MARKET WATCH COLUMNIST
“It’d be silly, selfish not to get flu shot”, Ellis Henican Column, Newsday, January 13, 2012
Sorry if you have the flu.
I got slammed a few New Year’s Eves ago. Chills. Fever. A horrible aching feeling. The rot lingered into the second week of January.
I thought I would die. Then, I wished I would die. Never once have I joked about 
the flu since then.
All 50 states are reporting influenza activity. Across America, some drugstores report they’re running low on the flu vaccine — or they’re out altogether. It’s still too soon to predict how severe this flu season will be.
“The only thing predictable about the flu,” says Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control, “is that it’s unpredictable.”
Gee, thanks, Doc. And where does that leave us?
We’re fresh from family get-togethers at Christmas and New Year’s, a perfect petri dish for 
virus transmission. At least now the kids have a great excuse for not kissing Grandma. And we’re finally back at work, where fewer and fewer of us get paid sick days any more. So we go in with sniffles and who-knows-what-else, too broke to stay at home, spreading our communicable diseases with every handshake, sneeze and water-cooler stop.
Ah-Choo! God bless you! Ambulance, please!
No wonder some employers are discovering: In the long run, sick days might actually be an economy move.
“Don’t be selfish,” warns Arthur Caplan, who heads the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU 
Langone Medical Center. “A flu shot isn’t just for you. It’s also for those around you.”
On Saturday, the latest flu-related fatalities included: 27 in Minnesota, 23 in Pennsylvania, 18 in Massachusetts, and 12 in New York City.
“Most people,” he said, “naturally assume that if someone is sticking a needle in their arm, it is to prevent them from getting sick. In fact, flu vaccination is for your family’s good, your neighbor’s good and the good of the newborn baby down the street.”
The flu shots, the CDC calculates, are only 62 percent effective. “But that’s still pretty good — and not just for you,” the medical ethicist said. “You should get one if you can.”
STRAINED
1. Spanish
2. Hong Kong
3. Bird
4. Swine
5. Rockin’ Pneumonia and Boogie Woogie
THE NEWS IN SONG
Channeling Peggy Lee all through the night
Michael Buble’s
“Fever”
ASKED AND UNANSWERED
Has a Brookhaven neuroscientist discovered a genetic fountain of youth? Peter Thanos says the 7R form of the DRD4 
gene is awfully prevalent in the over-90 set . . . Did you take the Peconic Bay Water Jitney between Sag Harbor and Greenport last summer? Didn’t think so. Low ridership (195 a day) is now being blamed for docking the scenic service . . . Are Ford Interceptors about to replace C
rown Vics as cruiser-of-choice for police everywhere — or just in East Hampton? . . . How did Richard Olsen-Harbich of Bedell Cellars install his 2009 merlot on the Presidential Inaugural lunch menu? That kind of thing doesn’t just happen in Washington, does it? . . . Doesn’t anyone know how to gerrymander anymore? The preferred Republican map for the Republican-controlled Nassau Legislature squeezes Republican incumbents Michael Venditto and Joe Belesi in the same district.
LONG ISLANDERS OF THE WEEK
ICE MEN
On Tuesday, Port Jeff natives and identical-twin NHL stars Peter and Chris Ferraro, along with business partner Richard “Big Daddy” Salgado, will warm the hearts of bleary-eyed hockey families across Long Island. The three will announce plans for a state-of-the-art hockey-and-ice-skating facility in Eisenhower Park. The public-private partnership will vastly expand LI’s winter-skating options and ease many pre-dawn drives with future wings, defensemen and goalies.
E-mail ellis@henican.com
Follow him at twitter.com/henican
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