Vaccination aggravation

My daughter finally got her H1N1 flu vaccination last week along with her classmates. She was the first to complain that she wasn't feeling well, and I have to wonder if the expectation of side effects was worse than the actual side effects. Less than an hour after her shot, the school called and asked me to pick her up. She said her arm hurt, and she had a headache, but other symptoms were harder to verbalize. One of her friends developed a fever a couple hours later, but she did not. The next day, she said she still wasn't feeling well, so I let her stay home. Besides a sore arm, she seemed fine. Her school reported that a lot of kids had stayed home that day. I hope that she at least doesn't get the flu.

We don't call it swineflu around here, since this is a major pork producing area, and we wouldn't want any negative associations. They want people to call it the new influenza. Whatever. New flu or old flu, I don't want it. Even knowing what my daughter went through with her vaccine, I would still get mine in a heartbeat, but I have to wait my turn.

The Swedish government ordered 18 million doses of vaccine, enough for two doses per inhabitant, all free of charge. Vaccinations were supposed to begin the first week in October, first with the risk groups, then children, young adults, etc in order by age. First the vaccine was delayed due to packaging issues. Then there were delivery issues. Some areas got the vaccine, but not others. Some of the areas had plenty and were sending it back because people didn't want it. In other places, a hockey team managed to get themselves considered a risk group in order to get vaccinated first.

The flu is spreading like wildfire through Sweden now. I guess one advantage of living so isolated is that I might have a chance of avoiding it long enough to get vaccinated. At the rate they're going, I fear flu season may be over by then. Yup, our taxes at work.