I’m lazy, but I really hope you’re not
Every year Fall shows up. Yes it’s a season. It’d be weird if it didn’t. Probably catastrophic even. But every year the season’s arrival also marks the flu season’s arrival. But unlike Fall, who actually has quite a few redeeming qualities like boots, scarves, dresses and leggings, the end of 110 deg temperatures, the Flu sticks around like a bad rash through winter and bumps up against spring.
Knock on wood. I rarely get the flu. I might have a bad cold that convinces everyone that I’m spraying death germs around, but never anything so severe that it can be described as the flu. But what I do get every year is a bad case of the guilt trip. I never line up and get a vaccine shot into my arm. Ever. I just don’t want to.
I think one year a coworker physically dragged me from my desk, marched me down the hall and sat me down in front of a lady with a syringe and I still bitched and moaned and whined during and after until people wanted to kill me. I used to rant and rave about how we might not even be getting vaccinated against the right viruses, or how it doesn’t matter if I get it, everyone else did and so by default I’m safe by herd immunity. I think I’ve even managed to convince other people not to get vaccinated. I’m a really horrible person.
The thing is though, I know better. I went to public health school. I know why flu vaccines matter. I know the math behind predicting epidemics. I even know how to put it on a map with fuzzy colored blobs. There is just no logical, rational reason why I don’t get the vaccine.
I really do hope the rest of the world is more responsible than me. While news outlets were slow to pick up on the flu trend, and the CDC merely set the risk levels at “moderately severe”, Google trends track data on the search inquires related to the flu that predicts the number of doctor visits for flu related symptoms could exceed those during the H1N1 outbreak in 2009.
Individuals most at risk of infection include children under age 5, adults over the age of 65, and pregnant women. If you can’t find any vaccine near you, at the very least be prepared by stocking up on some Tamiflu.
