Getting a flu shot was a no-brainer the last two years when I worked in assisted living. Anyone working in healthcare or with senior citizens and/or children absolutely needs a flu shot each year. Those are our high-risk groups. We can't afford making them sick.
But now that I'm retired, should I or shouldn't I. Back-n-forth in my mind. First of all, I'm almost never sick (knock on wood). Secondly, I'm just not around high-risk people (unless you're talking about Nicholas!). Rationalization vs. justification. And this in the context of a possible shortage again!
So I asked my social-worker friend yesterday and she immediately reminded me that because I'm on airplanes almost every month, I'M at high-risk! Ah yes. How could I forget about those pesky "incubator" planes so full of god-knows-what kinds of germs/diseases!
Which is a round-about way of saying I stood in line at Wal-Mart for an hour this morning to get my precious shot. After last year's shortage debacle, how could there possibly be another shortage this year?? We can land people on the moon but can't prepare enough vaccines from one year to the next? WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE!
Interestingly, this article was in today's Reuters Newsmail: "People are blown away when we talk about how strong the data are just in preventing mortality (by vaccinating healthcare workers)," Perl said. "Now we need to move on and do something about it."
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