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Perdue gets flu shot, wants you to do the same

Gov. Bev Perdue wants you to get a seasonal flu shot. And, to make her point, she took the needle in front of a bunch of reporters and state workers Tuesday.

To be clear: this is the SEASONAL flu vaccine. The vaccine for H1N1, what some folks still call the swine flu, isn’t expected to arrive in the state until October. Perdue and other health officials are encouraging folks to plan on getting both.

The state’s official flu website is www.flu.nc.gov. If you surf on over to that site, you can pretty much get the gist of today’s news conference: get the shot, stay home if you feel bad, sneeze into your sleeve, wash your hands a lot, etc…

“We will also invite ourselves to see the capitol press corps get their seasonal shots – it would be such fun,” Perdue joked. “Maybe I’ll give the shot.”

Regarding the H1N1 flu, Perdue and health officials on hand said that North Carolina could expect to get about 1 million doses in October, with more to follow. Priority will go to particularly vulnerable populations such as those under 2-years-old, pregnant women, etc…

Perdue said that the state is already seeing an uptick in the spread of flu as college campuses and K-12 schools go back into session. She said the state had no plans to step in and close classrooms or entire schools this winter. That sort of decision, she said, would be left to local school systems unless there was an unexpectedly bad outbreak.

Perdue didn’t have to take the needle alone. She brought along the Superintendent of Public Instruction, June Atkinson, and about half her cabinet to get their shots. I didn’t see too many folks flinch, although Transportation Sec. Gene Conti and Revenue Sec. Ken Lay did have to take off their work shirts in order to receive the needle.