How's the Flu Hitting You?

Jay's post said "you're pretty much [on your] own with this particular
strain", and that's simply not true. The vaccine IS helpful for some
percentage of people.

The basic misunderstanding driving this particular argumentative string seems
to be the idea that there's one flu germ, or shot.

It's a prevalent bug, and a particularly evil one -- it evolves all the time.
Like many of the most "successful" viruses, influenza can ride around in people
who are only kind of sick, and jump from that reservoir to lots of other new
victims, unlike ebola which kills you fast and burns its own bridges,
infectively speaking.

(incidentally, it's also a zoonosis -- a germ that can infect both people and
several kinds of animals, and often being able to jump that species barrier
helps it spread and evolve even more)

New variants appear all the time, and there's a recognized pattern to its
winter spread across the globe, so health organizations each year try to scout
out the most likely ones and make up a new vaccine that includes them all. You
can't put dozens of different strains into one shot, so you try for the few
that are most likely to be the major culprits. This year, for reasons already
explained, they included several in the new vaccine but missed one variety, and
that's turned out to be a big bad one.

Just as a doc might give you a shot of antibiotic to prevent secondary
infections like pneumonia if your immune system's pretty wiped out, (you DO
know that antibiotics don't work against a virus) the vaccine could protect
even those who get flu from getting other varieties...wouldn't it bite to get
bit all over again?

And the more people who develop their own immunity to the latest strain of flu,
the most likely the darn thing is to go out and evolve:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-rme032503.php

"Strains of flu virus differ from one another largely in the genes that code
for surface molecules called glycoproteins, which are the primary targets of
the body's immune system in defending against flu viruses.... Evolutionary
changes in immune response against such "antigen" molecules are the reason that
new vaccines must be developed against emerging strains of virus."

Me, I'm livin' dangerously -- no shot, just Vitamin C, warm clothes, and
occasional applications of medicinal barley water.

("StellaStar" wrote)
snip
Me, I'm livin' dangerously -- no shot, just Vitamin C, warm clothes, and
occasional applications of medicinal barley water.


People getting their flu shots in mid December is like - I don't know
what????

One word folks: October.

We've been getting something shot into our arms for about 3 years now. So
far, so good. We even pay for the darn thing, out-of-pocket, when we're at
the grocery store - Cub Foods.

My don't get sick tip:
I generally drink almost 2 gallons of water per day, especially in the
winter (1 gal per day is my minimum).

Empty 32 oz PowerAde bottles are *great* for helping me keep track of my
water intake. 4 refills = one gallon. (Plus, they don't tip over easily)

Kidneys seem to be a pretty good Doc.

--
Montblack
http://lumma.de/mt/archives/bart.gif

Me, I'm livin' dangerously -- no shot, just Vitamin C, warm clothes, and
occasional applications of medicinal barley water.

I've been taking multi-vitamins and 500 mg of Vitamin C every day (plus,
more recently, an aspirin) for over 20 years. I'm rarely sick, and have
never missed a day of work, at any job I've ever had -- ever.

Medicinal barley water (with a dash of hops) works for me! :-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"