One of Mrs ERJ's regular activities is to provide child care for a "mother's" prayer group/Bible study that meets once a week. In most cases, these moms have several preschool kids and this is a time when the moms can have adult conversations. The moms talk about parenting situations. Solutions are proposed. The Bibles are consulted. They pray.
Meanwhile....Mrs ERJ is one room over and rides herd on the young ones. She has a special fondness for busy, inventive four year old boys. Those moms LOVE Mrs ERJ.
The weekly Bible study was cancelled for two weeks in a row. This week it was because too many moms had to stay home with sick kids.
Epidemic dynamics
It seems like there is an up-tick in sickness shortly after the kids go back to school. Part of it is due to the conditions of placing more kids, closer together. Another dynamic involves joint-custody kids coming back from Arizona and Pennsylvania and other distant places. It is a bit like a ship returning to Europe from an exotic port infested with Bubonic Plague.
It is risky to draw strong conclusions from weak data...especially small samples sizes. It may be that the moms have become neurotic (although they were not last year), or that the illnesses are not contagious or that the moms have other things going on and "illness" was the easiest to communicate. My perception is that the moms get a lot out of the Bible study and do not cancel it without very good reasons.
The strength of this data is that it is a leading, indicator. This is a good thing because it takes about three weeks before the shot triggers the production of enough antibodies to do you much good.
Life involves making choices based on the data we do have available. The data I have, partial and flawed, suggests that this cold/flu season may be a humdinger. Mrs ERJ and I will take advantage of this "found" three hours when she would have been watching the church kids and get our flu shots.
As adults, you can make any choice you want. I am not telling you to get a flu shot. I am just sharing the choices made by the ERJ family.
Got mine last week, on the instructions of my lady. She's the medical professional in this partnership.
ReplyDeleteYou couldn't pay me to get a flu shot. I don't trust it. And, knock on wood, I've never had the flu except for the one year many many moons ago that I did get a flu shot. Coincidence? Perhaps. Still, no flu shot for me.
ReplyDeletealso it gets my back up when the government pushes something so insistently. it would be so easy for someone (government or not) to put all sorts of stuff into the flu shot that the majority of the population will willingly get. perhaps I'm too cynical. maybe I'm just crazy. lol
DeleteI'm on the fence... Flu shots are a gamble that they 'hit' the right combo for that season's flu. Three out of five times I got the shot, I got the flu anyway. The two years I didn't I stayed flu free.
ReplyDeleteI'm on the fence... Flu shots are a gamble that they 'hit' the right combo for that season's flu. Three out of five times I got the shot, I got the flu anyway. The two years I didn't I stayed flu free.
ReplyDeleteYou are right! Every year, without fail, my kids get sick once school is back in session. I never thought about what you said though- kids coming from other states after spending summers with family or on vacation and bringing back germs. That definitely makes sense as to why it happens without fail every year!
ReplyDeleteLeonardo @ US Health Works