Nov. 9-13 Flu activity: There were few reported absences because of flu-like illness in Bayfield and Durango schools.

Thursday: In-school vaccination clinics in Miller Middle School and Ignacio junior and senior schools.

Friday: In-school vaccination clinics in Bayfield and Durango high schools.

Saturday: 4:30-7 p.m., La Plata County Fairgrounds Extension Building.

Populations: Children 14 years and younger*; people as old as 64 with chronic health conditions; pregnant women; parents, siblings or day care providers of children 6 months and younger.

*Call San Juan Basin Health to find out if vaccine availability has expanded additional eligible populations. FluLine: 247-5702 ext. 1520. Web site, www.sjbhd.org.

A vaccine for swine flu is expected this fall and the CDC is recommending that pregnant women, young people 6 months to 24 years old and people who live with or care for children younger than 6 months old be the first to get it.

This is likely to add heat to the ongoing debate about the safety of vaccines. While most children will have received dozens of vaccine injections by the time they are 18, questions about potential side effects persist. Health officials swear by vaccines’ safety, but the number of parents who decline to have their children vaccinated has doubled in recent decades, according to a 2008 article in the the New York Times.  

Despite my inclination toward natural parenting, I have to admit vaccines are one of the issues I have least scrutinized and so far my children have followed the recommended schedule (although we’ve skipped the flu shots). A recent article in Mothering magazine does a good job of presenting both sides of the debate, concluding in the end that there is reason to believe the medical establishment may have swung toward excessive inoculation, while ignoring the potential negative side effects and questionable effectiveness of some vaccines (a previous swine flu outbreak in 1976 sparked a mass vaccination effort that was later aborted after the shot was linked with rare but serious side effects). Personally, I’m beginning to think in the future I’d like to do some more research before simply following CDC recommendations. Like everything, more information never hurts.

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