So, a month ago I had the same panic nearly every other parent in the country did when I heard kids were dying of the flu. I took the two Paidhi Kids to the county clinic, where we waited for four hours packed in with a jillion other panicked parents and crabby kids, and eventually they got their shots. “Come back in a month,” the nurse said. Right, for the second shot, the booster dose, I guess.
So back I went–packed the kids up this morning and dragged them out to the clinic, only to be told there wasn’t any vaccine. See, they’d taken all the second doses and given them out during a “blitz day.” There might be another blitz day, the lady told me, and I should call and find out and maybe my kids could get their booster that way.
Now, I’m not too worried about my kids at this point. Paidhi Boy had the flu just before Christmas, it knocked him down pretty hard–he spent three days just lying miserably on the couch drinking juice occasionally, mostly sleeping or crying. His poor little hands shook, and he barely even had the energy to watch TV. Then he was tired, and cranky, for a week or so after that. So I figure he’s already had it, and nobody else got sick, and if we were going to we would have.
So it’s not that I’m anxious or panicked, just kind of confused. What’s the point of that second dose? Is it just the same as the first, since they were giving it out as a first dose? Why give it out knowing that there would be no second dose available, if the second was neccesary? And if the second dose doesn’t matter that much, why is it there to begin with? Did our two second doses have any chance of doing their recipients much good? It just seems so odd to me, to give out a bunch of first doses knowing there could be no booster, and strip second doses from people who already had them lined up to do it.