Radio station giving away Flu shots

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Was just out in the car and heard a local radio station is giving away flu shots as one of their contests. I think this is in bad taste.

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Specializes in ER, Medicine.

I completely agree with you. There are people out there who really need the flu shot...giving them away for a contest is just tacky. It's not like giving away money or cars it's like giving away a chance at life for some.

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Specializes in Education, Acute, Med/Surg, Tele, etc.
Was just out in the car and heard a local radio station is giving away flu shots as one of their contests. I think this is in bad taste.

VERY poor taste!

Now, if nurses or doctors that give the flu shots to anyone but high risk folks can get fined or in trouble...why can a radio station give them..and I mean I guess they would actually have to inject them themselves, because I know nurses around here would NEVER do it for a radio station, especially for someone that may not be high risk!

Heck...I can't even get one right now! :angryfire

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

Bad taste isn't the word for it. I cannot believe people are so insensitive that we're now givinging away health as a RADIO CONTEST! What idiot in advertising drummed up that idea???

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

what radio station? we can blast em with a letter campaign the likes of which they have never seen!

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Specializes in Emergency Dept, M/S.

That's horrible!! I had to jump through many hoops to get mine (as a Type 1), but eventually found that our Occupational Health clinic had some. I was so thrilled, I paid double the amount and told them if an at-risk person called up that could not afford the $$, to use it for that.

To think that people are using a stupid contest - I can only hope the FCC and state Board of Health shuts it down and fines them.

How did they get the flu vaccines anyway? I thought regulation was so tight right now.

Good Lord! These aren't World Series tickets to be auctioned off to the highest bidder...... :angryfire

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Honestly, this may be a bit tacky, but I'm not sure it's such an awful thing. Having people lined up at 11 p.m. in line to get shots when the clinic doesn't open until 8 a.m. the next day is pretty bad, too, and our local newspaper had such a picture there this morning.

This is what happens when something is rationed by bureaucrats, rather than making the allocation by price. It's an issue not being dealt with rationally in our current frenzy about this all.

from my blog, about this kind of issue: (I wrote this about a lottery, now being used in some areas to determine who gets the shots):

"As I've mentioned several times, when a scarce commodity is in demand, there's always going to be some means of determining who will get the commodity. Usually, prices are allowed to go up, and that helps sort out who should get the item in question.

Sometimes -- as is happening in this crisis -- bureaucrats will be called in to determine who will get it. In such situations, there is almost always corruption at hand, with the scarce item going to friends, family, political donors, etc. I have not yet seen any evidence of such corruption, but you can almost certainly count on it happening even as I write.

In this situation, a county's officials are using another method -- a lottery -- to determine who will get the vaccine. In other words, forbidding healthy adults from getting the vaccine has not reduced the number demand enough. Now we are seeing that even all those in the risk groups will not be getting the vaccine they are otherwise entitled to."

My bigger question is: who's going to be administering these giveaways? Here in North Carolina, it's a misdemeanor to give them to someone not in a high risk group.

Is it possible this was a joke on the part of the station?

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I am beginning to wonder if it was a joke. I went to their web site and looked under contests and nothing was listed. But obviously I heard it, or part of it and thought it was for real. Or maybe they were telling a news story of another station doing it. Then again I wouldn't put it passed anyone these days.

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I am beginning to wonder if it was a joke. I went to their web site and looked under contests and nothing was listed. But obviously I heard it, or part of it and thought it was for real. Or maybe they were telling a news story of another station doing it. Then again I wouldn't put it passed anyone these days.

I wondered when I read your first post on the subject if it was a joke. I mean, where would a radio station get the fflu shots in the first place when the shots are being rationed to actual healthcare facilities and providers?

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Well back in the car today and both my husband and I heard about this flu shot thing going to and from where we needed to go. Never got to hear the finer details. The slogan is "You want to get stuck by us" . I will try to listen to the station in my house to get more details. Maybe it still is a joke to get you to keep listening. I guess it is working. This is on 101.3 in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

Bad joke in very poor taste then.

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