What’s the Price of Your Life?
As many of you know, the Texas legislature recently passed a law requiring all college students to receive a meningococcal vaccine before the start of classes this fall. This has been an important step in protecting our young adults from a deadly disease. You can then imagine my outrage to see the following article in the Richland Chronicle:
For students who have taken a break in the fall from school, going back in the spring could be a headache.
In addition to filling out all the paper work and waiting in the infamous line to talk to an adviser, students will have to deal with another obstacle: the meningitis shot.
Contrary to the title of this article, if you ask a parent like me, who lost a college-aged son to meningitis, there is nothing “pricey” or “frustrating” about the meningitis vaccine. If only I had known, my son would be alive today. You think rare diseases aren’t going to hit your family. That’s what I thought — this disease would happen to someone else. But, it didn’t, and I watched my son suffer for 26 days.
Most insurance companies will pay for this vaccine, and for those who cannot afford it, the state recently announced students can receive it for free at health departments and clinics. Even if you had to pay for the vaccine out of pocket — with the years of protection you receive, it’s just pennies a day.
I would spend all the money I have for the opportunity to go back and vaccinate. Don’t take a chance with your health.
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Sometimes the price of protection is “frustrating”, but as you mention, the cost of losing a child is incalculable and that pain is forever. Thanks to pioneers like you, advocates for vaccine-preventable diseases are making significant progress is protecting all the children and adults on the planet.