Students have mixed opinions on whether to get the flu shot when Lipscomb opens its clinic Tuesday in the Bennett Campus Center
The university is urging students and faculty to get the shot, by posting the following message on its website: “This year, the CDC is recommending that everyone 6 months and older get flu shots. Protection against the H1N1 virus will be included in this year’s seasonal vaccines.”
The combination seasonal flu and swine flu in vaccination doesn’t bother Leanne Wright, a junior nursing major from Cincinnati, Ohio.
“I’ll get a flu shot. I’ll get the piggy shot. Put it all in me,” Wright said. “Flu shots work, but not for all people.”
Sarah Bailey, a junior marketing major from Philadelphia, Pa., said she agrees with the school’s stance on the shots. But not everyone is so eager.
“I don’t feel that they are necessary,” said Joseph Cardiasmenos, a senior psychology major from Cincinnati, Ohio. “Since I’m young, my immune system can fight off [the flu] on its own.”
Jamie Good, a junior exercise major from Cincinnati said she probably won’t get the shot.
“I got one last year and I still got the flu,” Good said.
Physicians have said that while the flu shot won’t prevent a person from getting ill, it will lessen the wallop of the ailment.
Some students said that the shot actually can make a person ill. This, according to a statement posted on the web site of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, is the No. 1 misconception about the vaccinations: “The influenza viruses contained in a flu shot are inactivated (killed), which means they cannot cause infection.
“Flu vaccine manufacturers kill the viruses used in the vaccine during the process of making the vaccine, and batches of flu vaccine are tested to make sure they are safe. In randomized, blinded studies, where some people get flu shots and others get salt-water shots, the only differences in symptoms was increased soreness in the arm and redness at the injection site among people who got the flu shot. There were no differences in terms of body aches, fever, cough, runny nose or sore throat.”
Some people avoid flu shots for other reasons entirely.
“They make me pass out so I don’t get them,” said Kimberly Beam, a junior psychology major from Franklin, Tenn.
Students. faculty and staff can receive the vaccination for $18. Students can put it on their “L” account.
The clinic hours are 1:30-4 p.m. Tuesday on the main floor of Bennett Campus Center; noon-4 p.m. Oct. 26 in the flex space of the Burton Building and noon-4 p.m. Nov. 16 on the top floor of Bennett.