I only had flu once before I worked with patients.
I didn't start getting flu vaccinations until I caught flu 2 more times (most likely from patients).

Today while heading out for lunch I saw a desperately ill flu patient come into the clinic, on her way to the communicable disease doctors. I will confess, I held my breath as I walked past... and didn't breathe again until I was outside. Silly reaction, but I couldn't help it.

Flu isn't silly. People make comments in the newspaper about how ridiculous all the precautions are. "Look how silly this is, we all were so careful and there wasn't a deadly epidemic this spring, so this was all an exercise in futility. I'm not doing it anymore." Ummm... that's a sign of success, not futility! It's like a parent being frustrated over changing diapers. "Look how silly this is, I changed my kid's diaper every two hours and he didn't get the diaper rash everyone said he might get, so this was all an exercise in futility. I'm not doing it anymore."

The H1N1 vaccine is about 70% effective. Anyone born after the 1950's when we last had an H1N1 has NO immunity. It's a huge pool of virus-breeders ready to saturate the population with icky boogers. The chance of an immunocompromised person contacting someone born after the 1950's is pretty darn high, and if 100% of those folks are potential virus bags, life gets risky for them. Even if only 70% become immune, that's 70% fewer human petri dishes putting other folks at risk.

Frankly, ladies, I don't give a rip if you get swine flu or not. Just don't spread it to anyone else.

So: don't leave your house, don't handle any paper money, don't flush your toilet, don't open your windows... we'll let you know when the rest of us have antibodies and are no longer at risk of you being a human cootie factory shedding live virus from every pore and orifice.