No free immunizations during pertussis outbreak in county

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.

MY county is having a pertussis outbreak alert. There have been a number of confirmed cases and the schools in the county are not sending children on any events to other schools. All field trips and sports competitions with other schools have been cancelled.

Since my children have not been immunized against pertussis, I called the health dept to find out about the vaccine. I'm not so much worried about them, but thought that I might as well, that the shot would probably not hurt them at this point and it would be a community health type thing to do.

The woman at the health dept was in no way helpful, I guess she doesn't have to worry about customer satisfaction since she works for the county. :rolleyes: I was totally surprised to find out that the vaccine is not free! I thought they would be heavily recruiting and encouraging the public to get immunized against this in the face of this outbreak. Many people opted out of the pertussis vaccine and only got their kids the Diphtheria/Tetorifice one.

She told me that they got the vaccines for free but they had to charge something to help cover the cost of the nurse giving it, so it's a minimum of $5 on up to $35 depending on income. I told her that I thought that was ridiculous, to forget it. She acted like she couldn't care less.

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I'm surprised at your response to community health. I see you are concerned for your children. You have a whooping cough outbreak in your community. If your doctor thinks that the vaccination is needed to protect your children, you should take care of your kids. How much will you be willing to pay if they become sick?

She did say the vaccine was free but that the nurse was paid for her work, if you are a nurse, do you work for free?

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The county health dept have been hit with cut backs too. I really don't think ANY health care should be free (unless you are homeless or really indigent). A small fee of $5.00 to $35.00 is nominal, esp if they have a sliding scale.

Where do people get the idea that health care should be free? I'd like to make a living too!

And she was probably fed up with people who want it to be free. If your children get whooping cough the cost of the vaccine may of seemed pretty cheap. You would have to take off a lot of work days, esp if your children got it a few weeks apart. On a side note, why don't kids ever get sick at the same time???

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Specializes in Cardiac, ER.

Wow,..I'm suprised to hear this from you Firestarter. You really aren't going to vaccinate your kids, to a real threat, for $35 a pop? Really?

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Specializes in dialysis (mostly) some L&D, Rehab/LTC.

There ain't nothing in life that comes free... there's always a $$$$ trail.

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Specializes in NICU, Post-partum.

This is what happens when children are not vaccinated. Everything is fine until there is an outbreak of something life-threatening...usually because someone else's child wasn't vaccinated either.

If I had to donate a kidney to get my kids vaccinated, I would.

It could be worse...they could not have it available at all...and it's something to really, really consider....you children have several decades in front of them...in the event of a global disaster, when medical care and vaccines are in short supply, or even non-existent...it's just a possibility we all need to consider.

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Specializes in CTICU.

What annoys me is not the cost, but the fact that it probably came from some other kid whose parents decided not to vaccinate against pertussis.

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Let me see if I have this straight. There is an outbreak of pertussis, a serious and potentially life-threatening disease, in the area. Vaccinations are available for a nominal amount to pay the nurses who administer the injections (and probably fill out a ton of paperwork with each one). You are so offended at the thought of having to pay anything for these immunizations that you told the health department worker to forget it.

I'm speechless.

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Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.

I figured you all would be outraged. Very predictable.

What I don't get is why the county health dept doesn't want to organize vaccines at the schools for free like they did with small pox years ago. You have a so called public health emergency and no apparent organized response. In the literature sent home by the school they didn't even say where to go to get the vaccine, they just described the symptoms and said that pertussis was only a real danger to children under 1 year old. The health dept is 30 miles away and they aren't even promoting their vaccine.

Many people did not get the pertussis vaccine for their kids. Some people question some vaccines.

We have all this stimulus money pouring in. Our library, for our town of 1000 people managed to get $800,000 I heard even though there is a better library 2 miles away in a slightly larger town. What a waste of money I say. Yet the county doesn't have a plan to get kids vaccinated against pertussis in the event of an outbreak that could lead to an epidemic?

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Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.
Let me see if I have this straight. There is an outbreak of pertussis, a serious and potentially life-threatening disease, in the area. Vaccinations are available for a nominal amount to pay the nurses who administer the injections (and probably fill out a ton of paperwork with each one). You are so offended at the thought of having to pay anything for these immunizations that you told the health department worker to forget it.

I'm speechless.

Nope that wasn't my point at all.

My point is that they just should be free period. It's not whether I can pay for them or not. I don't particularly believe in vaccines, but I thought I'd do my public duty and get what I assumed would be a free vaccine for all, in the face of a potential epidemic. Yes, I'm disgusted that a nation that can spend billions on an unnecessary foreign war, sends billions in foreign aide to get foreign children vaccinated for free, can't get it together to meet a local health emergency by setting up vaccine centers in each school for kids. They do it with the flu vaccine.

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Specializes in cardiac, ortho, med surg, oncology.

I would think that the county health dept has money in it's budget to pay for nurses. I have never known them to work for free and if there is a public health emergency then I would think the the health dept would be eager to give out the vaccinations for free.

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Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.
I would think that the county health dept has money in it's budget to pay for nurses. I have never known them to work for free and if there is a public health emergency then I would think the the health dept would be eager to give out the vaccinations for free.

My point exactly. And yes, I am one of those vaccine skeptics. I'm one of the people that you want to encourage and reach out to. You guys can rake me over the coals in shock and dismay, but I was very discouraged by my call to the health dept. The woman behaved like a dept of motor vehicles employee and that I had annoyed her with an expired registration on my car.

They manage to organize flu vaccine drives every year, giving the vaccine at different locales, recruiting volunteer nurses. But they don't have a plan for a predictable public health crisis? This has been brewing for months, btw. I read about the first case last fall and there was no promotion of the vaccine then.

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