(no subject)
Oct. 26th, 2004 12:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hel_anaCNN.com is running yet another story about the flu vaccine shortage. Because there's no actual new news about it, they're running a "Flu Reality Check" angle on it, pointing out that most healthy adults are in no danger of dying, and so don't really need the shot.
It asks the question "Why are people all freaked out, running here and there, going to Canada, etc?"
The answer, according to researchers? People have a "more generalized sense of feeling unprotected" and are reacting to a "lack of control over their own health choices". Healthy adults should just accept that they might get the flu, wash their hands frequently, and if they do get sick, "stay home and drink hot soup".
Strangely enough, nowhere in the analysis of the reasons for the panic are the following two factors:
1) The media has been screaming about the lack of flu vaccine for 2 weeks now. Playing Chicken Little and then turning around to say "what? what's wrong? really, it's not so bad, you're overreacting" is a little disingenuous, guys.
2) The very real fear among a lot of people in this country of taking time off from work, because they're afraid of outright firing or other retaliation, or of not being able to pay rent/put food on the table if they miss a few days of work. This country's employment environment is such that people can't afford to get sick, even with something that doesn't require medical care or hospitalization and irrespective of health insurance coverage. And that's a bigger problem than one year's supply of vaccine going up in smoke.
It asks the question "Why are people all freaked out, running here and there, going to Canada, etc?"
The answer, according to researchers? People have a "more generalized sense of feeling unprotected" and are reacting to a "lack of control over their own health choices". Healthy adults should just accept that they might get the flu, wash their hands frequently, and if they do get sick, "stay home and drink hot soup".
Strangely enough, nowhere in the analysis of the reasons for the panic are the following two factors:
1) The media has been screaming about the lack of flu vaccine for 2 weeks now. Playing Chicken Little and then turning around to say "what? what's wrong? really, it's not so bad, you're overreacting" is a little disingenuous, guys.
2) The very real fear among a lot of people in this country of taking time off from work, because they're afraid of outright firing or other retaliation, or of not being able to pay rent/put food on the table if they miss a few days of work. This country's employment environment is such that people can't afford to get sick, even with something that doesn't require medical care or hospitalization and irrespective of health insurance coverage. And that's a bigger problem than one year's supply of vaccine going up in smoke.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-26 09:51 am (UTC)Now, I will give you that CNN is way more likely to pick up this particular wire story than, say, a small-market daily.