Working out the kinks

I read via the Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog that New York had relaxed the requirement for health care workers to be vaccinated for the influenza A (H1N1) or swine flu. It turns out that the reason for this was trouble getting the vaccine out so that enough people could actually get it.

This is also actually a problem I’m having today in North Carolina. I decided that it was time to get my flu shots — both of them, seasonal and H1N1 — and had success tracking down the former but not the latter. There was some intranasal H1N1 vaccine available, but not the shot — which is a bit of a problem for me, as I see bone marrow transplant patients. Nobody was really sure whether there was inactivated vaccine anywhere. After a few unsuccessful phone calls, I Googled my friendly neighborhood health department — which, as it turns out, is having a free H1N1 flu shot distribution today. Who knew? Not very well advertised, but I’m grateful for the opportunity, and I’m going to take a field trip to go get mine.

Why do I care so much? Many health care workers appear not to — usual vaccination rates among health care workers for seasonal influenza are about 50%, and there’s no precedent really for H1N1. Online commentary on the WSJ page from a reader urged others to ignore the media hype, said that this was all influenced by pharma, and that shots contained mercury, a known neurotoxin (Huh? To the best of my knowledge, there is no data around any risks of thimerosal beyond local irritation and redness.).

The reason I care so much is pretty simple — the only cost of getting a flu shot is a little inconvenience and a sore shoulder for a day. The cost of not getting one? If one of my patients contracted seasonal or H1N1 influenza and died, because I transmitted it and had been too lazy to get myself vaccinated, how could I ever live with myself?