THE FACTS: The H1N1 vaccine is now out and will be available Friday in the Student Health Center from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is free with a student I.D.
OUR OPINION: Students have a lot more to lose than whatever time they spend in line to get the vaccination. Now that the vaccine is available for free, students should take advantage of this opportunity.
Flu season is in full swing and with the presence of the particularly contagious H1N1 strain, people face twice the risk. However, students can now get vaccinated against the new strain.
Considering how contagious H1N1 appears to be, students can either spend a few hours in line and get vaccinated or take the risk of missing days of classes during some of the busiest and most critical weeks of the semester. The choice is simple: get vaccinated.
In Your Words: Have you recieved the H1N1 vaccine? Why or why not?
Ignore the Cassandras on television questioning the efficacy and safety of the vaccine. Unlike doctors at the Student Health Center, Glenn Beck and company are not licensed medical professionals. Don’t gamble your health based on the shrill warnings of a pundit without a medical degree: listen to doctors and get vaccinated.
Even if you had a suspected case of H1N1, consider getting the new vaccine and at least get the regular flu vaccine too. As the Student Health Center primarily diagnosed cases of H1N1 based on symptoms due to the unreliable lab tests on campus and difficulty in sending lab work off to the state laboratories for more accurate testing, you may not actually have had the dreaded H1N1 virus.
Now is definitely not the time to take unnecessary gambles with one’s health. Classes are in the final stretch for the semester, as there are only a few days after Thanksgiving Break before Dead Week begins. And the last thing any student wants to do or to worry about before final exams is cramming in an extra week of work and studying because he or she was out with the flu for a week. In this case, a few hours of prevention is worth a week of academic cures.
But don’t think that simply getting vaccinated is enough — keep on taking all the usual precautions: wash your hands, stay home if you are sick and don’t sneeze on people.
Unlike the looming threat of term papers and final exams, relief exists for students when it comes to H1N1. So take the opportunity to take one worry off your mind and get vaccinated. Students will all have enough things to worry about as it is.
