I was out in the hustle and bustle yesterday. I usually avoid the malls five days before Christmas, but through a series of unfortunate events, there I was in a sea of humanity.
Florida has had 3 cold snaps this December and the health department warned we'd see a surge of flu cases just before Christmas. You can laugh at our susceptibility to temps below 60 degrees, we deserve it. Florida can take 100 degrees with 95% humidity, but below 60 "is freezing" around here.
If the mall yesterday is any indication, we got that surge of flu. Every other store clerk seemed to have a "cold" yesterday. About 1 out of 5 were really miserable and obviously feverish. They went to work because they needed the money. They went to work because they want someone else to be laid off in January.
They went to work and spread the flu and cold viruses to anyone or thing they touched.
They didn't have to suffer.
They could get a flu shot.
You can still get a flu shot.
I shrugged. I got my shot last October. I just washed my hands more than usual yesterday.
At one point, I asked a flu stricken clerk why she didn't get a flu shot.
She said she hated shots.
I nodded, but thought to myself, "You hate shots more than the what you're feeling now? You'd trade 10 days of misery for 1 hour of anxiety and a needle stick?"
Already seeing the trend I moved throughout the mall and noticed a lot of sniffling customers. Our mall is full of kiosks with people hawking their wares. Sales people running all over the mall walkways selling cell phones, jewelry, make up, curling irons, cameras you name it. All that interaction. Uhh! Someone just unexpectedly sneezed. Droplets flew everywhere. One of the most obnoxious mall urchins got sprayed, however, the kid in the stroller nearby did too.
I'm thinking "Mommy, did you get your kid a flu shot?"
A lot of mothers tell me they hate vaccines. They cite refuted arguments, "They cause neurological problems. They cause autism." These parents fail to accept the studies that show that their delaying parenthood has an association with autism (how strong or prevalent is still unknown), but the refuted assertion that vaccines cause autism prevails over the correlation with parental ages. We live in a society that believes what they want regardless of the facts. Thimerosal is an often cited problem, but thimerosal is less of a mercury problem than our total environment (i.e. you have greater exposure to a different type of mercury by swimming in a lake or river popular with boaters - it's still mercury and more of it). Plus, the inhaled flu vaccine doesn't use thimerosal; so, you can get your kid (if they are older than 2) a flu "shot" up the schnoz.
I met my daughter at the food court. I found the table, she got the food. She arrived and promptly pulled out her hand sanitizer and started to use it. She told me she skipped 3 food shops because people behind the counter were obviously sick. I had noticed a lot of the cleaning staff were sniffling. She groused, "Gross! Why don't they just get a flu shot?"
"They think the flu shot can give them the flu?"
At the look from my daughter, I shrugged, "Yeah, well, we know the flu shot uses killed flu viruses and a dead virus isn't going to give anyone the flu, but again people choose to believe what they want to believe over good sense".
One of my daughter's friends showed up. "Gosh! (I edited that expletive) don't these people know it's cheaper to get a flu shot! Dang! edited again" He's an econ/finance major and somewhat amusing. Usually guys are the last to get a flu shot, so I was interested in his reasoning. We rearranged the table for him and he talked about a cost/benefit analysis he did on flu shots for families of 1, 2 and 4 people. He's listened to more than one of my daughter's physics problems, so I think she feigned interest, but I did my best Jon Stewert impression, "Oh! Do Tell!" He was a fountain of information.
The Flu shot is cheaper than getting the flu.
He found the cost range of flu shots was a low of $20 to a high of $40, so he chose the high value for the flu shot to artificially stress his analysis (I was assured that is a conservative, but valid assumption).
He researched and found out the likelihood of contracting the flu is about 1:3 (36%). He decided families of 1 or 2 could beat the odds, but a family of 4 would have nearly a 100% chance of someone contracting the flu. Then once flu is in the house, stopping the spread would be nearly impossible. "Like it does on your dorm floor?"
"Exactly! Can I have some of that?" He was pointing at the cheese fries my daughter bought and I was having a hard time ignoring as I ate my soup. I gratefully nodded, he scooped up a few fries and went on to explain how he researched the average costs of treating the flu with OTC medicines and determined a 10 day supply of acetaminophen, cough syrup, decongestants, chicken soup and juice added up to over $30, but people usually have some Tylenol, soup and juice on hand so, he settled on $30 for a family of one and a lot more for a family of 4. He decided to leave a doctor's visit out of the equation because it's the flu and for healthy people not that serious, but agreed that a doctor's visit would be about $100 in the office and $400 in the Emergency Department (but he still didn't want to add it in because insurance is too complicated).
He then figured in the time cost of being sick for 7-10 days. He decided on using 7 days to stress his analysis (also valid, but conservative). He decided that they would only call off work for 2 of the sickest days (again reasonable) , but he got stuck over sick days. He decided that people paid minimum wages were not likely to have paid sick days and calculated a minimum loss of about $115 in wages, but noted loss of good will from your supervisor is incalculable (how true and more true the more responsible the job). He also said the intangible of feeling good vs. feeling miserable couldn't be directly calculated, but should be noted.
So our budding financier determined that paying a high of $40 (but being the good shopper he is, he would find it at $20) is better than the total expense ($145) of losing $115 in income plus incurring a loss of $30 in unnecessary costs and risking the need of professional medical care for another $100-$400. Then subtracting for the 36% incidence rate is still a savings ($145 * 36% = (still costs about) $52 vs. $40). Then, when you start calculating for larger families.... My daughter's eyes started to glaze over and he wisely decided to finish his point:
The bottom line is compared to the possible $145 costs associated with getting the flu, the $40 is a bargain!
And, $20-$30 would be a better bargain!