The flu season is winding to a close, and just 52 percent of children got a flu shot.
It is amazing how many people refuse to get a flu shot each year, whether it is from fear of needles, one of the many widespread myths about the dangers of vaccination, or the cost. Awareness needs to be spread about the importance of flu shots, and schools and universities should be leading the charge.
This last flu season, of the 105 children — which is a large number for a typical flu season — who died of influenza, 90 percent of them were not vaccinated. Schools create a close-knit community, and with so many students coming into contact with each other on a daily basis, they should be working harder to minimize sicknesses.
The U did surprisingly little to warn students of the coming flu season. Shots were free at the Student Health Center, but with ASUU sponsoring only 800 shots for 30,000 students, offered on a location far from central campus with little to no advertising, many students didn’t have any idea such shots were available.
The U should be posting fliers, having several events to distribute the shots and spreading facts to encourage students to get the shot early in the flu season.
The flu season started earlier this year than it has in a long time and it was particularly nasty. If ARUP can be as successful as it is at advertising needles on campus, the Student Health Center can too.
Although Salt Lake City was not hit hard with deaths, the vomiting, aches and cold-like symptoms can take a toll on a person, particularly one trying to function in a school environment. Students who contract the virus often don’t know or won’t admit they have it and will continue with their day-to-day routines, spreading it to other students and knocking them mentally and physically out of class for however long that particular strain lasts.
Many don’t understand when they choose to risk the flu over getting the shot that it is not only their health that they are affecting. Children and the elderly are in particular danger when it comes to flu season and are more susceptible to its spread. This should make students all the more careful during flu season.
We have the advances to prevent a mostly annoying virus, yet so many of us refuse to take advantage of them. If students aren’t going to take the initiative to protect their own health, then the university needs to step up and make it easier for them, for the sake of everyone who walks our campus.