*Begin Rant*
Recently I began receiving threatening emails from my institution of higher education saying that they did not have proof my two measles immunizations. I sent this in years ago (seven, to be exact), but they didn’t believe this to be the case. Fine. Whatever. So I went to Student Health Services to show them my nostalgic card from my pediatrician saying that yes, in fact, I am immune to measles.
I should mention at this point that the school is cracking down on the measles thing because a person who neither lived on campus or went to any classes at BU had a case of the measles. I guess she registered for a class or something and this qualified her as a student. And she got the measles. So there was a chance that there could be a plague upon the masses. Again, fine. Whatever. I’m immune. I can prove it.
However, when I went in to Student Health Services, I learned that despite the fact that I could win in an immune system war with measels, mumps and rubella, I lacked proof of a tetanus shot, the hepatitis B series, a meningococcal vaccination and the new HPV vaccination. Most of these are actually required; I have to have them to remain a student here.
“Why?” I demanded, particularly outraged by the HPV vaccination. “Why can you mandate I get all of these shots?”
“Because,” said a woman who worked there, not unkindly, “You are at risk. You need these things to be healthy.”
“I’m not at risk. For HPV? Isn’t that a sexually transmitted disease? Dude, I’m sooo not at risk. Really. I’m already ‘one less.’”
“Tsk,” she clucked. “Of course honey.”
I came home and looked on the internet for how these diseases are spread and if I actually needed the stuff.
Tetanus: I’ve had two of these in the last ten years. So I won’t bother being indignant about it.
1. Hep B: People at risk include:
* Sexually active heterosexual adults with more than one sex partner in the prior 6 months, or have a history of sexually transmitted disease;
* Homosexual and bisexual men;
* Illicit injection drug users;
* Persons at occupational risk of infection;
* Hemodialysis patients;
* Household and sex contacts of persons with chronic HBV infection;
* Clients and staff of institutions for the developmentally disabled.
Not me. Not me by a long shot.
2. Meningococcal: People who should get it:
• College freshmen living in dormitories.
• Microbiologists who are routinely exposed to meningococcal bacteria.
•U.S. military recruits.
• Anyone traveling to, or living in, a part of the world where meningococcal disease is common, such as parts of Africa.
• Anyone who has a damaged spleen, or whose spleen has been removed.
• Anyone who has terminal complement component deficiency (an immune system disorder).
• People who might have been exposed to meningitis during an outbreak.
None of them = Me
3. HPV
• Women under the age of 26
NOT ME
I realize that there is an outside chance I could somehow randomly come in contact with someone with Hep B. Maybe during a roommate mediation someone will go crazy and bite me, foaming at the month. I guess that that could transmit it. And true, I live in a dorm where allegedly the Horrible Threat Of Disease always looms. But I live in an apartment-style dorm. Where I barely see my neighbors unless they have a roommate conflict with their biting, foaming-at-the-mouth roommate. And as for HPV. What? Dude. I sailed past 26 years ago, after my wild Christian youth. I don’t think I could have caught it from all the Michael W. Smith concerts I attended.
The point of all of this is that I don’t like shots. I don’t like random antibodies and drugs swimming around in my system unless they are absolutely essential. Heaven knows what’s already doing the backstroke through in my blood from food and household cleaners and living next to the Mass Pike. Even so, I don’t think I should have to be mandated to get immunizations because of a very, very small chance that I might catch something. I think most schools do this sort of thing, so the argument of, “Go somewhere else if you don’t like the school’s policies” are moot.
*End Rant*
I’d riot or protest or something, but there are germs out there. Who knows what I’d catch trying to make a difference.
Excuse me now. I have to go make a doctor’s appointment. Or possibility contact the ACLU.
« ...That's All There Is!
