The 2012-2013 flu season is turning out to be one of the worst seasons I've seen in the last ten years. I started my professional hospitalist career in 2003. I remember the West Nile outbreak shortly after that. Everyone with a headache was getting a spinal tap to evaluate for viral meningitis. And then there was the 2009 H1N1 scare a few years ago that turned out to be a bunch of nothing in my neck of the woods.
I've seen a few cases of the flu during the winter flu season in years past, but nothing compared to what I'm seeing the last few weeks. Hospitals have been aggressively asking or forcing their employees and medical professionals to get their flu vaccine as a way of protecting the patients, a population especially at risk for complications from a hospital wide flu outbreak.
My hospital has achieved over 97% compliance this year with flu vaccination. The other 3% are being shamed into compliance as I write this. Being a doctor or a nurse at a hospital is great. We get our flu vaccines for free from highly professional nurses. Almost everyone who is a candidate for the flu shot and who hasn't decided to get one yet should strongly consider getting to their doctor or local pharmacy to get immunized quickly. In a couple of weeks your body will have a major advantage to protect you against all the crazy antivaxxers out there who are convinced vaccines will make them or their children sick.
Don't be stupid. If you get a reaction after getting the flu shot, it's highly unlikely the flu virus did it and more likely a preservative in the vaccine. Get a preservative free vaccine if you have to. I can understand your concern. A few years ago I thought I was having a major reaction to the H1N1 vaccine. I was wrong. Do whatever you have to do to get vaccinated this year and protect you and your family from the incredible burden of disease I am seeing in the hospital this year. Don't become my next patient. Don't watch your children die helplessly because of your warped sense of reality.
If you decide you don't want to protect yourself or your family from the flu because you are worried you read on the internet that people were getting sick from the flu shot, I am here to set you straight. Those people who say they got sick from flu shot vaccine effects actually had a raging case of that's the stupidest think I've ever heard, as this e-card helps explain. You can see all my original and not so original someecards on my Pinterest site. This is serious people.
I've seen a few cases of the flu during the winter flu season in years past, but nothing compared to what I'm seeing the last few weeks. Hospitals have been aggressively asking or forcing their employees and medical professionals to get their flu vaccine as a way of protecting the patients, a population especially at risk for complications from a hospital wide flu outbreak.
My hospital has achieved over 97% compliance this year with flu vaccination. The other 3% are being shamed into compliance as I write this. Being a doctor or a nurse at a hospital is great. We get our flu vaccines for free from highly professional nurses. Almost everyone who is a candidate for the flu shot and who hasn't decided to get one yet should strongly consider getting to their doctor or local pharmacy to get immunized quickly. In a couple of weeks your body will have a major advantage to protect you against all the crazy antivaxxers out there who are convinced vaccines will make them or their children sick.
Don't be stupid. If you get a reaction after getting the flu shot, it's highly unlikely the flu virus did it and more likely a preservative in the vaccine. Get a preservative free vaccine if you have to. I can understand your concern. A few years ago I thought I was having a major reaction to the H1N1 vaccine. I was wrong. Do whatever you have to do to get vaccinated this year and protect you and your family from the incredible burden of disease I am seeing in the hospital this year. Don't become my next patient. Don't watch your children die helplessly because of your warped sense of reality.
If you decide you don't want to protect yourself or your family from the flu because you are worried you read on the internet that people were getting sick from the flu shot, I am here to set you straight. Those people who say they got sick from flu shot vaccine effects actually had a raging case of that's the stupidest think I've ever heard, as this e-card helps explain. You can see all my original and not so original someecards on my Pinterest site. This is serious people.
