Here’s news I found out about through Intelligent Traveler who got the heads up from the Winging It blog at the denverpost.com. who got their info from the Associated Press. If you happen to be passing through several U.S. airports, right before you hit the gate, you can get a flu shot. Airports in Denver, Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco and Newark, N.J are participating so far.
This has turned out to be the biggest success for business types–frequent fliers who have no time to hit the doctor’s office between business meetings and traversing the globe. In the future, according to the AP article, cholesterol tests and blood pressure screening may be added to the list of things to do that you have no time for. Get your shoes shined and a little health fix. In the future, you also might be able to get other shots. A bit fuzzy on just how long ago that tetanus shot was? Maybe you can get that booster without putting it on your to-do list. Seeing the shot kiosk will remind you.
I wonder though if you’d need to have your shot records with you in that case? Someone with a hazy memory, like myself, might get a little too booster happy just “to be sure.” Maybe all the way to Cincinnati or somewhere else, people who didn’t stop to get the shot will fret and wonder if they should avoid rusty pieces of metal at all costs. Certainly, I can see how when the person sitting next to you is wadding used tissues and shoving them in the seat pocket or coughing particles, that flu shot you passed up might come back to haunt you.
Flu shots cost $15 to $35, only take a minute or two to get, and take 2 weeks to go into effect. Get one now, and you’ll be ready for flu season. With the recycled air on planes, that’s probably not a bad idea.