10-30-2009, 04:58 PM
The Point: As Flu Spreads, Some Panic
Posted:
10/30/09
Filed Under:Health, The Point
Oct. 30) -- First, the swine flu story line was about how many people didn't want the vaccine. Now that there's less of it than officials promised, people are clamoring for the vaccine and a type of public hysteria is becoming part of the story.
"I've never seen it like this," a besieged doctor's office administrator in suburban Atlanta told USA Today. "That name, H1N1, sends parents into a panic." There's been "a lot of verbal abuse" from patients who can't get the vaccine, she added.
Sasha and Malia Obama got their flu shots from a White House doctor, and in an unscientific survey of our readers, 55 percent said the first daughters got special treatment.
In another poll, 86 percent said it was wrong to give high-risk prison inmates flu shots before the general public.
H1N1 flu fear is changing our behavior -- individually and collectively.
Employers are lifting sick-day limits, and airlines are waiving rebooking fees to persuade infected people to stay home, according to USA Today.
Hundreds of flu-stricken schools have closed, even though the federal government has said that such shutdowns should be the last resort to stop the spread of the virus. Some schools have scrapped perfect attendance awards for this year to keep ambitious-but-ailing kids out of classrooms.
Even in a war zone, troops are defending against the H1N1 virus. The military is strictly enforcing hand-washing orders at bases in Afghanistan. "In 30 years of covering wars, I've never seen anything like it," wrote Politics Daily's David Wood.
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http://www.sphere.com/2009/10/30/the-poi...ome-panic/