Monday Morning Crisis Quarterback

Several months ago, I blogged about what I thought was going to happen when people who are used to getting what they want in health care were told that they couldn't get the H1N1 vaccine right away. That scenario completely failed to recognize the possibility that people actually wouldn't want the vaccine at all. It turns out that both are true. About half of the population does not intend to be vaccinated, and the other half is facing something of a shortage, at least in the short run.

Here in Washtenaw County, Michigan, the supply of vaccine is coming in slower than planned. This means that scheduled H1N1 vaccination clinics are being postponed or scaled back. My school district had intended to hold 3 clinics during the first 2 weeks of November and vaccinate anyone who wanted it. Today we got the word that one of those clinics was canceled and the other two would only vaccinate high priority subgroups.

This was, in almost all respects, a possibility I was prepared to deal with. I was not prepared, however, to deal with perhaps the hardest crisis communication audience I ever have to face: my daughter. My daughter is 11 and healthy. Her brother is 4. That means that he is a high priority for H1N1 vaccine, and she is in the next tier down. This means that, at the beginning of November, instead of the whole family going to the clinic for our vaccinations, we will just take my son.

My daughter has a mom who does crisis and crisis communication for a living. She's used to talking about some pretty heavy things around the dinner table, and to weighing some difficult ethical topics. She gets why my son gets the vaccine and she doesn't, at least intellectually. And yet, it's hard enough when your baby brother gets all the attention and the presents and gets away with everything and everyone says he's cute (at least that's how it seems sometimes). Now he is a higher priority for healthcare. This is a form of sibling rivalry few of us have experienced.

I am telling myself that I'm OK with not getting the vaccine right away, and with waiting to get it for my daughter. I also know we have two students at school who have secondary infections following presumed cases of H1N1. They are very sick, and they've been out for a long time. I know the numbers and the odds -- I write about them incessantly. But those two kids are much more real than all the numbers in the world, and I identify them much more with my own daughter. I'd be lying if I said I didn't want an extra dose, just for her.