photo: Eneas/ BY

On an early Sunday morning, my dad announced to the family that he would be getting the H1N1 vaccine and that my mother would be taking my brother and me to get it done as well.

Immediately, my brother and I refused. We both had reservations about the vaccine.

We decided to have a family meeting--not heated, but civil.

My dad asked us why we were against it.

We said that even though we might run the risk of getting the swine flu, we couldn’t predict the possible side effects of the vaccine.

My dad didn't say much after that.

So my brother and I stayed home. But my parents still went to get their shot.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately depending on your perspective), the clinic had run out of the H1N1 vaccine. So my parents ended up getting a regular seasonal flu shot.

But, a day or two later, my worst fears came true. My mom came home with a scary fever. It really frightened me because I had never seen my mom shake so much. I did my best to take care of her, and within about a week she was better. Fortunately, my dad is okay, but, still, I worry about him.

My mom's reaction to the vaccine itself was one of the reasons why I did not want to take the shot. I asked my dad whether my mom's fever made him regret his decision to get even the regular flu shot. I wondered whether he would still considering getting the swine flu shot when it would become available.

He said that the shortage scared him, because his main reason for taking the vaccine was to keep people around him--both his family and his community--safe.

But he stressed that the most important thing was for us all to take care of ourselves.

And I agree with him. I may have foregone the vaccine, but I'm still doing my best to stay safe. I try to wash my hands frequently, cover my mouth when I sneeze, and stay home from work and school when I'm sick.

What I disagree with is the mad rush to get vaccinated.  Whenever anything bad in my lifetime has happened or was predicted to happen-- like Y2K, 9/11, avian flu--it seems that people freaked out and didn't think about the long-term effects of their actions.

I think people should do a lot of research before getting something injected into their bodies.

To a large extent, the mainstream Spanish-language media was my dad's main source of information about the vaccine. He’d heard that if you don’t take care of yourself, you can die within three days. My dad said he believed the news because the show he watches had interviewed doctors and other specialists, so he trusted the information. And he said that the ultimate proof was that people around the world were sick and dying.

Still, I was skeptical.

Maybe we differed in opinion because we get our news from different sources. My dad listens to morning talk radio shows and the 6 o'clock news on the Spanish-language channel Univision. I, on the other hand, get my news from the internet, newspapers, and public radio. The only TV news that I occasionally watch is CNN. Everything else seems to me too sensationalist and one-sided to take seriously.  

I find it hard to trust what the pundits on TV say.

I feel as though I'm being told what to do--as if I'm a child--rather being informed to make my own decisions.

And, much to my parents' chagrin, I won't come to a decision about the vaccine until I'm satisfied with the information out there.

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