A USA Today article Monday detailed some of the great lengths Americans are going to in order to secure an H1N1 vaccine in the wake of an unexpected shortage. The article seemed to further emphasize the contrast between vaccine supporters and vaccine skeptics. While some people, according to the USA Today article, have gone so far as to set their local health departments to speed dial in order to call frequently during the day and check on vaccine availability, others, like a significant quantity of Boston University students previously interviewed for a Daily Free Press article, have no plan on even getting stuck. While the debate between the pro and con camps of seasonal flu vaccines is a complicated one that may have no real resolution, there are certain health tenets that all adults can agree on, and should practice in these sickly times.
Though health authorities are generally in concurrence that getting the vaccine is a safe and efficient way of avoiding the potentially fatal infection, which President Obama declared a national emergency early last week, many people are wary of its yet-to-be-determined long-term effects and some even consider it superfluous, due to the fact that the swine flu is, for most people, a relatively mild infection. But now that there is a shortage of vaccines and the illness is becoming more and more prevalent, it’s time for everyone, vaccine supporters and non-supporters alike, to take matters of quelling the pandemic into their own (clean) hands. This means going back to common sense roots of well-being ‘- hand washing, staying home when sick, covering coughs and sneezes and appropriately managing symptoms. If people look past the vaccine panic and vaccine politics, they’ll find that it’s easier than it seems to stay healthy, if they make healthy decisions every day.
The worst social side effect of any kind of health crisis is panic ‘- people who have become obsessed with the vaccine are using it as a crutch to calm unnecessarily far-gone worries. Being pro- or con-vaccine is a personal choice, and both sides have their good points, but it should be a universal belief that panic and uproar is counterintuitive to avoiding infection. With or without vaccine, it’s important that people remember all they’ve been taught about resisting infections and maintaining healthy immune systems, as this is the first line of defense and the easiest one to put up. Like saying gezhundeit when someone sneezes, smart flu season rituals should be automatic.’
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