H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine Information

Fearing a H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine, and Wanting More of It

By PERRI KLASS, M.D.
Published: November 9, 2009

When I tell nonmedical friends that our clinic is vaccinating children against the H1N1 flu virus, here is what they say:

With about half, it is something like: “Oh, my God, our doctor doesn’t have it! Can you get me a dose?” And with the other half, it is something like, “Oh, my God, that brand-new vaccine — do you really think it’s safe?”

There is a peculiar duality in the collective cultural mind just now, a kind of pandemic doublethink. Other doctors I know are all eagerly having their own children immunized. Many are answering frantic calls from people desperate for the vaccine. But at the same time, we are all coming up against parents who are determined to refuse that same vaccine.

Serious cases of this flu are relatively rare but far from unheard of; more than 100 children have died of H1N1. The deaths seem to occur disproportionately in children and pregnant women.

So we give the H1N1 vaccine to children whose parents are almost tearfully afraid of the virus, and we try to win over those parents who are just as tearfully afraid of the vaccine. To them, we explain over and over that in fact this is not a brand-new vaccine — it is made with the same techniques as the seasonal influenza vaccine. Yes, it has been tested. Yes, it’s safe. Yes, it’s effective.

The divided public mood about H1N1 — fear of vaccine and fear that there won’t be enough of it — reminds Dr. Offit of a joke Woody Allen tells in “Annie Hall.” One woman complains that the food at a Catskills resort is terrible, and her friend agrees: “And such small portions!”

So yes, I’m scared. I worry about H1N1 when a young child with cough and fever shows up; I worry about not being able to pick out that healthy child who may go on to get very sick, very fast. That is your basic pediatric nightmare: How do we judge which children are likely to get better and which few may get much sicker, and even die? That is why I find myself trying to offer parents exactly what I want for my own children: vaccine, protection, immunity.

In the clinic, we advise parents to have their children immunized, especially those with asthma or other chronic problems. “People all over the city are begging for this vaccine,” I heard another doctor tell a mother. “We’re incredibly lucky that we have it.”