I have always loved going to the doctor.
Maybe it’s the scrub uniforms with the princess fairies that the nurses wear. Or maybe it’s the fact that everything is utterly spotless — one of my favorite qualities in any facility.
I really can’t say, but one thing is for sure — I really, really hate getting the flu. For me, it is well worth the pinch of a needle and a trip to my friendly physician to stay vomit-free for the season.
But getting the flu shot isn’t just about avoiding an inconvenient bout of illness anymore — it’s about protecting one’s self and others from a virus that is easily spread and that could possibly cause much more damage than a depletion of one’s Kleenex supply.
This season, a new flu vaccine is on the market to protect against the dreaded H1N1 virus. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than half of the states in the U.S. have reported “widespread flu activity,” and it is expected that both “H1N1 flu and seasonal flu [will] cause illness, hospital stays and deaths this season.”
With this heightened sense of flu-awareness, many health care systems, including the state of New York, are requiring health care workers to get vaccinated against both the seasonal flu and the 2009 H1N1, and it’s stirring up quite a bit of controversy.
The primary complaint is that employees should have the right to refuse vaccination and that employers should instead enforce the creation of isolation rooms for patients with the flu, allow more sick days with compensation for nurses and purchase masks for sick patients.
While this is good, and perhaps even advisable in the future, these measures are both costly and back-door efforts at defense.
The CDC states that flu vaccinations are the best defense against disease. According to an ABC News article “Nurses say no to mandatory flu shot,” studies show that only 40 to 50 percent of health care workers get immunized under voluntary immunization programs.
According to Dr. Jonathan Perlin, chief medical officer of the Hospital Corporation of America, studies over the last 10 years indicate that high levels of staff vaccination can reduce patient deaths due to flu by 40 percent. Moreover, 100 percent vaccination can reduce the number of sick days taken by health care workers by 41 percent.
The state of New York is offering free vaccinations to its health care employees, and maintains that the vaccine is safe, despite the fact that its testing process was much shorter than usual.
Since 1976, flu vaccines have had an excellent track record, and the H1N1 vaccine has consistently shown to be effective.
In the end, health care workers have to remember that their job is to see to the well-being of others. If they are vulnerable to communicable diseases like H1N1, it makes it impossible for them to do their job effectively.
So suck it up, squeeze your mom’s hand, and you’ll end up with a lollipop.
See? Not so bad.
Reach Kristen at kckelle2@asu.edu.
