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Health care workers should be made to get themselves vaccinated for the H1N1 virus. Ever since my transplant last year (has it really been over a year? Wow. Time flies.) I've had to take immune suppressants to avoid rejection. With my immune system as weak as it is I can't handle the normal strain of the flu, let alone the H1N1 strain. And yes, I did get vaccinated for the flu. Not the swine flu, the normal one. My doctor highly reccomended it and even then, he said, "It might not work though. You're still at a pretty big risk." He even reccommeded the swine flu vaccine which I would get in a heart beat if it were avaible here. (And since I live in a small county, it's highly unlikely it will ever be avaible here.) If I found out one of my nurses or doctors did not get the vaccine, I would demand a nurse/doctor who did to help me with my care. Now granted, with my type of transplant it would be a bit difficult to find a doctor and nurse who has the know-how about my personal care, but I'll go all over the globe if I have to in order to get a health care professional who has gotten the vaccine. (And is competent as I am well aware even if a doctor has the swine flu vaccine, it doesn't mean they're competent) I am entrusting them with my life and if an unvaccinated nurse goes to Walmart and touches something a swine flu patient had touched, then went to work, even if she washes her hands constantly, she has put my life into a very dangerous situation. I may have gotten a lot better over the past year but my body is still pretty weak. My mom made me put on a surgical mask when I went to get my hair done a couple weeks ago because she was afraid of the flu risk. (Very embarrassing especially when the old ladies in their wheel chairs are staring at you funny.) Hell, when my sister had a cold last week, my dad barricaded me into my room with my laptop and basically said, "Have fun! Oh, and don't come out unless you have to go to the bathroom."
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