I've heard time and time again that the difference between being an adult and being a teenager is the fact that teenagers do things without thinking about the consequences of their actions, they also weigh the chances of something happening and gamble.
My government teacher spun it to me this way. He said, "If I told you to roll a dice and if you get a six, you die but any other number you get an endless supply of money." Of course, most of us figured since its a one in six chance of dying with a five of six chance of becoming filthy rich why not? He also pointed out that most adults, having figured that they weren't wiling to gamble their life like that wouldn't take that bet.
And now to my point.
Meningococcal Meningitis, is a rare but potentially deadly disease.
It effects 3000 college students, and kills about 10 to 12 percent (that's 300 to 360). Now, the 2700 to 2640 students who escaped the first set of statistics now have to go watch out for being part of 20% who suffer from amputations, hearing loss, brain damage and a whole slew of other terrible effects. It's spread by air droplets and coming into contact with people who are infected. Since the symptoms are flu-like, its damn near impossible to tell who has the flu and who might have MM. To top that off, the highest number of people catching this new killer are college freshman living in dorms.
There is a vaccine for this. It help protects against 4 of the 5 strains of this disease.
Now I realize those numbers are extremely small compared to the millions and millions of people who live in America, but that all goes back to the whole dice thing. Do you want to take the chance that it could land on that six? And then what? Exactly.
My mother works at the Health District in Vegas and more or less decreed that I get the shot which hardly mattered to me honestly. I didn't know a lot about the disease, but now that I do know about it I'm glad that she did.
My room and house mates however, are another matter. I tell them this, but they seem to think that since its "so far away" and that the numbers are so small that why should they care? They shrug their shoulders at the way is spread (which is essentially breathing and living) saying that they can avoid these. But all I'm asking is why take that chance?
