Here are the best times this autumn to receive the flu vaccine for peak immunity | Opinion
Flu vaccine season
It’s that time of year again — the air is crisper, the leaves are beginning to turn golden and copper … and the colds never seem to end. Welcome to viral season!
As a pediatrician, my clinic is filled with cough, runny nose, sore throats and fevers, especially in our day-care and school-aged patients. With autumn well under way, my most frequently asked question is, “Have you received your flu vaccine yet?”
The CDC recommends anyone 6 months of age or older, barring a select few contraindications, receive an annual influenza vaccination. Additionally, for those 8 and younger receiving their flu vaccines for the first time, the recommendation is two doses, the second being at least four weeks after the first. It is best to receive your flu vaccine in September or October to ensure immunity is robust by peak flu season (generally December to February). However, if you miss this time frame no need to fret. Influenza vaccinations are offered by most locations throughout flu season.
Talk to your pediatrician about what timing and formulation is right to keep your family healthy through the holidays.
- Emily Bryan, M.D., Overland Park
Strange beauty
Thank you for the homage to community gardens written by Anthony Reardon and published in The Kansas City Star. (Sept. 22, 1C, “How green spaces help the bodies, minds of gardeners”) It was a reminder of the value that even the challenging features of our natural surroundings offer us.
We have a small house on a small suburban lot lined with 32 hedge apple (or Osage orange) trees. We spend every day in the fall picking up the softball-sized, heavy, squishy apples that fall from those trees onto our driveway, sometimes as many as 100 a week.
Those trees were probably planted by one of the early farmers on our Olathe property as a natural fence and windbreak, and we know to stay clear of their thorns. We marvel at the craggy “faces” made by the gnarled trunks and are entertained by a veritable circus of squirrels tearing through the branches.
Reardon’s story made me appreciate even more the strange beauty of these sturdy old trees and how ordinary our city lot would be without them.
- Mary-Margaret Simpson, Olathe
Whose playbook?
Noted British historian Richard J. Evans has published a new book called “Hitler’s People: The Faces of the Third Reich.” His chapter on Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda chief, concludes with a warning about today’s politicians. He states that Goebbels unleashed his propaganda in an unprecedented deployment of disinformation.
“His propaganda tactics have been, and are being, widely imitated by populist politicians from Donald Trump to Viktor Orban to discredit and ridicule their opponents and sweep aside opposition to their rule, though they are surely less ideologically fanatical in their motivation. By using derogatory nicknames for his critics, by denying the legitimacy of opposition to his cause, by cynically refusing to accept the truth when it turned out to be inconvenient, and by creating powerful but ultimately imaginary menaces to society that threaten to destroy it unless countered by the power of a supposedly great leader, Goebbels set an example that was followed long after his death.”
We can only hope that the American people see through these attempts better than did the Germans in the 1930s.
- Terry Rodenberg, Greenwood
Public good
In response to James Whitford’s guest column, he cites President Grover Cleveland’s thinking in 1887 as his starting point. (Sept. 20, 6A, “Government assistance hurts faith-based helpers”) Cleveland vetoed a federal aid package, saying government aid “encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the government.”
Mr. Whitford wants people to be poor, not dependent on the government, so churches can exercise charity. The poor do not exist for the church to be charitable.
In 1887, the nation had the sharpest inequities of wealth in our history until now. Older citizens did not have the safety net we have now with Social Security. Over time, support for people with no or limited income have benefited from public assistance, and people with disabilities have benefited from an array of programs.
Paternalism is not a virtue. Paternalism, especially in faith-based communities, keeps patients and church members dependent on their safety clinics. If they enroll in Medicaid, they have insurance coverage wherever they go.
Health care is a public right and a public good. Our public programs are designed to provide justice and fairness. Preventing citizens from participating in programs to which they are eligible is paternalism at its worst.
- Alice Kitchen, Kansas City
Just wondering ...
Why does it seem current lawmakers are turning us into 50 countries with individual rules and regulations instead of keeping us the United States?
Why did compromise become a bad word?
Why did our motto on Ellis Island welcoming “masses yearning to breathe free” become a fence to immigration?
Why isn’t there the same loud outcry holding men accountable when it comes to impregnating women as for denying women’s rights on bodily autonomy?
Why haven’t we developed an 18-year forced labor concept for men to contribute financially for all that’s involved in raising their kin? (It might even help our infrastructure dilemma, day care and education costs.)
Why don’t we embrace the good things new cultures can offer us (and I’m not just talking about empanadas, scones or borscht)?
Why and when did it become necessary to overlay justice, ethics and morals with a Christian template?
Why are some folks behaving like lemmings rushing toward the cliff instead of fact-checking info and thinking for themselves?
I’m old and may never have answers, much less fixes. However, I believe our vote in November will answer some of them — for good or bad.
- Marilyn Schaeffer, Kansas City
Gratitude helps
“Thanks for everything. I have no complaint whatsoever.” I found this nice little prayer in my reading and adopted it. Every morning, every evening and whenever anything happens during the day, I say it to myself. It actually helps. In our tempestuous time, more people could use it.
My wife fell and broke her hip on Labor Day. She spent 19 days in the hospital, mostly for rehab, and is now at home but struggling to get our lives back. Sometimes my little prayer gets a little hard to say. But it could have been worse, I tell myself. “Thanks for everything ...”
Gratitude is life-enhancing. Be thankful for the people in your life and for what you have and enjoy, like freedom and democracy. I am grateful that we live close to Loose Park, where a walk around the trail lifts me up early every morning before I get to take care of my wife.
Be grateful. We live in a great city and a great country that is by no means falling apart. Embrace hope, not fear. Be joyful, not angry.
Vote for the candidate that you like. Just don’t be weird.
- Mark Johnson, Kansas City
No way, no how
I’m a registered Republican. The last Republican I voted for was John McCain. I agreed with hardly any of the policies of President George W. Bush or recent candidates Mitt Romney, Mike Pence and Nikki Haley, but I thought they were decent people.
Donald Trump is a completely different story. Convicted of 34 felonies; lost a civil fraud trial and owes the state of New York hundreds of millions of dollars; personally attacks anyone who disagrees with him, but whines when they attack him; lies on a daily basis; and many, many more faults too numerous to list.
Long story short, Donald Trump and I could agree 100% on all the major issues, and I still wouldn’t vote for him. He’s just a bad human being.
- Tom Meek, Lee’s Summit
Theft solved
Congratulations to KCPD. My vehicle was stolen from the street in front of my house during Saturday night/Sunday morning (Sept. 21-22). I reported the theft to the Kansas City police Sunday, and within three hours, I received a call from the Blue Springs police that my car had been located. Good work to both KCPD and Blue Springs PD.
- Connie Stewart, Kansas City
Men and abortions
A wonderful lady friend of mine said this to me: “If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.” Bingo.
- Robert Steed, Kansas City