New York City is proposing to have pre-schoolers and toddlers get annual flu shots.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, the City Board of Health of New York will vote on requiring children in city-licensed preschools and day-care centers to get flu vaccinations yearly.
If approved, the plan will begin in 2014 and every kid, aged six months to 59 months, will receive the vaccine on December 31 of each year.
The plan came to perspective after four kids in the Empire State died from flu last year, a rate that is greater than anticipated by the city's deputy commissioner for disease control, Jay Varma.
A number of parents, and advocates, including Richard Kanowitz, president of Families Fighting Flu, who lost his daughter at age 4 to the flu, are pushing the approval of this proposal.
"Somebody gave my daughter the flu," Mr. Kanowitz told WSJ, "and had she gotten the vaccine, she would probably be here."
The flu vaccine "does a pretty minimal job reducing sickness…and has a chance of allergic reactions and adverse side effects," he added.
Flu "is an extremely severe illness that kills more children in the U.S. than any other vaccine-preventable disease," Dr. Varma said in the report.
However, some parents and anti-vaccine activists are against the vaccination plan. John Gilmore, the executive director of the Autism Action Network, said his child suffered from a neurological damage due to several vaccinations administered at once.
The flu vaccines is safe and if you are a parent that worries about what substances are included in the vaccine, there are several versions for you.
The City's plan permits exemptions for medical or religious beliefs and a bill in the state Legislature, which is proposed by Sen. Martin Malave Dilan, a Brooklyn Democrat, could let parents to decline flu shots if they do not want to.
