Google provides easy-to-use flu tips, education

By Editorial Board

Publication Date: 11/18/2009

The Purdue University Student Health Center has depleted its supply of the season flu shots and their H1N1 vaccine is available to qualified individuals, like pregnant women, only. And you’re asking, “Where can I get my flu shots now?” We’ve got the answer.

There’s no need for research on the issue. Google can do all the work for you, and for once, mooching off technology isn’t such a bad thing. Google has two new sites catered toward people in search of flu information; they’ll go a long way in helping you determine clinics where you can get flu shots, and they also show flu trends across the country and around the world.

Google’s www.google.com/flushot incorporates Google Maps to pinpoint all the clinics where you can get seasonal flu shots, H1N1 flu shots or both.

If a search is done in Indianapolis, five clinics will appear on the screen with a syringe and needle pointing to each location. But unfortunately, none of the clinics have any vaccines left. But, zooming out one magnitude to the map of Indiana, you will find six sites where you can get a flu shot. There is one in Huntington, two in Marion and three in Muncie. This is a convenient Web site since we are heading into the flu season and more people are in search of vaccines and flu shots than usual this year.

The other Google site, www.google.org/flutrends/, allows you to visually track flu-related online search activities to its location of origin. The Flu Trends application assumes there is a correlation between the searches that people do and the actual flu activity in the area. As more people get sick, more people will search for information on the flu, clinics and flu shots. This could act as an early warning sign to government officials and to vaccine distributors. The United States, which has a high flu activity, had a peak of searches in early October but has since declined. Indiana, which has a high flu activity as well, had a similar trend in October.

Technology is desperately trying to keep pace with the dissemination of the flu, and these Web sites should be used to our advantage in order to prevent the further spreading of any malicious viruses.