Monday, October 5, 2009

Doctors discussing H1N1 vaccination

Doctors on Sermo are so many different views on the new H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine. Primary care providers, emergency medicine physicians, and hospital physicians are most likely to get exposed. If you're a subspecialist, then maybe your patients will stay at home if they have flu-like symptoms.

So, are doctors eager to get the swine flu vaccine? Are they waiting in line? Some are, but others are reluctant and hesitant. Scattered witihin the flurry of posts regarding health care reform, physicians are debating the public health implications of H1N1. Will H1N1 be like any other seasonal flu? You're going to find that some physicians don't get the seasonal flu vaccine for a variety of reasons. Will H1N1 be worse than the seasonal flu? Will we see more fatalities this flu season because of the H1N1 pandemic mixed with seasonal flu? Some people fear the unknown safety of this new flu vaccine. Will the potential risks outweigh its benefits, or will it be the other way around?

I think that every healthcare provider who has any directly patient contact should receive the H1N1 vaccine. So, if you're a radiologist and you're working out of a dark computer lab and you never interact with patients, then maybe you'll have minimal exposure. However, if you're a hospital physician or a primary care provider, then I think you'd be out of your mind to skip the H1N1 flu vaccine.

No comments:

Post a Comment