Two teenage political activists were asked to
leave an H1N1 vaccination clinic Monday in Fargo after handing
out literature to the pregnant women waiting in line.
Fargo Cass Public Health sponsored the clinic Monday afternoon
for only pregnant women, a priority group for the H1N1, or swine
flu, vaccine. Officials gave out 140 of about 1,000 available
doses.
It was Cass County’s third H1N1 clinic, but the first
in which officials dealt with an incident that might have disrupted
the clinic by possibly deterring those seeking vaccination.
Robert Wanek and Ryan Rettig, both 16 and of Breckenridge,
Minn., said they wanted to educate the pregnant women about
the risks of the H1N1 vaccine. The boys are members of Minnesota’s
chapter of We Are Change, a grassroots political activist group.
More than a dozen pregnant women received handouts from Wanek
and Rettig before Fargo Cass Public Health officials and Fargo
police asked the boys to leave.
One woman waiting in line left after she read what the boys
handed her. Other women were upset because the source of the
boys’ information was not listed.
Health officials said Wanek and Rettig misrepresented themselves
by saying they were members of the media but then distributing
the fliers.
The boys said they weren’t trying to deter women from
being vaccinated.
“We’re not trying to scare – we’re
just trying to inform them of the risks and benefits so they
can weigh them and make their best educated decision,”
Rettig said.
Fargo Cass Public Health Director Ruth Bachmeier said clinic
participants receive information prior to being vaccinated.
“We’re providing the information that the CDC and
the health department provided us,” Bachmeier said.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
H1N1 flu shots aren’t proven to harm pregnant women or
their babies, and the risks for the H1N1 vaccine are the same
as with a seasonal flu shot.
The remainder of Monday’s clinic went smoothly. About
45 women were in line when the clinic began, but the lines tapered
off within 15 minutes and remained that way until the clinic
ended at 6 p.m.
Area health care providers have vaccinated pregnant patients
as H1N1 doses become available, but Fargo Cass Public Health
wanted to give the women an opportunity to be vaccinated sooner.
“Some women were a month out from seeing their doctor
again … so we didn’t want to make them wait another
month before getting the vaccine,” said Theresa Orecchia,
Fargo Cass Public Health public information officer.
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