Flu precautions, do they make sense?

Soapy Sam said:
While it's generally true that a successful parasite has no incentive to kill its host, we must first define "success".
*snip*

We might call it the "Achilles" Virus. Short lived, but glorious.
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Well, success, in the evolutionary sense, is susally connected to survivability. Few species care much for glory.

As for a source, as I say I read it in either Lancet or Nature, and it may be as much as 10 years back. I have no idea which keywords to search for.

.... Mmm, make that 15 years.

Hans
 
Eos of the Eons said:
The pulse poll didn't even verify if people were actually health care providers or not. They were relying only on the claims of their readers when they log onto the site. It even asked me if what kind of provider I was (nurse, doctor, etc.) Anyone could lie. It's over the internet!!
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I'm not sure what pulse poll you're talking about. That article didn't give a source for asserting more than half of health care workers don't get vaccinated. Neither did the article it linked to (unless I missed something). This is the only mention of a poll I could find in either article (it's from the page I linked to):
A study published this week at bmj.com, the online version of the British Medical Journal, reported that nearly half of health care workers surveyed in Hong Kong earlier this year said they would refuse the swine flu vaccine because of fears of side effects and doubts about efficacy.

That study came on the heels of a United Kingdom poll that showed 30 percent of nurses would turn down the H1N1 shots, and researchers believe it’s a good indicator of health worker reluctance worldwide.
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Anyway, last season the Flu Vaccination Challenge (whose goal for the 2008/2009 season was to get a 43% or higher vaccination rate in hospital staff) was "successful" in that most hospitals increase their percentage vaccinated, and overall achieve nearly 60%.

Linky.

This story cites a review of literature saying that rates of flu vaccination programs among health care workers in the U.S., Canada and Europe "ranged from as low as 2.1 percent to a high of 82 percent; the majority of such campaigns achieved rates of less than 50 percent." It also mentions an NFID citing a 2003 CDC report that the rate for health care workers in the U.S. was 36% with a modest improvement to 42% in 2004 and 2006.

So it sounds like the "less than 50%" statistic is valid.

This is a huge failure of education, I think. I don't think this is the anti-vaxxer/autism reasoning either. I think it's more about what you said, EofE: otherwise intelligent people think the vaccine can give them the flu.

Since the timing of the vaccine's availability might be right at the peak of the number of cases here, I expect a lot of people will get the shot and get sick before they're immune and think, therefore, that the shot made them sick. It's simply post hoc ergo propter hoc thinking.

I wish the local news would quit talking about hand sanitizer and address this important piece of public information--they should tell people in no uncertain terms that the flu vaccine will not give you the flu, though it might fail to prevent the flu.
 
JoeTheJuggler said:
I put this comment in the wrong thread, I think. I have to leave it there since someone else commented on it, but I'll reproduce it here:

My girlfriend, who is a nurse at a large teaching hospital, told me they've taken out the hand washing sinks in patient rooms and replaced them with hands-free hand sanitizer dispensers.

More outrageous than that--she told me last week she was a bit stressed because two of her co-workers (nurses) were sick with the flu but at work anyway.*

She also pointed out that over half of health care providers choose not to get vaccinated .

My response to that was, "I wonder how they define 'health care providers'? If it includes chiropractors, massage 'therapists' and other kinds of quacks, then I'm not so surprised." She tells me that her impression is that at least 1/4 of nurses refuse to get vaccinated. (They have to sign a waiver that says they don't want it.)

Don't they have to take a course in public health?

*ETA: She defended her co-workers by pointing to hospital policy that basically punishes workers for using their sick days when they're sick.
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Large teaching hospital in Switzerland here, same situation, same comments from nurses ... a World Conspiration of Stupid IMO ! Why are so many nurses attracted by woo ?
 
Speaking of the vaccine--here in St. Louis it's now available at Walgreen's. Much as I hate to spend $25 (when BJC hospital will offer it free in early October), and much as I hate the fact that Walgreen's is pushing hand sanitizer, antiseptic wipes and Oscillococcinum in the "flu shop" on their website (and presumably in stores as well), I'll probably get it just to beat the rush.

ETA: I just realized that this is just the normal seasonal flu shot and doesn't include the H1N1 vaccine. I assumed it would be rolled into one shot (since the normal seasonal shot usually covers several strains that represent the best guess of what's likely to be most widespread).
 
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JoeTheJuggler said:
My girlfriend, who is a nurse at a large teaching hospital, told me they've taken out the hand washing sinks in patient rooms and replaced them with hands-free hand sanitizer dispensers.
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What do they do if they've been in contact with a patient who has C. difficile?

~Dr. Imago
 
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