Sneezes put health fears in mind, study says

If "achoo!" makes you jumpy these days, you're not alone. The swine-flu pandemic has made people much more reactive when they hear or see someone sneeze, according to a new study. It found that public sneezing heightens people's fears about germs and even other, totally unrelated, health hazards.

Psychology researchers at the University of Michigan stationed an experimenter in a busy campus building and instructed her to sneeze loudly as students passed by. Researchers then gave a survey to some of the students that asked them to describe their perceptions of an average American contracting a serious disease, having a heart attack before age 50, or dying from a crime or accident.

The students who had just witnessed someone sneezing perceived a greater chance of falling ill, suggesting that the sneeze triggered a broad fear of all health threats, not just ones linked to airborne germs.

The study also showed that people within hearing distance of a sneeze had more negative views of the nation's health-care system.

When the study scenario was repeated at a mall, survey participants exposed to the sneeze were more likely to favor federal spending of $1.3 billion on flu vaccine rather than spending the money on the creation of green jobs.

"Public sneezing has the power to shift policy," said the lead author of the study, Dr. Norbert Schwarz, in a news release.

The study will be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

Nearly 25,000 people have contracted the flu so far in the United States, and 114 children have died from it.

Also

Vaccination poll: Despite a rising nationwide toll of sickness caused by the H1N1 flu virus and an intensive push by the government to have people vaccinated for it, almost half of Americans say they aren't likely to get the vaccine, according to a new McClatchy-Ipsos poll. Just 52 percent of Americans say they're likely to get the vaccine; 47 percent say they aren't likely to get it.

The surprising finding comes as a growing number of Americans say they're concerned about it: 63 percent now versus 51 percent last spring.

Sick pay: Employees who are sent home because of swine flu or another contagious illness would get five paid sick days under a bill introduced today by Reps. George Miller and Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif.