Reply to DD won't get the flu shot (Ugh)

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'd try to make the argument that she is endangering people who don't have her excellent immune system (see the other thread about flu shots decreasing the spread of the flu).  I'd try to get her to read an article or two about otherwise healthy people who have died of the flu.  And then I'd back off and let her be.[/quote]

This, DD. She is at the age when it's all about her, and she feels invincible, and I'd wager she has friends who feel the same way and are saying they won't get the shot either.

And she has no idea that the flu actually is a bitch if you do indeed get it (one bout of the body aches would teach her that) and that it can kill people. Statistically it's most dangerous to the very young and the very old but it can kill healthy young adults too.

I'd show her the stats (go to the Centers for Disease Control web site) and information about the idea of "herd immunity." I bet she's never heard of it. Also, if she has classmates who are not as fit as she thinks she is, she needs to understand she's protecting them by getting a shot herself. She'll say, but the idea is that I am not going to get sick! Well, the idea is that I'm not planning to get injured as I drive around today either but I'm wearing my seat belt as protection -- same idea, to me. I can be a perfect driver and someone else can hit me; I can be in perfect health with a strong immune system and if someone coughs in my face I am indeed going to get some level of sickness, very likely.

None of these ideas may wash with her if she is doing this really mostly to assert her independence. Pity, because if she does get the flu and gives it to others -- it could have been prevented.

Oh, and if she's arguing that claptrap that some adults use: "Well, it's only a guess each year about which strain of flu will hit, so I could get the shot and it covers one strain but the one going around is a different type, so what's the point...." The answer there is that ANY flu shot for any strain does provide some protection from all of them, and though she might get another strain not specifcally covered by the shot, the effects will be less. (That is exactly what happened to me and I know, having had flus earlier in life, that the symptoms were not nearly as bad as they could have been.) Again, that may not wash with her. If she's being stubborn, and doesn't go for the "it's not all about you" concept, but you want to pursue it, she might listen to the doctor and some horror stories about teens with flu....[/quote]

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