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Flu prompts visitor restrictions at UMMC starting Wednesday

By Billie Owens

Press release:

To help reduce further transmission of influenza and/or other infectious diseases, Rochester Regional Health is instituting the following restrictions for hospital visitors as of Jan. 3:

  • Visitors will be limited to no more than two people per patient at a time;
  • All visitors must be at least 14 years old;
  • Please do not visit a patient if you feel you are ill, including sore throat, fever, runny nose, coughing, sneezing, or other flu-like symptoms -- even if you have been vaccinated against the flu.

Status as of Jan. 3 (tomorrow):

  • Rochester General Hospital (Rochester) – Visitor restrictions in place
  • Unity Hospital (Greece) –  Visitor restrictions in place
  • United Memorial Hospital (Batavia) – Visitor restrictions in place
  • Newark-Wayne Community Hospital (Newark) – Visitor restrictions in place
  • Clifton Springs Hospital & Clinic (Clifton Springs) – Visitor restrictions in place

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Rochester Regional Health is an integrated health services organization serving the people of Western New York, the Finger Lakes and beyond. The system includes five hospitals; primary and specialty practices, rehabilitation centers, ambulatory campuses and immediate care facilities; innovative senior services, facilities and independent housing; a wide range of behavioral health services; and Rochester Regional Health Laboratories and ACM Global Laboratories, a global leader in patient and clinical trials. Rochester Regional Health is the region’s second largest employer. Learn more atRochesterRegional.org.

jeff saquella

Please do not visit a patient if you feel you are ill, including sore throat, fever, runny nose, coughing, sneezing, or other flu-like symptoms -- even if you have been vaccinated against the flu...............Wait a minute...if you have been vaccinated against the flu you wouldn't have any symptoms....right?...exactly why i NEVER get a flu shot.

Jan 2, 2018, 4:55pm Permalink
Billie Owens

Howard and I have gotten a flu shot every year starting in 1996. We've never had the flu in the intervening years. We do get an occasional cold, but the flu is 10 times worse. We are believers in flu shots.

Jan 2, 2018, 5:17pm Permalink
jeff saquella

It's just so hard for manufacturer's of the vaccine to guess what strain of flu will hit that i just don't see the need for it. So many people i know who have been vaccinated have still come down with it. I myself have never had a real bad case of the flu (knock on wood).

Jan 2, 2018, 5:46pm Permalink
Howard B. Owens

The flu shot protects against multiple strains of flu so even if a strain pops up after the vaccine was formulated for the season, you're still getting protection.

Without a shot you have no protection. With a shot you have at least 60 percent protection. If you got those kinds of odds in a casino you would be foolish not to put your money down.

A flu shot may save your life, but more important, your flu shot may save somebody else's life when you don't spread it, or at least save other people from being completely miserable for a while.

It's arrogant, self-serving and an abdication of responsibility to the rest of society not to get a flu shot.

Jan 2, 2018, 7:11pm Permalink
jeff saquella

With all due respect Howard I think you over exaggerated your last sentence. It's a person's personal preference whether or not to get a flu shot, there is nothing "arrogant" or "self serving" or irresponsible about their decision.

Jan 2, 2018, 9:28pm Permalink
Howard B. Owens

It is a personal choice. You are correct. But science favors the notion that it is a choice that effects everybody you contact should you become sick. While I could be less blunt, I merely wish to emphasize the choice goes beyond your own personal choice, little different from the personal choice to decide to drive drunk. Chances are if you drive drunk, nothing bad happens and perhaps the only bad thing is you get a DWI charge. If that’s the worse of it, you made a choice and suffer the consequences, but the choice can turn out so much worse. Is that bit of personal freedom worth it?

My response is not per se personally directed at you. You’ve made a choice for yourself and that’s you’re right. I’m sure I can’t persuade you otherwise. But perhaps I can persuade somebody else and convince that person to get a flu shot.

Jan 2, 2018, 10:10pm Permalink

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