Fighting Flu Shots

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In order to help promote everyone's health and wellbeing on campus, the University decided that flu shots are going to be required for all students and highly recommended for all faculty and staff. The University is even offering free flu shots to those who need it at certain times and locations around campus. When I saw the email announcing this, I did not think much of it. In class a couple weeks ago, we discussed the fear of a 'twindemic' where we will be fighting both COVID and the flu at the same time. It makes sense to ask everyone to get vaccinated to help try to lower the amount of people who get the flu. Needless to say, I was shocked when people were outraged by the announcement.

I have gotten the flu shot every year for as long as I can remember. My friends and family used to get it, so I assumed it was just a normal thing that everyone did. However, I have discovered that lots of people, such as my roommate, have never gotten the flu shot. My roommate is nervous and freaked out about getting the shot because she is afraid that she was get the flu from it. After talking to more people about it, I found out that never getting the flu shot is actually pretty common. That concept is odd to me. I thought that only anti-vaccinators did not get the flu shot. People, like my roommate, are mad at the university for making it a requirement. A boy in one of my classes was saying how he always gets sick when he gets the vaccine, so he does not want to get it. I never thought that people would be getting into fights about receiving something that is could help their health and the overall health of everyone at the university. Everyone needs to have documentation of the shot by November 1st. I guess we will see if people trying to fight the announcement will win, or if they will be forced to give up and just get the vaccine.