If you don't need DNS, a workaround that should still be valid is to disable DNS lookups entirely via the hosts entry in /etc/nsswitch.conf .
If you don't need DNS, then why would you keep it in place? As an example, I have a system that needs to contact exactly 2 hosts (one of which hosts package updates). So it has DNS turned off and I have a local hosts config. It seems like using a exploit announcement as an opportunity to review whether you need the service in question at all is actually good server administration.