Swine flu: will you be getting vaccinated?

I’m a panicker. So is my mother. That’s why she has already stockpiled masks, enough for the family. After an initial burst of freaking out, I really got over the whole thing until the last few days when predictions like “up to 7 million people are expected to get swine flu in Australia”. That’s a lot.

I’m fairly germ-phobic at the best of times and much more so since I’ve had kids. It’s one thing to be sick yourself but when children are involved, it’s a massive disruption to the house for weeks, even when it’s not serious. Are you altering your behaviour? Avoiding groups of people? Not shaking hands?

Meanwhile, Crikey reports that all this panic is costly. Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane wrote last week:

The human instinct to arbitrarily select threats about which to panic, with a little help from the media, is proving very costly in the case of Swine Flu.

It apparently matters little that Australia’s Chief Medical Officer yesterday made a point of saying how mild Swine Flu was and how there was no need for alarm. We’re spending tens of millions of dollars because politicians — understandably — don’t want to be caught out responding to Swine Flu the way it should be addressed — with the same urgent response with which the nation met the great toe-stubbing epidemic of 1997 — when there’s the faintest chance an Australian could die from it.

Australians of course will die from flu this year, as they do every year, but for whatever reasons lurking deep in human psychology — porcine imagery, xenophobia, GFC-induced uncertainty — the far milder Swine Flu is what is sending Australia’s health system into overdrive. Yesterday Nicola Roxon announced $43m would be spent buying additional courses of vaccine. That’s the vaccine for normal flu, by the way, not Swine Flu. That doesn’t exist yet and may not exist until after the pandemic is over, but the Government has pre-ordered that too, from CSL. They’re not saying how much that will cost, or what will be done with it if Swine Flu has disappeared by July or August.

It’s not Nicola Roxon’s fault. The politician hasn’t been born yet who’d be willing to stand up and say that the public, particularly the media, should stop treating swine flu as a biblical plague when there are lots more serious health matters to be dealt with.

The worried well are also rushing GPs with every sniffle, throat tickle and case of “not feeling 100%”. Monthly figures for GP visits are quite volatile, but centre around the 6-7m mark according to Medicare statistics. If there’s a million extra GP visits over April and May because of panic about Swine Flu, that will cost taxpayers $33.5m, based on GPs charging for Level B consultations, which have an MBS fee of $33.55.

Then there’s the cost of dislocation caused by school closures and what might become widespread business closures. Right across the country large businesses will be breaking out their risk management plans and wondering who can work from home.

I’m certainly using a lot of that disinfectant hand rub stuff. And trying as best as possible to stay away from sick people – although that’s hard when they don’t mention they’re sick UNTIL AFTER THEY’VE GREETED YOU WITH A KISS. Hate that. Hate it.

They say a vaccine will be available in a matter of weeks. Now, I’m pro-vaccination. We’ve all had flu injections, even the kids. But will I be rushing out to get a swine jab? Will my kids? I’m not sure. You?

I’m just slightly wary about how fast this vaccination has been manufactured and how little time there has been to assess possible long term effects. Or are all vaccinations the same and they’re different to regular drugs? Anyone?