When schools say, 'the flu shot is not required', parents hear, 'it's not necessary.' Nothing is further from the truth
学校：“流感疫苗不是必须接种的”，家长们：“流感疫苗是没有必要的”。实际情况远非如此。
Editor's Note: Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez is a primary care pediatrician and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
编者注：Edith Bracho-Sanchez 博士是一名儿科初级保健医生，以及哥伦比亚大学欧文医学中心助理教授。
(CNN)The concerning scenario has played out in my office over and over again this season. "Your child is due for the flu vaccine today" is interrupted by, "Oh, no, doctor -- we don't like to put unnecessary things in their body."
(CNN)最近这种令人担忧的场景一次又一次的在我的办公室中上演。“您孩子今天该注射流感疫苗了”常常被家长的“哦，不用了医生，我们不想给孩子注射太多没用的东西。”
The argument comes from parents who vaccinated their children against the flu at ages 1, 2, 3 and 4; parents of children who tolerated the vaccine well, who did not contract the flu, and yet at age 5 the flu shot suddenly became "unnecessary." I'm even hearing it from parents of siblings. For the child under age 5, parents agree to the flu shot; for the child over age 5, they decline it.
这类说法往往来自于那些给孩子1至4岁都注射了流感疫苗的家长口中；这些家长原本十分愿意给孩子注射疫苗，孩子在注射疫苗后也没有感染过流感，但是当孩子满5岁后却突然开始认为流感疫苗是“没用的”。我甚至见过家中有几个孩子的家长也持有同样的观点。对于5岁以下的孩子，家长同意接受流感疫苗注射；但对于5岁以上的孩子，家长却往往不同意。
So, what changes at this magical age of 5? Schools in New York City, where I practice, stop requiring the flu shot. "Not required" has translated into "not necessary."
所以在5岁这个充满了魔力的年纪上究竟发生了什么？我针对纽约市的学校进行了研究，这些学校不强制5岁以上的孩子注射疫苗。“非强制的”却被解读成了“没用的”。
As dangerous as this misconception is, it's hard to blame parents when their reasoning is, after all, very logical: If the flu shot was truly necessary, wouldn't schools require it, like they require so many other childhood vaccinations? Not exactly.
虽然这种误解是非常危险的，但我们却很难指责这些家长们，因为他们的想法也是十分符合逻辑的：如果流感疫苗的确有效，那么学校为什么不强制所有的学生都注射呢，就像其它许多强制儿童注射的疫苗那样？因此流感疫苗并非那样的有效。
In the United States, vaccine requirement laws are set by each state. Currently only a handful of states, New York included, require children to be vaccinated against the flu to enter daycare or pre-K. It is therefore not surprising that when researchers recently looked at the number of daycare centers around the country that required children to be vaccinated against the flu, they found only 24.5% did so. And once children turn 5, right as they enter elementary school, the flu shot requirement in these handful of states goes away altogether.
在美国，规定疫苗注射的条例都是由各州自行制定的。目前只有一部分州，包括纽约在内，要求孩子在进入日托以及学前班之前必须接受流感疫苗注射。正因如此，在研究人员最近的统计中发现，在全国范围内只有24.5%的日托要求儿童在入学之前必须接种流感疫苗。当孩子满5岁开始上小学后，那几个为数不多的强制日托儿童接种流感疫苗的州也并没有强制小学儿童注射流感疫苗的规定。
To be clear, children are not all of a sudden immune to the flu and its serious complications just because they've turned 5. The influenza virus simply does not work that way. It is precisely because the influenza virus can cause a serious, life-threatening illness to children and adults of all ages that both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend everyone over the age of 6 months receive the flu shot every year. Although not perfect, the flu shot is the best way to protect ourselves and our loved ones from the flu and its complications.
这里需要明确的一点是，儿童并不会因为满5岁就突然产生了可以对抗流感及其一系列严重并发症的免疫力。流感病毒的致病原理并非如此。流感病毒能导致儿童以及任何年龄段的成人产生一系列严重且致命的病症，因此美国儿科学会和美国疾病控制与预防中心都建议所有6个月以上的儿童及成人每年接种流感疫苗。虽然流感疫苗不是完美无缺的，但目前它依然是保护我们自己以及我们所爱的人远离流感的最好的方法。
But in my office, school requirements are far more powerful than official recommendations from organizations with no tangible role in families' lives. Even things like the severity of the flu season, or the effectiveness of the vaccine, were recently found by my colleague Dr. Melissa Stockwell and her team at Columbia University not to make a difference in whether parents chose to vaccinate their children.
在我看来，相较于在家庭中并不扮演任何角色的官方机构的建议，学校的规定则明显具有更高的效力。我的同事Melissa Stockwell博士及其在哥伦比亚大学的研究团队最近发现，即使像流感爆发的严重程度或疫苗的有效性这样的信息都不会对家长是否要给他们的孩子接种流感疫苗产生多大的影响。
The way parents in my practice erroneously perceive the flu shot as an "optional" and therefore "unnecessary" vaccine may also reflect the way many adults across this country think of the shot: as some luxury item that somebody else, but not me, needs. The misconception comes on top of so many others around the flu shot -- for example, the flu shot causing the flu. Spoiler alert: It does not.
在我的研究中家长们所持的这种认为流感疫苗是“可选的”，因此是“无用的”错误想法，同样可以反映出国内许多成年人对疫苗所持的看法：这是属于别人的，但不是我所需要的，一种奢侈的东西。这种错误的想法往往与许多其它对流感疫苗的误解一同流传着 -- 比如，流感疫苗会引起流感。谣言警告：流感疫苗不会导致流感。
It is no surprise, then, that in a recent survey only half of Americans said they intended to get vaccinated this season and only 63% of children 6 months to 17 years old got vaccinated last season, according to the CDC.
因此当疾控中心发布的最新调查结果显示只有半数的美国人表示他们在这个流感流行季准备接种疫苗，以及仅有63%的6个月至17岁儿童在上一个流感爆发季接种了疫苗时，我们并不感到意外。
The agency says more than 3 million people around the country have already contracted the flu this season, 32,000 people have been hospitalized and 1,800 people have died.
数据显示，在这个流感季节中，全国范围内已有超过三百万人感染了流感，三千二百万人住院治疗，而一千八百人因此死亡。
When it comes to the flu, we don't have the luxury of agreeing to disagree. Time is ticking. Whether or not schools and jobs require it, the flu shot is indeed necessary if we are to protect ourselves and our loved ones from the illness.
面对流感，我们不能在不同意面前屈服。时间一分一秒的在流逝。无论学校或是工作单位是否强制接种疫苗，它的确是我们保护自己以及所爱的人远离流感的必要手段。
