Have you gone for a flu shot this year?

Doctors’ offices and drug stores are offering vaccinations now, and Jackson County Health Department is in the middle of its flu vaccine clinic for what we’ll call the “regular” or seasonal flu.

The health department clinic started Monday and Tuesday and continues today and Friday at its office, 801 W. Second St. in Seymour. The cost is $20, and the shot didn’t sting too badly when I was vaccinated Tuesday morning.

There were a few folks there, but as Brandy Emily reported in her story on Wednesday, people haven’t exactly been beating down the doors to get their flu shots at the clinic.

I am curious about why the numbers of people stopping by the health department for the seasonal flu shot appear to be off the normal pace.

Are they waiting for the H1N1 vaccine, which gained federal approval Tuesday? Is it because the seasonal flu vaccine is being offered earlier than normal this year? Or are people just not worried about the flu?

I used to be that way.

I’d get the shot or I wouldn’t.

Then last year I failed to be vaccinated after several years of getting a shot. Yep, I got the flu. Boy did I get the flu. I felt sore and lousy for what seemed an eternity (just ask my family).

So I wasn’t going to miss out on getting a shot this year.

Will this regular or seasonal flu vaccine protect you against the H1N1 flu, which many still call the swine flu despite the best efforts of the pork industry and governmental health officials to rebrand it as H1N1? No, it won’t, but failure to get a shot will also not protect against the seasonal flu.

Another question — do you plan to be vaccinated for the H1N1 flu should a vaccine be made available to you?

Me? I’m not sure.

Fortunately, I seem to be in the age group that, so far, seems less affected by H1N1. So that could be a reason to refrain.

There’s also the concern about how the general public will react to H1N1 vaccine. For some people my age and older, there may be strong memories of the 25 deaths that followed vaccination for what was called the swine flu in 1976.

No, I’m not leading a chorus against the H1N1 vaccine, or any vaccine for that matter.

But there likely will be those who subscribe to the idea of waiting to buy a new model of a car, allowing someone else to work out the kinks.

In all liklehood, if the H1N1 vaccine’s made available to me, I’ll take it.

A flu by any other name
Not that it’s uncommon for me to take grief about things in the paper, even when they’re not, reports about the flu this year have drawn criticism and questions from some area farmers who make part of their living raising hogs.

As you might guess, the pork industry isn’t too happy that what the government now calls the H1N1 flu was first called, and still often is called, the swine flu.

I recently asked Keith Robinson, Indianapolis bureau chief of The Associated Press, why the AP was continuing with the “swine flu” moniker.

“That’s because experts say the virus began in pigs and most of its genetic makeup is from pig viruses, although there are human and bird genes too,” Robinson said.

Generally, The Tribune is now using the term “H1N1” because that’s what we receive in government reports and news releases. We’re generally changing “swine” to H1N1 in AP stories, although the occasional “swine” reference may slip through.

So there you go.

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