I know a set of shots are required for school, and coming up, college - but pretty much my entire life, I've had them waived. (All I have is an MMR and polio when I was born, I think.) My question is, disregarding everything they say is "necessary" which ones should I get, which shouldn't I, and why?
KB would be the one to give a definitive answer, but my (admittedly hippie-holistic medicine biased) answer is that you probably need few or none. The reason the college insists that everyone get vaccinated for everything on the planet is that you've got a ton of people from a bunch of different cultures, countries, and so forth (if it's a selective school), living in very close proximity. So if somebody did bring serious illness into a dorm, it would be easy for it to spread like wildfire. But... and this is sort of evil and selfish... if nearly everybody else has gotten vaccinated, then the likelihood of a mass breakout of some illness is very, very low... in turn, making your risk of contracting something low... so you don't need to be vaccinated. I had a rather heated argument with the head of student health at Oberlin (who happened to be a tropical disease specialist) about this, and I successfully avoided having any vaccinations. I did make the commitment that the instant there was any bona fide outbreak of anything on campus, I'd come and get vaccinated for whatever the outbreak was... knowing full well the likelihood of that was nil. The other thing is... most schools aren't all that organized about such things, and if you simply don't do it and don't mention it, they may not notice, or if they do, all they'll do is send you pestering notices. I've not heard of any cases where they actually keep you from registering or getting your grades or transcript or anything.
Mine's organized, unfortunately, but I signed a form saying I have religious or moral tenets. I hear where you're coming from. She tried to argue but we just stuck with "moral reasons" and kind of refused to engage. So now I believe I can pick and chose, or just not do it. Thank you for your input, I really appreciate it!
Why do you waive vaccinations, if you don't mind me asking? Holistic things and conspiracy paranoia notwithstanding (I have yet to hear any convincing arguments from these camps), it was because of vaccinations that we eradicated smallpox (and are on track to eradicate polio) so I don't understand why people would think they're all a bad thing.
I had to get four different shots for my school. You cannot waive them if you live in the dorms. My problem was that I had an allergic reaction to one of the shots. So now I can get an allergic waiver for all of my shots.
I was supposed to get a meningitis shot, but never got around to it. It's one of the more common "dorm diseases" apparently.
^ That's the one that I'm missing, but since I'm not going to live on campus I decided to wait a little longer..... I'm ridcs scared of needles..... (If you know your school will ask for it in the future, try to get it before you turn 18. You will save yourself 130 dollars) I personally think that if you can get vaccinated then you should.
I agree. My tip is that you don't wait until the last minute to get up to date. Some of these shots need to be taken in sequence, and with a certain amount of time scheduled in between vaccinations. This could, depending on the school's vaccination requirements, mess up your enrollment process and put you back a semester.
I would get the vaccines if I could. I have almost all of the vaccines that my school requires. I cannot get the one because I have an allergy to it. So, I would get the ones that you can get.
You need a MMR catchup for your 2nd dose. You're supposed to have 3 doses of polio, so you'll need 1 possibly 2 of these. The sad part is that if you had received the dose when you were a child, you would have been given the oral vaccine. That's no longer an option- it's now an injection. You will need a diphtheria-pertussis (DP). I'd recommend the meningococcal vaccine for anyone spending any time on campus. This can spread very quickly and can leave it's victims either dead or severely disabled. Optionally- You might want to think about chickenpox (varicella), HPV and the Hepatitis vaccines. When the flu vaccine comes out in the fall, that will be available too. Your pediatrician should be able to help you get caught up.
Getting vaccinated doesn't just make it less likely that you'll get sick; it also makes it less likely that others will get sick because of you. Unless you have compelling or phobia-based reasons for not getting them, I think it plays nice with society to participate in making everyone safer.
This is actually why I WOULD get vaccinated. IMO if everyone took this POV, then we would have never eliminated these diseases in the first place. For college, at the very least, I personally would get a meningitis vaccine. I got one, and my school will actually not let you in, unless you get one. Also, the hepatitis and MMR vaccines are important too. People still do get hepatitis, just as they still do get meningitis and these are two things I would absolutely not risk getting. Things like the flu shot I understand why people don't get them. I personally do NOT get a flu shot, but I get everything else. If and when I do get a flu, then I will probably reconsider.
I would get whatever vaccinations the school recommends; they're different at each school and target conditions that seem common in the student body (and incidentally, a student at my school died of, I believe, spinal meningitis while I lived in the dorms - so don't think students don't get seriously ill). They study the student body and keep track of what conditions become common in the dorms - their suggestions are not just guesses. You could not get them on the assumption that everyone else does and therefore the disease/condition can't spread, but that's kind of like assuming everyone else gets tested at the sti clinic and then being shocked that it burns when you pee. There are other students out there who aren't getting vaccinated. But seriously, the school knows what's up. Take their word for it. If you do have genuine moral or religious objections to vaccinations, then that's one thing, but otherwise it's probably a good idea.
