To Vaccinate Or Not To Vaccinate, That Is The Question

Nurses COVID Toon

Updated:   Published

Vaccinate or Die!!!

What fears and/or objections have you, personally, or as Nurses caring for your patients, encountered when it comes to vaccinations?

Specializes in Mental Health, Gerontology, Palliative.
On 10/24/2019 at 3:42 AM, SNJ_nurse said:

They are mandatory for public school attendance, many jobs/ schools (like nursing), etc etc...

it is wrong to say legally, you are right, but effectively it’s very hard to navigate around them. For me (going into nursing), it’s impossible,

i don’t know that adding “legally” negates the rest of my points, but I do appreciate your point

Not mandatory, however like all choices in life, there are consequences

if a parent chooses not to vaccinate their child against easily preventable diseases, they should not be surprised when school authorities dont want to take the risk their precious little dear is exposed to god knows what

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Specializes in Mental Health, Gerontology, Palliative.

Not sure if its been mentioned yet, there is research coming out of the US that suggests measles wipes out a body's immune memory, basically the body has to relearn how to protect the body against certain diseases

Harvard Study

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It amuses me that many health care workers who complain about having to receive the influenza vaccine are the same ones who eat crap, smoke and overindulge in alcohol. There are more harmful ingredients in that Starbucks unicorn frappuccino you are drinking in the nurses' station! Why aren't you concerned about putting that into your body?

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Specializes in Public Health, TB.
18 hours ago, seraphimid said:

There are many pediatricians that will adhere to a delayed vaccine schedule if the family requests. Nurses I work with have told me they chose delayed schedules for their children based on different conditions. Maybe it’s a geographical thing.

Pediatricians in my area are willing to give vaccines on a delayed schedule because that is the only way to get parents to agree to allow any. They run out of time to argue, and just sort of give up.

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Specializes in OB.
33 minutes ago, nursej22 said:

Pediatricians in my area are willing to give vaccines on a delayed schedule because that is the only way to get parents to agree to allow any. They run out of time to argue, and just sort of give up.

This. My child's pediatrician and I had a long discussion about how she talks to parents who have fears about vaccines and how she presents the facts. She acknowledges that there are some parents who she can tell right away are never going to agree with her, and then the rest, she just works with them as much as possible and she says they generally end up getting on the regular schedule if she's flexible with them in the beginning and they realize their children are fine. Any vaccines are better than none.

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Specializes in CRNA, Finally retired.

One year an MD talked me out of a flu shot and I got it twice back to back. I decided that we just live in an uncertain world and got it for the succeeding 22 years or so and never got it again. I was scary sick the year I had it back to back. Some of the few sick days I took in a 40 year career and it would have been worst if someone from my department didnt come to my house to get me on IV's .

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Specializes in Registered Nurse.
On 10/22/2019 at 7:04 PM, mmc51264 said:

having two kids with Type 1 diabetes, there is a HUGE debate about vaccines (of course there is no rhyme or reason to why someone has an autoimmune trigger). One of my children was dx at 2, one at 14. Neither were sick. No family hx on either side (I did have gest diabetes and ended up T2).

People clamor that there is a cure "hidden from the public" so big pharma can make all this money off T1 people (< 0.05% of the population is T1).

I have not held any vaccines from my sons. They have both had HPV vax. Oldest has just finished meningitis. series. I just got the newest Shingles vax. I am a believer of vaccination.

Other than some one who has a true allergy (like to eggs w/flu shot) I don't understand why people don't get vaccinated. We have seen in historical records that more people died before vaccines. It's a no-brainer to me. The flu or chicken pox could kill my children.

I have read about the type 1 diabetes and vaccines connection. What seems to be the case is that a lot of autoimmune diseases are triggered by a pathogen. Perhaps people were noticing type 1 (or other autoimmune diseases) after a vaccine, but it wasn't the vaccine that *caused* it and they could've easily developed the same condition after catching the flu such as what happens in ITP or guillain-barre.

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Specializes in retired.

I have been getting the flu shot for many years and now the shingles vaccine working in a skilled facility we were told by the staff developer we needed to protect our self family and residents,,,,,,,If you ever saw a patient with shingles I can bet you would run fast and get your shots Now at 82 I still get all the necessary shots

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Specializes in Registered Nurse.
On 11/5/2019 at 9:52 PM, pat said:

I have been getting the flu shot for many years and now the shingles vaccine working in a skilled facility we were told by the staff developer we needed to protect our self family and residents,,,,,,,If you ever saw a patient with shingles I can bet you would run fast and get your shots Now at 82 I still get all the necessary shots

I found out that my cousins just came down with chickenpox. I still remember my aunt asking my mother if she should vaccinate when she was a new mom looking for advice and worried about the potential of them contracting a disease if she didn't vaccinate. My mother was very anti-vax and helped convince her not to. The oldest child is 14 (which is a bad age to get this!). Now they have to face the risk of shingles when they're older. Just to think it could've all been prevented...but fears, nonfactual internet sources and friends/family who are not educated themselves get in the way of making rational decisions!

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Specializes in Mental Health, Gerontology, Palliative.

I got a tetorifice booster yesterday. ?

The idea of dying from lockjaw from a gardening injury really wasnt appealing.

On the other postive side, it also had a booster for whooping cough.

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On 10/22/2019 at 10:12 PM, SNJ_nurse said:

Honestly, its not as simple as so many people make it seem. Its too bad that like the poster said, its such a "hot topic" that there's no discussion to be had. Many nurses love to just spit out facts that their teachers told them and aren't open to any conversation. This is the opposite, in my opinion, of what nursing should be about.

There are many many concerns and blindly pushing vaccines is dangerous. Please note, I am PRO- Vaccines and they are a wonderful thing.

For example, their scheduling. You still get herd immunity if a child gets it at age 4, rather than 8 months. Are you giving the infant a chance to develop ANY innate immunity? Yet, we are pushing Hep B vaccines on infants? Funny stuff.

Flu vaccine, don't even get me started. Complete money-grab.

Even for the "more serious ones" like polio and MMR, there are arguments to be made.

What it comes down to is that the medical community has lost (probably rightfully so) the trust of the general population, and vaccines are just a trigger point for it.

I think you hit the nail on the head. This has become such a "hot topic" that anyone who even raises a (very valid) question about safety and efficacy is swiftly labeled a wacky anti-vaxxer, which itself has become a perjorative term. Even before I became a nurse, I didn't post my concerns on social media. Now, there's no way I would do so for fear of being shunned by the nursing community. This is unfortunate. Good science is grounded in skepticism. Skepticism starts with questions.

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Specializes in Public Health, TB.
20 hours ago, boxofrain said:

I think you hit the nail on the head. This has become such a "hot topic" that anyone who even raises a (very valid) question about safety and efficacy is swiftly labeled a wacky anti-vaxxer, which itself has become a perjorative term. Even before I became a nurse, I didn't post my concerns on social media. Now, there's no way I would do so for fear of being shunned by the nursing community. This is unfortunate. Good science is grounded in skepticism. Skepticism starts with questions.

Except that the answers to many of the questions are available, but many just don't want to know or don't believe actual experts. The CDC pink book is available on line and is a wealth of information. Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has great informational videos. These sources explain among other things: why so many, so soon; why give Hep B at birth; adjuvants; and thimerosal which was removed from single dose childhood vaccines in 2001. I mentioned it before, but the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meets 3 times a year to review data and make adjust recommended vaccine schedules for children and adults. This committee is made of of experts: physicians (including pediatricians) researchers, immunologists, epidemiologists, nurses and lay persons. I trust their judgement about vaccines more than a solitary person with internet access.

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