Free Vaccine Clinic at Dragon*Con!
STOP THE WHOOPING COUGH EPIDEMIC WITH FREE VACCINES DURING DRAGON*CON!
Skepchick.org and the Women Thinking Free Foundation are encouraging individuals to protect the ones they love by vaccinating themselves against pertussis, also known as whooping cough. Pertussis is an infectious disease that can be passed from adults to infants, who can experience serious and sometimes fatal symptoms.
A free vaccination clinic will run Saturday (September 4) and Sunday (September 5) in the Mall at Peachtree Center, at the International Blvd entrance. Cobb & Douglas Public Health staff will be available to administer the vaccine from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
This clinic will mark the launch of the “Hug Me, I’m Vaccinated!” campaign, which seeks to educate the general population about the safety and efficacy of vaccines.
Pertussis is an infectious cough illness that often lasts several weeks. Adults and adolescents with pertussis may have few symptoms, but can carry the disease and pass it on to young children who are not fully immunized. Deaths from pertussis are rare, but most often occur in infants.
Adolescents and adults 11-64 years of age should receive one booster dose of the vaccine, which contains tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis (known as a Tdap). Parents, family members and caregivers of infants less than 1 year of age can protect these infants by getting this vaccine.
Dragon*Con is an annual convention held in downtown Atlanta and brings together more than 30,000 people from around the world, many of whom have not received a Tdap vaccination. The free clinic, located close by the convention area, will provide an opportunity for attendees as well as the general public to receive a Tdap vaccination to protect themselves as well as their close contacts. All persons in and around the PeachTree Center Mall area on September 4th and 5th are invited to take advantage of the opportunity.
2 Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I love this. My kid is fully vaxed, but she got pertussis last year. Before we got her diagnosis, we had exposed my COPD mom and an immuno-compromised 4 year old. She had to miss about a week of school, and by extension, I lost a week of comp time at a brand new job. Please, please , please, vax your kids and yourself against this “minor” illness.
VACCINATIONS SHOULD BE MADE MANDATORY! ALSO, CONTINUED RESEARCH MAY IN THE FUTURE MAY FIND CURES FOR ANY NUMBER OF ILLNESSES. I HAD/HAVE STILLS DISEASE, JUVENILE RA. WHEN I CONTRACTED THIS CRUEL DISEASE DRS. HAD NO IDEA WHAT IT WAS BUT IF CONTINUED RESEARCH HAD A VACCINE FOR IT A LIFE WITHOUT CONTINUAL PAIN WOULD HAD LET ME HAVE A LIFE… “GET VAXED OR GET ?”