U.S. doctors, minorities still wary of shots: official (Sibelius)/ Reuters

Men enter the Arlington Convention Center to receive their H1N1 flu vaccinations in Arlington, Texas November 24, 2009.

Credit: Reuters/Jessica Rinaldi

From Reuters:

Doctors and minorities still have a dangerous mistrust of vaccines that became painfully clear during the H1N1 swine flu pandemic, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on Monday...

In an average year, fewer than 40 percent of doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers get flu vaccines. 

Why don't officials ask why most doctors don't get vaccinated?  Doctors have more experience treating patients with influenza than members of any other profession.  Doctors are the ones who hear their patients report side effects.  Doctors therefore have the firsthand knowledge to balance risk and benefit, more so than anyone else, and they "vote with their feet."  It's unfortunate that people who are not health professionals, such as Secretary Sebelius, find this painful and dangerous.