Health & Wellness: Immunization

From the Grace Church Health and Wellness Committee, August 2007

Disease prevention is the key to public health. We are constantly concerned about our own health and the health and safety of our children. We try to take prudent steps to protect ourselves and our families. For instance, we use seatbelts for ourselves and our children when traveling in motor vehicles. Immunizations or vaccines also prevent us from developing illnesses caused by infectious and potentially deadly diseases by helping prepare our bodies to fight these diseases.

Preschool, kindergarten and elementary school children’s health records are often checked to assure that incoming children have received the proper childhood immunizations (e.g., diphtheria, Pertussis and Chick pox). Children with incomplete immunizations may be excluded from attending school until their immunizations are up to date. Similarly, each fall, senior citizens are encouraged to obtain flu vaccinations. Again, each of these vaccines helps to prepare our bodies to fight these diseases. Vaccines prevent disease in the people who receive them and protect those who come into contact with unvaccinated individuals. It is always better to do whatever possible to prevent a disease than to have to treat it.

Health professionals agree that in order for these immunizations to have maximum benefit, they should be administered on a recommended schedule. Your doctor and other health care providers are the best sources of information about which immunizations are best for you and/or your child and when the immunization should be administered. In the text below, the Health and Wellness Committee offers some guideline reminders.

• Infants, preschoolers, and kindergarteners (Ages birth through 6 years) should receive the recommended series of vaccines for Hepatitis B (at birth), Diphtheria, Tetanus and Pertussis, Haemophilus influenza type b (Hib), Inactivated Poliovirus (first at two months), Measles, Mumps and Rubella, and Vericella (first at one year). Any of these vaccines that are not administered at the recommended age should be administered at any visit to the doctor when indicated and feasible.
• Elementary school children through high school adolescents may need to receive vaccines for Hepatitis B, Tetanus, Diphtheria and Pertussis, Inactivated Poliovirus and Vericella particularly if they were not previously vaccinated. Recommended vaccines for children and adolescents include vaccines for meningitis (one dose) and Human Papillomavirus (3 doses) as well as booster doses for Tetanus, Diphtheria and Pertussis at age 11-12 years.
• Adults often believe that vaccines to prevent diseases are just for children. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends booster shots for Tetanus, Diphtheria and Pertussis for those of us ages 19 through 64, Human Papillomavirus vaccines (3 doses) for women 19 – 49 years, and vaccines for Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Vericella, Influenza, Pneumocaccal, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis, B and Meningococcal for all adults who either (a) lack documentation of vaccination or have no evidence of prior infection, or (b) have some other risk factor such as medical condition, occupation or lifestyle.

Again, it is always better to do whatever possible to prevent a disease than to have to treat it.

Should you have concerns or want additional information about the material presented above, please contact your local health care provider or public health department. You may also choose to contact someone on the Health and Wellness Ministry Committee. This Committee is chaired by Mrs. Florence Poyer.

Prepared by: Walter S. Handy, Ph.D., Member, Grace Church Health and Wellness Ministry Committee

Top 10 Reasons to be an Episcopalian

Attributed to Robin Williams.

10. No snake handling.

9. You can believe in dinosaurs.

8. Male and female God created them; male and female we ordain them.

7. You don't have to check your brains at the door.

6. Pew aerobics.

5. Church year is color-coded.

4. Free wine on Sunday.

3. All of the pageantry - none of the guilt.

2. You don't have to know how to swim to get baptized.

And the Number One reason to be an Episcopalian:

1. No matter what you believe, there's bound to be at least one other Episcopalian who agrees with you.

You Might be an Episcopalian if ...

Attributed to Garrison Keillor.

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We make fun of Episcopalians for their blandness, their excessive calm, their fear of giving offense, their lack of speed and also for their secret fondness for macaroni and cheese.

But nobody sings like them. If you were to ask an audience in Des Moines, a relatively Episcopalianless place, to sing along on the chorus of "Michael Row the Boat Ashore," they will look daggers at you as if you had asked them to strip to their underwear . But if you do this among Episcopalians, they'd smile and row that boat ashore and up on the beach! .....And down the road!

Many Episcopalians are bred from childhood to sing in four-part harmony, a talent that comes from sitting on the lap of someone singing alto or tenor or bass and hearing the harmonic intervals by putting your little head against that person's rib cage.

It's natural for Episcopalians to sing in harmony. We are too modest to be soloists, too worldly to sing in unison. When you're singing in the key of C and you slide into the A7th and D7th chords, all two hundred of you, it's an emotionally fulfilling moment. By our joining in harmony, we somehow promise that we will not forsake each other.

I do believe this, people: Episcopalians, who love to sing in four-part harmony are the sort of people you could call up when you're in deep distress. If you are dying, they will comfort you. If you are lonely, they will talk to you. And if you are hungry, they'll give you tuna salad!

Episcopalians believe in prayer, but would practically die if asked to pray out loud. Episcopalians like to sing, except when confronted with a new hymn or a hymn with more than four stanzas.

Episcopalians believe their rectors will visit them in the hospital, even if they don't notify them that they are there.

Episcopalians usually follow the official liturgy and will feel it is their way of suffering for their sins.

Episcopalians believe in miracles and even expect miracles, especially during their stewardship visitation programs or when passing the plate.

Episcopalians feel that applauding for their children's choirs will not make the kids too proud and conceited.

Episcopalians think that the Bible forbids them from crossing the aisle while passing the peace.

Episcopalians drink coffee as if it were the Third Sacrament.

Episcopalians feel guilty for not staying to clean up after their own wedding reception in the Fellowship Hall.

Episcopalians are willing to pay up to one dollar for a meal at church.

Episcopalians still serve Jell-O in the proper liturgical color of the season and Episcopalians believe that it is OK to poke fun at themselves and never take themselves too seriously.

And finally, you know you are a Episcopalian when:

• It's 100 degrees, with 90% humidity, and you still have coffee after the service.
• You hear something really funny during the sermon and smile as loudly as you can.
• Donuts are a line item in the church budget, just like coffee.
• When you watch a Star Wars movie and they say, "May the Force be with you", and you respond, "and also with you."
• And lastly, it takes ten minutes to say good-bye....