Afraid of Ebola? Fear the Flu Instead

I saw a funny message on Facebook the other day, posted by the niece of a friend. “You seem awfully worried about catching Ebola for someone too lazy to get a flu shot,” it read. My friend’s niece is a doctor, so I’m sure she has seen all kinds of irrational panic over the recent Ebola outbreak.

Although the actual outbreak is thousands of miles away from the US, there has been lots of confusion about how exactly the virus is spread. Add that to the publicity surrounding procedure errors at one of the hospitals that treated an Ebola patient, and a healthy amount of concern is understandable. Is it time to panic, though? No.

And you shouldn’t panic about the looming flu season either, but you should definitely be prepared. Every year, the influenza virus sends more than 200,000 Americans to the hospital and kills up to 49,000 folks, most of them over 65.

Every year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urges us to rush out and get a flu shot. Yet statistics show that fewer than 50 percent of the adult population heeds that advice. Whether you fall into the “No needles for me!” or the “Shoot me now!” group, here are a few factoids that you may not know:

• The likelihood that the flu shot will protect you varies wildly from year to year, but generally it’s about 67 percent effective.
• The shot is less effective for anyone who has a chronic health condition.
• After you’ve been vaccinated, it takes about two weeks for your system to develop antibodies against the flu.

So get the flu shot to increase your odds of staying healthy, but you still need to protect yourself against getting the virus. You can pick it up simply by touching a germ-laden surface or shaking hands with an infected person. So start by disinfecting some of the most likely germ catchers in your home and office. Focus your attack on your computer keyboards and mouse, desks, tables, doorknobs, elevator buttons, faucets, handrails, remote controls. Then, when you wash your hands, scrub vigorously with a lather of soap for at least 20 seconds. And always use a paper towel to operate public bathroom faucets and your elbow to open the door.