Breaking News: Shots Hurt
I really don’t want to sound insensitive about something I literally have no experience with, but is it really worth writing an entire news story about how the HPV vaccine shots hurt? I mean, I haven’t gotten the shot, but I’ve gotten Hepatitis shots somewhat recently, and sure, the injection site was sore for about a day and for a few hours I didn’t have full movement in my arm, but it wasn’t anything for the AP to get all excited about. Here’s how the AP describes the standard reaction to the vaccine:
The pain is short-lived, girls say; many react with little more than a grimace. But some teens say it’s uncomfortable driving with or sleeping on the injected arm for up to a day after getting the shot.
It doesn’t seem like girls are having a noteworthy reaction to this shot or that it is significantly different from other vaccines. Is it really any surprise that the media would focus on the painfulness of a shot that is given nearly exclusively to teenage and pre-adolescent girls? I think it’s pretty irresponsible for the AP to breathlessly report a 180 person increase in vaccine shot related fainting among girls in the past year, especially when 100 percent of the new cases came from this new vaccine that was only mandated and prescribed this past year. Especially considering how negligent parents can be about making sure their kids get necessary shots, the AP shouldn’t be putting any more fuel on the anti-vaccine fire.
PS: Amanda Marcotte has a good cultural/feminist analysis of the entire “shots hurt” story.
