason (stress is thought to be a big trigger) the virus reactivates or "wakes up" and travels back from the nerve to the skin to cause shingles. But science is weird, and you never know. The vaccine is also only 15 years old or so? So who knows how that affects your ability to get shingles. To the bolded, science actually knows this. Shingles is 100% caused by the viruses that causes chickenpox. If you've never been infected with this virus you will never get shingles. As a scientist this whole last part kind of pisses me off. There is so much research that goes into every scientific advancement, especially those that are going to be given to humans, that scientists have a really good idea of what is going to happen. There are a lot of long term follow-up studies on this vaccine, as there are on any other vaccine and other pharmaceuticals. These long-term studies look at things like vaccine side effects, how many vaccinated people got infected, if there were any problems like shingles, how long immunity will last (need for boosters) and so many other variables.

PrettyGirlLost · October 2014

lurkergirl said:

JCbride2015 said:

Is it true that the chicken pox vaccine would also protect against shingles? I had chicken pox as a kid (along with my whole first-grade class AND our young teacher who'd never had it before). It wasn't that bad. But I've heard the vaccine not only protects against chicken pox, but then because you've never had chicken pox, you also can't get shingles. That to me would be a reason to vaccinate my kid. Shingles sucks.

My 18 year old cousin had the chicken pox vaccine. Never had chicken pox. Got shingles last year. And yes, shingles blows!!!

That's because the chicken pox vaccine is a live (attenuated) dose of the actual virus that causes chicken pox, varicella. Attenuated means that the virus has been manipulated to reduce it's virulence, or strength, so that it will not give you full blown chicken pox but that your body will still create antibodies against it.

Your cousin developed shingles because she was exposed to varicella in the form of the vaccine.

I will repeat- You cannot get shingles without having 1st been exposed to a varicella (chicken pox) infection. Chicken pox and Shingles are herpes viruses that will remain dormant in your body for the rest of your life and may resurface later, just like all herpes viruses.

huskypuppy14 · October 2014

LadyMillil said:

huskypuppy14 said:

My sister has had chicken pox 3-4 times. Just recently last year as an adult.

You can get chicken pox more than once Correct, but it isn't very common because the first infection usually creates an immune system memory of the virus, so when you are subsequently exposed your immune system responds and deals with the virus before you get sick, and I think you can't have shingles unless you've had chicken pox Correct. Shingles is caused by the same virus that causes chicken pox. the virus is able to undergo latency in your nerves, which means that after you get better the virus is still there, hiding from your immune system. For some reason (stress is thought to be a big trigger) the virus reactivates or "wakes up" and travels back from the nerve to the skin to cause shingles. But science is weird, and you never know. The vaccine is also only 15 years old or so? So who knows how that affects your ability to get shingles. To the bolded, science actually knows this. Shingles is 100% caused by the viruses that causes chickenpox. If you've never been infected with this virus you will never get shingles. As a scientist this whole last part kind of pisses me off. There is so much research that goes into every scientific advancement, especially those that are going to be given to humans, that scientists have a really good idea of what is going to happen. There are a lot of long term follow-up studies on this vaccine, as there are on any other vaccine and other pharmaceuticals. These long-term studies look at things like vaccine side effects, how many vaccinated people got infected, if there were any problems like shingles, how long immunity will last (need for boosters) and so many other variables.

I'm a scientist too. I worded my post strangely, and a little too casually but there are things that we find out later after many many years of studying. Yes of course we have a "pretty good idea" but you can also find out things later that you didn't know before. 15 years is not enough time to know the long term effects because the first kids to get the vaccine and never have chicken pox are still fairly young and not really the right age for shingles. I meant you never know, about the vaccine causing shingles- reading it again, I realize that's not what I said.

I'm not an expert on shingles or chicken pox, but I know how viruses work.

Also, from what PGL says, it sounds like you can get shingles from the vaccine. So which is it?

lovedryn · October 2014

I too am not a fan of the whole anti vaxx crowd. I had a hell of a time with whooping cough last fall that took nearly seven montha to kick since doctors weren't expecting that diagnosis since I had been vaccinated. We lived in a community that had a huge anti vaxx following which ushered in a nasty whooping cough outbreak in the neighborhood.

Kahlyla · October 2014

So I'm wondering, what are the vaccines that I should be getting touched up as an adult? I was fully vaccinated as a kid and I've had chicken pox (once) but I don't think I've gotten any boosters in like... a couple of decades. Should I be looking at getting a whooping cough vaccine? Is tetanus something you should stay on top of, or just get the shot if you step on a nail? I did my flu shot last year and will likely get it again this year.

Thanks!

lurkergirl · October 2014

huskypuppy14 said:

LadyMillil said:

huskypuppy14 said:

My sister has had chicken pox 3-4 times. Just recently last year as an adult.

You can get chicken pox more than once Correct, but it isn't very common because the first infection usually creates an immune system memory of the virus, so when you are subsequently exposed your immune system responds and deals with the virus before you get sick, and I think you can't have shingles unless you've had chicken pox Correct. Shingles is caused by the same virus that causes chicken pox. the virus is able to undergo latency in your nerves, which means that after you get better the virus is still there, hiding from your immune system. For some reason (stress is thought to be a big trigger) the virus reactivates or "wakes up" and travels back from the nerve to the skin to cause shingles. But science is weird, and you never know. The vaccine is also only 15 years old or so? So who knows how that affects your ability to get shingles. To the bolded, science actually knows this. Shingles is 100% caused by the viruses that causes chickenpox. If you've never been infected with this virus you will never get shingles. As a scientist this whole last part kind of pisses me off. There is so much research that goes into every scientific advancement, especially those that are going to be given to humans, that scientists have a really good idea of what is going to happen. There are a lot of long term follow-up studies on this vaccine, as there are on any other vaccine and other pharmaceuticals. These long-term studies look at things like vaccine side effects, how many vaccinated people got infected, if there were any problems like shingles, how long immunity will last (need for boosters) and so many other variables.

I'm a scientist too. I worded my post strangely, and a little too casually but there are things that we find out later after many many years of studying. Yes of course we have a "pretty good idea" but you can also find out things later that you didn't know before. 15 years is not enough time to know the long term effects because the first kids to get the vaccine and never have chicken pox are still fairly young and not really the right age for shingles. I meant you never know, about the vaccine causing shingles- reading it again, I realize that's not what I said.

I'm not an expert on shingles or chicken pox, but I know how viruses work.

Also, from what PGL says, it sounds like you can get shingles from the vaccine. So which is it?

I am not a scientist, so forgive my layman's interpretation. According to PGL, the chicken pox vaccine is live. Thus, recipients are exposed. So, what ladymill says still holds true. You can get shingles because you were exposed to the chickenpox virus through the vaccine, even though you weren't sickened by the chickenpox virus.

@prettygirllost @ladymillil Is that an accurate interpretation?

lurkergirl · October 2014

Kahlyla said:

So I'm wondering, what are the vaccines that I should be getting touched up as an adult? I was fully vaccinated as a kid and I've had chicken pox (once) but I don't think I've gotten any boosters in like... a couple of decades. Should I be looking at getting a whooping cough vaccine? Is tetanus something you should stay on top of, or just get the shot if you step on a nail? I did my flu shot last year and will likely get it again this year.

Thanks!

I think tetanus is every 7-10 years. I have had more than I want to talk about. Fun fact: they are administered differently in Europe!

But I would also like to know the rest of the answers to your questions. We want to start TTC as soon as we're married, so I would like to take care of this stuff before then if I need to. (Obviously it's a conversation for a doctor, but I'm interested in getting a general idea!)

huskypuppy14 · October 2014

lurkergirl said:

huskypuppy14 said:

LadyMillil said:

huskypuppy14 said:

My sister has had chicken pox 3-4 times. Just recently last year as an adult.

You can get chicken pox more than once Correct, but it isn't very common because the first infection usually creates an immune system memory of the virus, so when you are subsequently exposed your immune system responds and deals with the virus before you get sick, and I think you can't have shingles unless you've had chicken pox Correct. Shingles is caused by the same virus that causes chicken pox. the virus is able to undergo latency in your nerves, which means that after you get better the virus is still there, hiding from your immune system. For some reason (stress is thought to be a big trigger) the virus reactivates or "wakes up" and travels back from the nerve to the skin to cause shingles. But science is weird, and you never know. The vaccine is also only 15 years old or so? So who knows how that affects your ability to get shingles. To the bolded, science actually knows this. Shingles is 100% caused by the viruses that causes chickenpox. If you've never been infected with this virus you will never get shingles. As a scientist this whole last part kind of pisses me off. There is so much research that goes into every scientific advancement, especially those that are going to be given to humans, that scientists have a really good idea of what is going to happen. There are a lot of long term follow-up studies on this vaccine, as there are on any other vaccine and other pharmaceuticals. These long-term studies look at things like vaccine side effects, how many vaccinated people got infected, if there were any problems like shingles, how long immunity will last (need for boosters) and so many other variables.

I'm a scientist too. I worded my post strangely, and a little too casually but there are things that we find out later after many many years of studying. Yes of course we have a "pretty good idea" but you can also find out things later that you didn't know before. 15 years is not enough time to know the long term effects because the first kids to get the vaccine and never have chicken pox are still fairly young and not really the right age for shingles. I meant you never know, about the vaccine causing shingles- reading it again, I realize that's not what I said.

I'm not an expert on shingles or chicken pox, but I know how viruses work.

Also, from what PGL says, it sounds like you can get shingles from the vaccine. So which is it?

I am not a scientist, so forgive my layman's interpretation. According to PGL, the chicken pox vaccine is live. Thus, recipients are exposed. So, what ladymill says still holds true. You can get shingles because you were exposed to the chickenpox virus through the vaccine, even though you weren't sickened by the chickenpox virus.

@prettygirllost @ladymillil Is that an accurate interpretation?

After doing a little bit of research, yes it's possible to get shingles if you've had the chicken pox vaccine. So the idea of "you can't get shingles if you haven't gotten chicken pox" isn't technically true, because if you had the vaccine, you might not get chicken pox but you could get shingles because the vaccine has a live virus.

I think the risk is very small though, so it's less of a risk than if you had chicken pox.

However, I think chicken pox is not at the level of whooping cough, measles, etc. Most of us had it as a child. The vaccine, is great and all, but it's not the most important vaccine in my opinion.

rajahmd · October 2014

lurkergirl said:

Kahlyla said:

So I'm wondering, what are the vaccines that I should be getting touched up as an adult? I was fully vaccinated as a kid and I've had chicken pox (once) but I don't think I've gotten any boosters in like... a couple of decades. Should I be looking at getting a whooping cough vaccine? Is tetanus something you should stay on top of, or just get the shot if you step on a nail? I did my flu shot last year and will likely get it again this year.

Thanks!

I think tetanus is every 7-10 years. I have had more than I want to talk about. Fun fact: they are administered differently in Europe!

But I would also like to know the rest of the answers to your questions. We want to start TTC as soon as we're married, so I would like to take care of this stuff before then if I need to. (Obviously it's a conversation for a doctor, but I'm interested in getting a general idea!)

Fun fact: a version of the tetanus vaccine also covers for whopping cough. It's called TDaP. Here's some handy information courtesy of the CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/vis/vis-statements/tdap.html

Also, any adult who plans on coming into contact with infants should get a booster for whooping cough. Infants can't get vaccines yet, but are highly succeptible.

Also, everyone should get a flu shot. EVERYONE! Unless otherwise ordered by a physician.

MobKaz · October 2014

RajahBMFD said:

Kahlyla said:

So I'm wondering, what are the vaccines that I should be getting touched up as an adult? I was fully vaccinated as a kid and I've had chicken pox (once) but I don't think I've gotten any boosters in like... a couple of decades. Should I be looking at getting a whooping cough vaccine? Is tetanus something you should stay on top of, or just get the shot if you step on a nail? I did my flu shot last year and will likely get it again this year.

Thanks!

I think tetanus is every 7-10 years. I have had more than I want to talk about. Fun fact: they are administered differently in Europe!

But I would also like to know the rest of the answers to your questions. We want to start TTC as soon as we're married, so I would like to take care of this stuff before then if I need to. (Obviously it's a conversation for a doctor, but I'm interested in getting a general idea!)
Fun fact: a version of the tetanus vaccine also covers for whopping cough. It's called TDaP. Here's some handy information courtesy of the CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/vis/vis-statements/tdap.html Also, any adult who plans on coming into contact with infants should get a booster for whooping cough. Infants can't get vaccines yet, but are highly succeptible. Also, everyone should get a flu shot. EVERYONE! Unless otherwise ordered by a physician.

My daughter's OB suggested this once she was in her third trimester. Any adult, from grandparent to close friend, was more than happy to oblige for the sake of the health of the baby.

RajahBMFD, I hope your residency is going well!

Newborndoc2008 · October 2014

There are several vaccines adults should receive to protect both themselves and their contacts with weak immune systems (babies, the elderly, chemo patients).

Flu - everyone over 6 months of age should receive an annual flu vaccine under the latest CDC recommendations. As H1N1 demonstrated, a flu pandemic is a real possibility, and some, albeit small, percentage of annual flu deaths are in healthy children and adults. Both the inhaled (live attenuated) and injected (inactivated) vaccines are effective against the flu although some people may not be able to receive the inhaled variety (immune compromised, asthmatics, health care workers in certain fields). And no you cannot get the flu from the flu shot. You can get an ache in your arm and a low grade temp. That's your body making antibodies.

Tetanus - adults need to get a tetanus booster every 10 years even if you haven't had an injury. If you get a "dirty" wound (rusty nails, puncture wound in the woods) and it's been 5 years since your last vaccine, you'll need a booster sooner. Conveniently it comes bundled with the next vaccine.

Pertussis (aka whooping cough) - these recommendations are still changing as we learn more about long term immunity. All adults need at least 1 booster of TdaP. If you had a routine tetanus booster since 2007 (not in the ED/urgent care), you probably had the TdaP version. Many urgent care and EDs are still giving the old Td vaccine. Other recommendations include for women during EACH pregnancy to help pass your antibodies to the baby so they have protection in the 2 months before they get the first vaccine (this is a very new recommendation). Other high target groups would be all those new dads, grandparents, health care workers, teachers, etc with high contact with children.

There are some other specialized vaccines for individuals over 65, specifically against shingles and some forms of pneumonia.

As a newborn intensive care doc, people who don't want to vaccinate drive me crazy. Especially when they don't want to vaccinate their premature infant who is far more likely to die if they get any of these diseases than the average infant is (which is already incredibly high odds). I know why these people can't find pediatricians for their kids. If you don't trust us when we recommend vaccines with decades of study behind them, how can we build a functional relationship?

Newborndoc2008 · October 2014

I had paragraphs I swear

PrettyGirlLost · October 2014

Kahlyla said:
So I'm wondering, what are the vaccines that I should be getting touched up as an adult? I was fully vaccinated as a kid and I've had chicken pox (once) but I don't think I've gotten any boosters in like... a couple of decades. Should I be looking at getting a whooping cough vaccine? Is tetanus something you should stay on top of, or just get the shot if you step on a nail? I did my flu shot last year and will likely get it again this year.

Thanks!

As your PCP to do a blood test to test the levels of antibodies you have to the diseases we have vaccines for, and if any are low you can get re immunized for it.

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