The Swine Flu Shot a Waste of Time!

[Tuckervill]

Oh my word. That was so bizarre. Poor woman.

Karen

[OakLeaf]

Yeah, I still highly recommend everyone read Sway, but it's a perfectly understandable and rational decisionmaking process that we all want someone else to take the risk so we don't have to.

[snapdragen]

Cross post from another forum....from the trenches

H1N1 is ugly

[lo123]

Who's saying it's going to be two+ months before the H1N1 shot will be available to the public? That's not what I'm hearing at all - in our area all first responders were vaccinated last month, pregnant women and young children are getting it right now, and we're expecting everyone who wants one will have access by the end of November.

Some states, like Alabama, where I'm at, are restricting which of the at risk groups get vaccine because of the shortage. I cannot get it yet because the groups they're allowing to get vaccine now do not include those with underlying health conditions or immunosuppression unless they're 18 or younger.

Still no word here on when they'll start expanding the pool of eligible groups, let alone open it to the general public.

[OakLeaf]

I can't help pointing out that three months ago the mood on this board was that the threat was overblown, and the coverage was simply fearmongering by the CDC and the press...

[snapdragen]

I've never felt it was over blown. At the hospital I work at, it's not if but when the flu became a pandemic. We've been training and preparing for a couple of years now.

[Jolt]

On a somewhat related note (not swine flu but respiratory etiquette in general), this is cute: http://www.schooltube.com/video/40784/Sneeze-PSA

[spindizzy]

I think it is reasonable to look at vaccines, medication and other prescribed treatments with healthy skepticism. And this thread certainly has presented a lot of those issues.

I rarely get colds; I have had the flu once in the last 20 years. I work with a very vulnerable population - most of the kids I work with are immune-suppressed. I did get H1N1 vaccine for that reason. Not the happiest decision I made. I do worry that the amount of vaccine we expose people to are hyper-stimulating the immune system. A challenge to that thought is that our immune system is constantly being exposed to stuff anyway.

Zen - I'll have to read the book you suggested. My great-grandmother died of the flu in 1918- I understand it was young healthy adults with great immune systems that perhaps reacted "too much" to the virus. And I also understand that there was no way to treat the overwhelming lung infections that resulted in so many deaths - penicillin was not used in humans until 1941.

And curses to people who go to work sick, take public transit and spew and cough and sneeze and then touch everything......One woman last week coughed so hard (and of course did not cover her mouth) I felt it on my arm- I just glared at her and then proceeded to place my jacket over my mouth and nose.....I had to restrain myself from making a scene...I really am thinking seriously about driving into work.

[Eden]

My great-grandmother died of the flu in 1918- I understand it was young healthy adults with great immune systems that perhaps reacted "too much" to the virus. And I also understand that there was no way to treat the overwhelming lung infections that resulted in so many deaths - penicillin was not used in humans until 1941.

Antibiotics will only help you if you get a secondary bacterial infection (like pneumonia). Viruses - ala flu, are unaffected by them and are still *very* difficult to treat. We do have some anti-virals these days, but supplies are limited and effectiveness is limited (Tamiflu has a very specific time period that it must be taken in to work). Of course as you probably know even bacterial infections are getting more difficult to treat, with many resistant to multiple antibiotics. If you are hospitalized with flu your chances of contracting MRSA or some other nasty are much greater (especially if you require intubation). If we were to experience a major outbreak like the one in 1918 it is likely that many, many people (young and healthy people) would still die.

[ny biker]

The Virginia Dept of Health is running TV commercials urging people to get the H1N1 vaccine.

Too bad there are none available right now...

[Selkie]

I heard on local news reports that people are crossing jurisdictions to get the shot and that people NOT in the high-risk groups are getting vaccinated. I'm not judging, just thought it worth mentioning.

[Trek420]

And curses to people who go to work sick, take public transit and spew and cough and sneeze and then touch everything......

I love my job, really I do, the pay and bennies are great, my co-workers are great, I'm a teeny tiny itsy bitsy cog in a big company (I forget if it's Fortune 50 or 10) .... we have no sick time.

If I'm sick I call in sick, I'm paid while I'm off.

If I do that often or long enough I'm fired.

The formula for what is too often or too long is kept in an ivory tower guarded by dragons. With my 13 years of PERFECT attendance (except the one time I rode my bike off a cliff to avoid hitting a kid and took a day off) I don't know what it is. If I caught the bug or a bug I could/would stay home.

But we are the be-all-end all of presentee'ism. Coworkers mostly younger than me with kids all trying to come to work each day so they don't get fired for attendance. I can't count on anyone staying home because they or a family member had this bug.

As a member of the building's safety team I am trying to get prevention tips posted in every bathroom, every break room, at every sink in the building including the admonition to stay home if you or a family member are sick.

These are official corporate policy and memos. Can I get those printed and posted? Noooo. If I do can they stay up? Nooooo.

It gets taken down by management and all we have is sell-sell-sell rah rah c&^p posted. Even in the stalls

There is a corporate department that does flu shots. Can we get them to show up in our building? Nooooooo.

Knott, Eden and all, what year is it that I may have some immunity if born before then? I'm a 1956 era.

[Veronica]

Trek, I have to say where you work is just bizarre. How can they NOT tell you how many sick days you get and how can they fire you for being sick?

On every month's paycheck I have a listing of how many sick days I have - 88.5 days on the books currently. I forget how many days we get every year, but they accrue and if I don't use them, I'll get paid for them when I retire. They also get carried to another district if I change districts. I don't really like to call in sick - doing the sub plans is a pain in the arse. Especially doing them when you already feel like crap. Fortunately, I don't get sick very often. I'll catch colds from the students every now and then (like right now ). But in general I am pretty healthy and I've never gotten a flu shot.

Veronica

[Eden]

A lot of places now just do PTO - paid time off. It's a catch all for vacation and sick days. Under this system I think people may tend to get in trouble. They take the days as vacation and don't budget any for getting sick - and who can blame them, because in a lot of companies the PTO expires, so if you don't use it you lose it. So you use it - then if you get sick you get in trouble... (or you come in anyway and spread your disease to all of your co-workers)

When I worked for the federal government it was *not* like this. We got sick time. If you didn't use it, it accrued - forever. My first boss was even able to take a year or two's early retirement with all of his sick leave... You could also be nice and donate sick leave to a co-worker who was out and had used up all of their own sick leave, so that they could still be paid for time off when they had a grave illness, though I think there were limits to the amount that could be transferred.

[ny biker]

We switched from separate vacation and sick time to PTO several years ago. It hasn't been a problem for me so far. I think the co-workers who run out mid-year are the ones who take time off to take care of sick kids rather than their own illnesses.

We do have a fair number of people who sneeze and hack and cough all day at work. Most of them are suffering from allergies but you can never be sure they're not actually sharing a disease with us all. Just one more reason why I press elevator buttons with my elbow.