Vaccination Guide

For the vast majority of healthy people, priority is given to completing free vaccinations within the immunization plan in the region, and then selecting non-immunization plan vaccines as needed based on age, occupation, exposure risk, and financial ability. Vaccination is only postponed in rare cases such as severe allergies to vaccine components and high fever during acute disease attacks. This is currently the most cost-effective and evidence-based vaccination plan.

To tell the truth, last week my cousin came to ask me with her 3-year-old child. She said that the community wanted non-immunization vaccines for hand, foot and mouth, but the elders at home stopped her and said, "Only those that are free of charge are required by the state, and those charged are all IQ taxes to make money." The old man said it categorically, and my cousin was very confused. This issue is actually the most controversial point in the field of vaccination. Two groups of people have been arguing for several years: one group believes that non-immunization vaccines are completely unnecessary, and the state does not include them in the free list because they are not important enough.； The other group believes that "it is only responsible for oneself to vaccinate all available vaccines" and wishes to vaccinate all vaccines available on the market.

In fact, both statements are a bit extreme. You have to know that the criterion for dividing immunization programs and non-immunization programs is never "importance", but the comprehensive result of multiple factors such as local public health financial capacity and disease prevalence. To give the simplest example, the HPV vaccine was a non-immunization program vaccine five years ago. Now more than 20 provinces across the country have included the HPV vaccine for girls under 14 years old in the free vaccination list. It cannot be said that the importance of this vaccine has suddenly increased in the past five years, right? I have been in the pediatric emergency room for half a month before, and I have seen too many children who were hospitalized because they did not have the whorls and hand, foot and mouth vaccinations. Not to mention the misfortunes they suffered, the cost of a hospital stay is five to six times more than the vaccine. Of course, if you say that my children have little contact with people and rarely go to closed places, it is absolutely fine if they don’t want to spend this money. The choice is yours, and you don’t have to be morally kidnapped by anyone.

Oh, by the way, there are still many people asking whether the flu vaccine should be taken every year, which is quite controversial. Some people say, "I still had a cold after taking it last year, and it didn't work at all." Others said, "The strains of the virus change every year, so you have to take it to be effective." I used to be a supporter of the theory that the flu vaccine is useless. I didn’t take it for three years in a row. The winter before last, half of the people in the office got the flu. I was also infected. I had a fever of 39 degrees and lay down for four days. I coughed for almost a month before I recovered. I went to get it the next year. Last winter, when half of the people in the company got cold, nothing happened to me. Even if a girl in the same department got the vaccine, she only had a low-grade fever for a day and was not even asked to work. According to the public data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the protection rate of influenza vaccine for healthy adults is about 40%-70%. Even if it does not prevent infection, it can reduce the risk of severe illness and death by more than 80%. If you often go to crowded places and have elderly and children at home, there is no harm in getting a shot every autumn. If you rarely go out, you feel that the shot is in vain, and no one will say you are wrong if you don't take it.

There are also many people who have a ridiculous understanding of vaccination contraindications. A fan sent me a private message before, saying that he was allergic to mangoes and that the community did not allow HPV vaccination. He asked me if it was true that he could not get vaccinated. In fact, there are only two absolute contraindications for vaccines: first, if you have experienced severe allergic reactions such as anaphylactic shock and laryngeal edema after receiving the same vaccine before; second, if you are currently experiencing an acute disease attack and your body temperature exceeds 38.5°C, you can take the vaccine if you have allergies, colds, runny noses, antibiotics, or menstrual periods. Of course, I can also understand that many community doctors are very strict. After all, they will be held responsible if something goes wrong. If you are really afraid of the risks, it will not matter if you wait for three to five days and wait until you feel better before taking the injection. There is no need to argue with the doctor.

Many people are afraid of the adverse reactions of vaccination. The last time I took the recombinant herpes zoster vaccine, my arm hurt for three days and I couldn't lift it. I also had a low-grade fever for almost a day. I was so scared that I thought I had been infected. Later, I asked a friend from the prevention and health department and he said that this was a normal immune response. There are still two opinions on the Internet that are very quarrelsome. One says that "the greater the reaction, the higher the antibody level and the better the vaccine effect." The other says that "the size of the reaction is related to the physical constitution and has nothing to do with the effect."

Finally, there is nothing special to say. You really don’t have to worry about the “most complete vaccination schedule” on the Internet, and don’t follow the trend to grab some scarce vaccines. As an office worker who doesn’t interact with cats and dogs or go to the wild, you can’t go all the way to grab rabies vaccines, right? If you are really not sure what to do, take half an hour to go to the prevention and protection department of the community health service center near your home and ask. It is much more reliable than reading ten "popular science posts" from self-media.