After you have a flu shot they ask you to sit there for about 15 minutes, right? So what could be better than just going out the back, sitting down and getting stuck in to a sausage sanga while you wait?
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For Armidale's Armajun Clinic team leader Sara McGregor it made a lot of sense, the shots were free to Armajun clients and she was very pleased to see the turnout of people coming down to take advantage of them.
it's called herd immunity, which is if someone's not sick they're not going to pass it on to others.
- Sara McGregor
"Up until about 10.30am we have seen about 25 people, and we are still rolling. So, I think it's going to be a busy day," she said.
"We've handed out about 70-80 pamphlets throughout the community. This is only a new role for me, but it is my understanding that last year we saw about 75 people. So, we're hoping to at least match that this year.
"The thing about the flu immunisation it is protecting, not just people who have the immunisation from getting sick, but it's called herd immunity, which is if someone's not sick they're not going to pass it on to others."
Sara thought because we frequented crowded places, such as shops and shopping malls, and lived in close proximity to each other, protecting as many people as possible was important.
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"The idea is then that we get the best degree of protection," she said.
"It's just that time of the year that we all have coughs and colds and sneezes. We like to compare having the vaccination to wearing a seatbelt in a car. It might not stop you having an accident, but it will protect you if you do.
"It may not stop you getting sick, but it will stop you getting really, really sick or even being hospitalised. Influenza actually kills people. What we're doing is giving you your best shot at being protected."
Sara thought the community in general were perhaps becoming a little blase about immunisation in general.
"We never see the big picture of what immunisation is doing. We see that people don't get sick, but we don't actually see the people with the diseases. That's across the board with every immunisation," she said.
"Unless you're in the older generations, we don't see people with whooping cough, polio, tetanus these days because you've got such a good immunisation program.
"So, we don't see those illnesses and we don't see how severe those illnesses are. So, what we're trying to do is keep people aware that these immunisations are protecting you against some really serious and life-threatening illnesses."