I can't believe I'm typing this but it turns out I might have been wrong about vaccines. Not about their effectiveness, come on now. It's 2019 and I'm not an idiot like the people who have blocked me on Facebook due to how often I express my desire for all children to live to adulthood instead of dying prematurely from diseases that scientists got a handle on in the 1800s. I suppose some find that annoying. But maybe the anti-vax movement exists solely because people just can't afford vaccinations.
As many of you know, I am traveling to Israel this summer for a mission trip. (You can click here to donate to the $2,000 I need to raise!) Since I am traveling internationally, I did a little research about the vaccines that are recommended for travel in the area. The main vaccines recommended for Israel specifically are typhoid and rabies.
My doctor told me that I really didn't need the rabies vaccine unless I was going to be working with animals. If you know me, you know I am definitely not going to be working with animals. Here is photo evidence of the type of interaction with animals that has become the norm for me.
Awww cute Layla.
Personal space Layla! Personal space!
I completely understand the concept of not getting unnecessary vaccines and not being paranoid but first of all...I think that rabid animals pretty much make all the decisions regarding how much contact there will be. I won't be volunteering at an animal shelter but I am also in no condition to outrun a feral dog. I probably couldn't outrun a feral tortoise. And second of all...if I got rabies, I wouldn't just get sick for a week and catch up on reality TV from the comfort of my bed. I would...die. Unless I got treatment pretty much immediately and honestly I'm not that observant. It would probably take me weeks to suspect rabies and by then my mouth would be a full on foam party.
So you see, rabies bad, vaccines good. The problem is, from the research that I've done (Googling it once and asking a friend with firsthand experience) the rabies vaccine costs a couple thousand dollars. I don't know about y'all, but I have already mentally spent my tax return and the only needle-related activity that made the list was a new piercing.
I did, however, splurge for the typhoid vaccine. Set me back a cool hundred thirty. Honestly, I will be volunteering at a hospital so I should have just risked it. I'm sure they can handle a fever and vomiting. But what's done is done. So now I'm thinking...what can they really do if I don't pay? Are they going to come take the vaccine out of my body? Is that scientifically possible? This isn't the futuristic dystopia of Repo Men, a scary sci-fi film brought to you by the sick minds of Canada in which a team of men forcibly repossess the donated organs of recipients who can't pay.
As far as I'm considered, I'm legally untouchable. But as far as my father is concerned, I need to "think of my credit score" and "blah blah blah."
What I've learned from all this is that while the flu shot is normally free or pretty cheap depending on your insurance, other vaccines are not. Most insurance companies cover the cost of the recommended vaccines in America but when it comes to travel, you're on your own buddy. Which really seems counterintuitive to what I know about disease ecology. If anything we should be forcibly vaccinating travelers. There. I said it.
And even though your insurance probably covers basic vaccines, there's still a co-pay so you better stay on top of those expiration dates. It's like your body is a fridge and vaccines are dairy products.
When you have a kid they receive a ton of vaccinations and I'm sure you or your insurance gets a hefty, itemized bill that will take several phone calls to reconcile but at least you have a baby to show for it. When you get boosters what do you get? A sore arm? And in my case a bill by mail 2 weeks later. I thought I was in the clear!
Healthcare costs in this country are simultaneously something that I don't understand at all and something that I am enraged about. Just this morning a student told me that getting her thumb X-rayed cost her family thousands of dollars. Thousands! And that's like...with insurance and everything.
When I was younger I broke a finger and chose not to go to the doctor. Now I have nerve damage so I can't use that hand to count to three but it doesn't negatively impact my life as much as spending a thousand dollars on an X-ray would. And it's my ring finger on my left hand, doubtful I will ever need use it. My students do make fun of me when I start listing things with my left hand and have to switch to my right.
So let's be more sympathetic to all the Typhoid Marys and crooked fingers out there.
But not anti-vaxxers.
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