Mom Who Went To Media Because Of Vaccine Mix Up Is Being Over Dramatic
The idea of a flu-vaccination program in schools is a good one. Parents sign permission forms, and a pop-up clinic is set up at the school to vaccinate children. Great. What’s not great is messing up the paperwork and giving a kid whose parent did not consent the shot. It’s still not enough of a mishap to sully this excellent program.
Letisha Huff was pissed when her son was given a seasonal flu vaccine at school without her permission. She’s not anti-vaccine, she just wanted her own pediatrician to administer it. Fair enough. She has every right to make that decision. The school accidentally gave her son the shot because of a “misidentification.” One of the students at the school has the same name as her son. While I agree it was a terrible oversight, I think taking her story to the news was a bit much. She told KTVB her 8-year-old doesn’t have any health problems, but is concerned because he could have, and that would have put him in danger. Yeah, but he doesn’t. So he wasn’t.
It seems like an honest mistake, and the program has never had a mishap like this before. It’s understandable for a parent to be more than a little annoyed about something like this – please don’t accidentally vaccinate my child, thanks. But regardless of this mistake, the vaccine program is an excellent idea.
From Huffpost Parents:
The vaccines are provided through the federal Vaccines for Children program. The first year of the SLVC trial cost the district $0, according to a West Ada School District report…
West Ada’s report on the first year of the trial program noted that “significantly lower absenteeism due to flu-like illness was found across SLVC schools following student vaccination effort.” Among the five schools that year, there was an average of 33.7 more students attending school daily, adding up to 6,065 more days of school attended.
The program will make vaccines more accessible and free. Let’s not let one mishap that didn’t hurt anyone sully it’s reputation.
(photo: ktvb)
