My son was hospitalized three weeks ago with the flu, and is still fighting the pneumonia that he got as a result of the flu.

He has a primary immune deficiency disorder and can't get vaccines (well, he could but they wouldn't do a damn thing for him since he can't produce IgG, and the live virus vaccines are dangerous for him), so for him, we rely on other people getting vaccinated to keep him healthy since avoidance is the only way he stays healthy. This isn't just about flu--he also doesn't have immunity to measles or whooping cough or chicken pox or any of those other things that might be a PITA to someone else who chooses not to get vaccinated and instead gets the disease, but for him they could easily be fatal. He does get gammaglobulin every four weeks to give him a temporary immune system, so for the most part we don't worry, but new viruses aren't yet in the gammaglobulin so they are extraordinarily dangerous to him. What he had three weeks ago was just the seasonal flu (or so we're assuming since the rest of us stayed healthy and had already received the seasonal flu vaccine).

We haven't been able to get the swine flu vaccine yet, and I know the virus is going around in our area, so I'm really worried about him. He's in every risk category for getting the worst of this virus (age, underlying condition, neurological disorder), and he's already so weak from this last disease that getting something else could kill him quickly. I'm not being melodramatic about this--this is just how it is. I'm very bothered by people who think that since they aren't high risk then they don't need the vaccine. I don't get vaccines to keep ME healthy (although that's a nice benefit)--I get vaccinated to keep OTHER people healthy, people who for one reason or another can't get vaccinated. These people are everywhere. It's not just rare cases like my son, but cancer patients and infants and people allergic to eggs. I don't want to go to the grocery store not knowing that I'm contagious with something and then accidentally pass it on to the leukemia patient picking over the apples with me before I have the first symptoms and I end up sick for a few days and she ends up dead because I didn't think the vaccine was necessary for me. That's not something I want to live with. If I can help keep other people healthy through this one small thing, I will.

Sarah