If getting your kids vaccinated against meningitis sounds like something you’ve already done, that’s probably because they received the MenACWY vaccine, which is much more common and generally recommended for children 11 and up (with a booster shot at age 16). While that vaccination protects against the A, C, W and Y types of meningococcal bacteria, MenB vaccines are relatively newer (they were just introduced in 2014) and therefore not as well known. To help remedy that, Moon Frye (whose oldest child, daughter Poet, recently turned 16) is partnering with GSK’s “Ask2BSure” campaign, a public health awareness initiative that aims to educate and empower parents and their teens to talk about getting vaccinated against meningitis B—a rare disease, but one that has been proven 3.5 times more contagious among college students (due to close living quarters and other factors) and that kills about 10 percent of those who contract it, sometimes in as little as 24 hours. Parade.com recently spoke with the 45-year-old Moon Frye (who you may know from her 2020 Hulu documentary kid90, or you may not by her TV alter ego, Punky Brewster) to find out more about how she’s navigating the pandemic with her four kids and her best advice for helping your kids take charge of their own health.
There’s so much good and bad vaccine info out there. How do you sift through the data to devise the best plan to keep your family healthy and safe?
For me, it’s about empowering ourselves with the knowledge to talk to our doctors. I have these four incredible kids that I want to protect and nurture and love and take care of and they’re all different ages. I have my 16-year-old—who just turned 16 this week, which is crazy because I still feel 16!—and I was talking to one of my dearest friends and I had no ideas about meningitis B. I really was not informed on it. I think so many people think that they’ve done the meningitis vaccination when the kids are younger and don’t realize that meningitis B is totally different and that one of the groups it affects most is 16-to-23-year-olds. So having a daughter who is now 16 and then going off to college, it was something that I really wanted to learn about. I spoke to my pediatrician about it and decided, “OK let’s go ahead and do this vaccination for her.” I try to gain as much knowledge as I can so I can have those conversations with my doctors, so we can have those conversations with our family and friends, you know? What I witnessed when I look back at this time during the pandemic and look at where I stood and what side of it, I can feel like I was a meaningful part of helping to create change.
Like many parents, this is actually the first I’m hearing about the meningitis B vaccine. To fill us in, can you explain what meningitis B is, how it differs from other variants of the disease and why getting this vaccine is an important health protector for teens?
And I didn’t either, so I’m right there with you. I started talking to other friends who said the same thing: “My kid had the meningitis vaccination when they were younger”—but four out of five 17-year-olds have not even received one dose of the meningitis B vaccination (I think that statistic is back from 2019). Meanwhile, even though meningitis is uncommon, it is life-threatening and one in 10 people that contract meningitis will die, and sometimes it’s in as few as 24 hours. It’s just not as known and that’s really what this is about, having this conversation. You can go to ask2bsure.com to learn more and really have a deeper conversation—and obviously, talk to doctors, healthcare providers, pharmacists.
You first knew about this vaccine through a conversation with your girlfriend and then you talked to your doctor about it, but tell me about your conversation with Poet. Did you get any pushback from her?
Well, she now is vaccinated for COVID-19 and so it was very fresh in our minds, and it was a really wonderful opportunity to then talk about meningitis B. She actually went and did her own research. When the pandemic hit, my 13-year-old [son Jagger] and my 16-year-old really were asking, “When can we get vaccinated?” Young people are so aware and conscientious and allowing them to be a part of the conversation is really important. And having them also do their own research; I think that there’s nothing wrong with encouraging young people to do their research and educating each other and having the conversations with friends and then having the conversation with their doctors.
With your younger kids, what if they come home and they’ve heard some inaccurate information from friends—about vaccines, COVID or really anything that concerns their health. How do you as a parent work to get them to a place of better understanding?
This is something that a family has to choose and discuss together. I think it’s about having the information so that we can have these conversations—and have them with our doctors. I’m certainly not going to tell a parent what they have to do and by no means am I saying I’m an expert, [but] what I know is what I’ve been able to witness through our organization and see and hear firsthand. However, I can be sympathetic to people sharing different opinions because I think even my own opinions and views have changed over the last few years of what we’ve just experienced.
Are any of your kids terrified of shots?
Yes. Completely.
What do you do about that?
I’ve really been talking to my older kids about this recently and I think this goes to the whole empowerment thing. My older kids, they have wanted to do these vaccines on their own accord: The meningitis B vaccine is something Poet’s doing and then both Poet and Jagger are of age for the COVID-19 vaccine. It’s almost like their sense of ownership in it means now they’re less scared or less fearful of the shots, do you know what I mean? Because it’s something that they feel involved with, so I’ve been lucky there. Next, Sarah Michelle Gellar Talks Back-to-School and Losing Her Cool (Like Every Mom!) Amid the Ongoing Pandemic
