Is anyone else sick of hearing about the flu? I mean, i'm safely sequestered from the masses up here in the NICU, which typically shows no bias for any season, and I can't tell you how many times I have been asked about the novel H1N1 flu. I walked into work the other day and the charge nurse practically tripped over her own feet trying to aim a loaded needle at my deltoid with one hand and waving a consent form in the other. To be completed simultaneously no doubt. I felt like I needed to hold up my armored shield. Renaissance-style.
The visitation policy here has become severely restricted since the epidemic hit (just in October here in the suburbs of Chicago). Only the parents of the infants here can visit....no siblings, no grandparents, no aunts and uncles. Regardless of whether they have been ill or had contact with anyone with flu-like symptoms. For some, this sounds like no big deal. Common sense even. But, for the woman I spoke to earlier this evening, whose 30 week twins are threatening to arrive any moment now, it was a crushing blow that her mother, who traveled all the way from Israel to be here for the preterm birth, cannot see these babies in person for the foreseeable future.
Are we overreacting? Are we responding to mass hysteria surrounding the H1N1 flu? Is the pandemic really severe enough to warrant fast-tracking a vaccine through limited testing to be produced in limited supply? Will the worst of the wave be over before those 'priority groups' even have access to the vaccine? Yes, I get my flu shot every year like a good health care worker. My response to those who say "I've never gotten the flu so I don't get a flu shot" is this...Do you not wear a seat belt just because you've never been in an accident? And yes, I did get my H1N1 flu shot this year as well (the nurses were coming at me with needles like darts at a dart board!). I am not a conscientious objector. But I do wonder...
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