I'd rather have a vaccine and have a possibility of avoiding the disease. Long term effects of diseases are known. I'm not sure how I'd convey the importance of vaccines that it might not come across as fearful. Diseases are scary things.

I'm not pro vaccine, they scare me, but I do think the main stream docs believe in them. They are scientists who are supposed to follow whatever their governing organization (AMA?) has determined to be good medicine.

Is there a problem with the meningitis vaccine you mention?

I agree that all the fear mongering in the world is always annoying no matter what's being promoted or dissed.

I don't want my children to be guinea pigs either. They had all of the required shots and in a timely manner. I'm holding off on the Gardasil vaccine. We haven't been approached about the meningitis shot yet. I'm more likely to allow that. One of my aunts died at 13 months old because of a now preventable disease. I'm not an anti-vaccer, but I don't always trust the propaganda either.

If you've ever seen a child whose limbs turn black and have to be amputated from meningitis you will think differently. You think reminding you to get your children vaccinated against meningitis is bad medicine? I'm sorry for your children and your doctor.

Though I despise all the pharma ads, I will say I made sure even my dd with a severe needle phobia (it took 4 of us and one sister on the phone,) had the meningitis vaccine. That is a quickly and easily spread disease, especially in group housing settings. I worked in a daycare years ago where a 1-year-old died from the disease from one day when he had a fever to the next. It's nothing to fool around with.

Elmer, do you really wonder what the answer is to your last paragraph??

Yes.

Meningitis is common in teenagers and young adults. There have been a couple of deaths of 19-yr olds in recent years. That's scary as hell to me.

I'm glad we're talking about this. It made me look up what my son has had, and for what he needs a booster. Meningitis. I knew it was getting close to time now, but now I know in the next couple of weeks, my son will be getting his booster.

Last night, I had to talk some sense into him. That meningitis commercial came on and I said, have you had the vaccine? Yes, he had. I looked it up (aren't electronic medical records cool?!), it was four years ago, so I looked up the dosing schedule. Yep, it's time again. He was not thrilled. I told him how anyone could get it, even me!, but the age group most affected is his because it's spread when you're in close quarters around a lot of people. He laughed and said, you mean like when you're in school [type of environment]. He understood. Not that he liked it, but he got it.

Last year, the boy's and my discussion was about the HPV vaccine. I explained how it hasn't been around as
long as some, but that didn't mean it wasn't worthy of consideration. He wanted to get it,
and these are his words, even though he wasn't sexually active and plans
on not being until he's married. That's right, we've talked about the
bigger scares of being sexually active that aren't parenthood (STDs!),
and how it's easier to say you'll abstain than accomplish it. Anyway, I
was less certain about this vaccine than others. For instance, my very
aged mother has health issues and we spend a lot of time with her, so he
MUST get a flu vaccine every year. He made the decision to get the
vaccine against HPV even though it has a rigorous dosing schedule and we
began it during marching season (if you don't know, marching season is 5 days
a week until 7PM, 10PM, or later all of those days after school, and you can't miss
practice). I think you have to look at these things with a bit of care, but he wanted to do it, no scaring involved, and with information.

If people were just more considerate of all the factors, I think they'd understand more deeply why vaccines exist. I for one, am well pleased I don't have polio.

Ok Elmer, imo the scare-mongering of anti-vaxxers started online and those with anti-government feelings took it up readily.

That's not how it started. In 1998, in the well respected British medical journal the Lancet, a study was published by Andrew Wakefield, who declared that the MMR vaccine had a direct link to causing autism. His research was faulty and falsified, and the journal retracted the study and Wakefield even had his license to practice medicine revoked. Despite this, some idiotic people (including celebrities--Jenny McCarthy etc) started spreading the word that it is dangerous to vaccinate your children and it spread like wildfire. So now we are and will be dealing with public health outbreaks like the one of measles that occurred at Disneyland last year.

I change my comment:

no scaring involved, and with correct, unfalsified information.

I don't remember it since I was quite young, but I had bacterial meningitis as a child. The story as it was relayed to me is: I was sick and had a fever. It got worse fairly quickly. When I started to show strange purple blotches on my skin and cry continuously, my mother drove me to the pediatrician. He said he wasn't sure what it was but told my mother to drive directly to the emergency room just to be sure. He then called the hospital and told them she was on the way there with a child with meningococcemia. A team of doctors and nurses were waiting at the curb at the ER, and they grabbed me from her arms and ran into the hospital to start the treatment they had already prepared.

The pediatrician later explained that he instantly knew what it was, but felt that my mother could get me to the hospital faster than waiting for an ambulance to come to the doctor's office. He also decided that telling my mother how severe it was might cause her to panic and possibly crash on the way to the hospital.

Menningitis boosters are required for middle school here. They don't mess around. You have 10 days once school starts or you will be sent home. We definitely would have gotten it even if it wasn't required. It's probably fairly easy to do a waiver though. I have always gotten the vaccines for my kids. My youngest had the Rota Virus vaccine shortly before it was recalled. That made me think twice. It was really pushed at the time, I didn't hesitate if the DR recommended it. We have gotten all the recommended since (except for flu shots. In the last couple of years we have gotten them. Too. I'm kind of on the fence with those-natural immunity is good to build, but they're free with insurance. Who knows if those really work or not? Gardisal seems to be pushed a lot. I decided to let my teens decide on that one. IMO it hasn't been around all that long. Not Interested in being Guinea pigs just yet.

I had my DD get Gardisil probably 10 years ago. I'm glad I did. But I do agree with the OP that the commercials for this product are pretty sleazy.

That commercial is beyond sleazy. The answer as a parent is BECAUSE YOU HAD NO NEED OF IT WHEN YOU WERE 12!! The boy actor is of the age one gets this vaccine. GO GET IT IDIOT. To blame parents for your sexually transmitted disease is beyond ridiculous!!

Oh that commercial. Yea, I am really not certain how to convey the risks of getting HPV without being scary. Cancer is scary.

I hadn't seen it before but I think the commercial rob links to conveys the sensitive message tastefully. Is this the one some have expressed a disliking for? I can't imagine. Sure, for some the subject might be uncomfortable, but just like teaching your kids about the birds and bees, HPV is reality, transmission is reality, and to ignore the problem and the possible solution is foolish. It is what it is.

arcy- in order for the vaccine to have maximum effectiveness, it needs to be administered BEFORE a person is sexually active. Administering it to 11 and 12 year old kids virtually guarantees they will get it before sexual activity.

A parent should do everything they can to protect their children, including getting the HPV vaccine.

When it first came out, I was on the fence about it as well since it was new. It is over 10 years old now, it is no longer a "new" vaccine. PLEASE get your children vaccinated.

I work in early childhood. We've had measles, whooping
cough, and something else (don't remember) all here within my area of the USA. All brought by international travel by citizens (must be
vaccinated to immigrate). The low-income parents, especially first generation,
are adamant bout the kids being vax'd; many of them have personal experience
with some of the diseases. I keep all my shots and my children's up-to-date.