The Flu and Airports (fastcompany.com)

An anonymous reader writes: The CDC says this year's flu season is on track to either rival or dethrone 2009's swine flu. 3,000 people across the U.S. have died as a result of the flu in the first 20 days of 2018, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, and that number has likely risen. If you want to avoid the flu (and of course you do) the National Institute of Health says orange juice won't cut it. Instead, the best flu prevention is a vaccine, and it's not too late to get one. Pair a flu shot with frequent hand washing, and avoiding touching your eyes, nose, or mouth so you don't transfer any virus from your hands, and you just might manage to avoid the flu.

Comments

I got a flu shot this season

[cyberchondriac]

But I'd heard that this year's vaccines had mostly missed the mark.
It'd probably be more effective this year to wash your hands often, don't shake hands (I know, it's antisocial), and keep your hands away from your face.. or my face.

Re:I got a flu shot this season

[jellomizer]

Still even when the flue vaccine misses its mark, it still normally lessons the symptoms if you are to get the flu. It can be the difference between being out of work (feeling like crap) for a week vs being in the hospital for a week and out of work for an additional week.

Having the flu before, I make a point to get a vaccine every year (normally in September when it first gets out) just so I can avoid as much of the pain and misery of having the flu as I can. If I get it, it may be a few days of misery vs a week.

Re:I got a flu shot this season

[SirGarlon]

Logic fail. Taking the vaccine doesn't prevent you from washing your hands, so arguing for hand-washing is not arguing against vaccine. A sensible person would do both.

I have also heard that this year's vaccine is less effective than it should be. All medication is a trade-off between risks, side effects, and benefits, and this year the benefits are falling way short. If side effects or risks are normally something you have to think about, this is a year when you may want to think twice. But if you're blessed with the privilege of not normally having to worry about taking the vaccine, it is still, as they say, "worth a shot."

Re:I got a flu shot this season

[Actually, I do RTFA]

It's not a trade off of risks. They have to guess what strains are likely to be the virulent ones this season (since they mutate so often). This year they guessed wrong, so only 30% of the strains going around are covered.

Now 30% is much greater than 0%, but it's still a one-in-three shot.

Re: I got a flu shot this season

[arth1]

I didn't exercise, ate poorly, and smoked a pack a day for 20 years. I hardly ever got sick either.

There could quite possibly be a correlation there. If your habits made people shy away from you more than an average person, you would also be less likely to become infected.
If everybody had halitosis, diseases would have a harder time spreading.

Re:I got a flu shot this season

[arth1]

Technically, "getting influenza" should not count as a form of "preventing influenza".

Why not? It helps prevent future infections better than a vaccine does.

A downside is that if you have had a particular influenza strain and then get a vaccine for the same one, you likely will be sick for a couple of days, as the immune system response is triggered full on.

Not going to work

[ranton]

Not going to work when you have the flu would also be helpful, but probably even the CDC understands that is not a reasonable recommendation.

Re:Not going to work

[omfglearntoplay]

Not reasonable when your employers are greedy bastards, that is. Paid sick or better yet personal days should be the norm.

Re:Not going to work

[ranton]

Paid sick or better yet personal days should be the norm.

Most full-time employees have a number of hours PTO they can take; at least in the professional world, this is the case....

The problem is many employers now lump sick days and vacation together into the same pool. This causes people to not want to use PTO for sick days since it cuts into their vacation. There really is no good fix for this other than employers trusting their employees, which would allow for unlimited sick days (or at least unlimited until short term disability is more appropriate).

Time off for illness

[bit trollent]

In most of the US there are no paid sick days for restaurant workers.

So when you are drinking your soda and eating your sandwich, ask yourself if the sandwich maker could afford to take a sick day.

Is America a truly modern country without universal healthcare or paid time off for illness?

Re:Time off for illness

[DaveyJJ]

Huh? Canuck here. Sick at home Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday last week. Slacked my co-workers (not even head office) said, "Sick, staying home" ... response was "Okay, great." I get 10 sick days and 10 personal health days off, none of which I need any documentation for. I also worked nearly a decade in the US and was docked pay (and verbally berated) for taking a measly three days off after my second son was born and my wife wasn't mobile. I call BS, AC.

Either TFS or the Headline sucks.

[sconeu]

There is no mention of airports in TFS.

Re:Either TFS or the Headline sucks.

[toonces33]

There is in the article however, and they said that the dirtiest place in the airport are the self-ticketing kiosks. But I have known this for years - especially at Christmas time people drag their runny-nosed little brats onto airplanes, and due to the holidays people can't or won't cancel or postpone. I have even seen adults with runny noses going through the airports that time of year, so it isn't just the kids.

So the key is to use "best practices" going through airports. Wash your hands often, especially after touching things, use the hand-sanitizing stations if they are available, and make sure to avoid touching your face and especially rubbing your eyes.

This year's flu is an A/H3N2 strain.

[hey!]

This is a strain known for producing severe flu cases and sometimes-fatal secondary complications.

There is evidence that in past A/H3N2 outbreaks, people who contracted the flu despite being vaccinated had less severe symptoms and fewer complications. Even if the vaccine is only "10% effective" at preventing infection, the evidence still suggests that it's worth getting, especially as this flu is claiming the lives of many young, healthy people.

IMPORTANT: the "10%" figure was an early estimate from Australia in December. More recent figures I've heard are 17% effectiveness and 30% effectiveness in the US.