Chances are you, your family and your friends have been talking about the swine flu vaccine.
Many people are questioning if they should get it and if it will have side effects.
One problem is that most of us don't know anyone who's gotten the vaccine because it's been given out in only a few places.
We talked to the people on the frontline of health care and from our unscientific sampling, the doctors and nurses who have gotten it so far give the H1N1 vaccine a thumbs up.
Hospital employees who work with the most critically ill patients have been among the first to get the nasal spray.
It's been almost a week now that Kosair Children's Hospital started giving workers the vaccine.
No one has reported any symptoms or gotten sick.
The same can also be said for teachers and faculty at New Albany and Floyd County Schools.
35% of the staff have gotten the nasal spray so far and school officials tell us everyone seems to be doing okay.
“I got it on Monday…didn't feel anything,” said Julia Frith, an ICU nurse at Kosair.
So far 2,000 doses of the H1N1 nasal vaccine have already started going out to the nurses and doctors at Kosair Children's Hospital.
Pediatric Infection Control nurse Julia Firth says she is confident she won't suffer any side effects. Her fellow nurse Kelly Zink feels the same.
She says the myths floating around about the swine flu vaccine are just that - myths and nothing more.
“I did a lot of research about it. I talked to some physicians; it's made the same way the seasonal flu vaccine is made. Every year I get my children to take the flu shot so they don't get sick, so I had to get it myself,” said Zink.
On the street, people are divided. Jewish Hospital Nursing assistants Shannon Brown and Brenda Shobe say they are concerned but not fearful.
“We putting ourselves at risk coming in here, may as well protect ourselves,” said Brown.
“I’ll probably get it but will have to have a conversation with her dad about it.”
Some people, like Renee Ford, are flat out not getting the vaccine.
She said, “probably not. I didn't get the flu shot. So I’ll probably not get that.”
The CDC says that H1N1 nasal spray vaccine side effects include:
- runny nose
-headache
-sore throat
-cough
Visit the CDC Website for more information.
If you are interested in getting the swine flu vaccine, the health department expects another 11,000 doses of the vaccine to arrive within the next week or so.
