more pricks than pricks

i get my flu shot today. regular flu. not the N1H1 flu shot. that one is expected to arrive later this month and specialized groups, small children and pregnent women for example, have priority. which is as it should be. my work provides the vaccinations free of charge. just show up, fill out a form, then roll up your sleeve as the nurse gets a rusted needle, dips it into a glaucous solution, licks off the excess from the needle, and jabs blindly at your arm as hard as the nurse can go.

har har har.

it's really a painless, anticlimactic endeavour. what amazes me is the level of fear and resistance some have getting vaccinated. is it needles? the fear of the vaccine itself. national public radio did a piece on that fear last week. how even some healthcare workers don't get flu shots because, because the fears are myriad, i guess.

perhaps the fear is the work of the emotions over the intellect. science v. blind belief. there's a metaphor here that i'm not quite expressing. that flu shots are very safe, and to know it in your mind, is not the same as the gut cramping from the thought of the shot and/or the vaccine. why would that be part of the human condition? but it is. how even the most rational of us will still read our horoscopes in the paper, not because they are accurate, but we do, and we do it, i think, just in case.