When Did The Flu Become Cancer?

[Mutt]

when the hell did the friggin flu become such an important high falutin' illness? i musta missed something .... flu to me means you feel like shit for a few days and stay in bed until it passes. Why all this hysteria about flu shots, as if those who don't get it are being condemned to a certain death?

and yeah i'm sure the flu does kill off some elderly and very sick people - but it's still a small number, somebody's working up alot of people who have a better chance of getting hit by a bus than the flu killing them.

now watch...... i'll get the flu and be dead within 48 hours.

grrrr..... i hate being superstitious!

[Tala]

I can't get a flu shot. Because of my repressed immune system, it would most likely give me the flu it's trying to prevent.

Besides, you're not getting a preventative for this season's flu. You're getting a preventative for what is THOUGHT to be this season's flu, which is why so many people get the flu even thought they've had their flu shot. The type they get isn't a match to what they've been immunized against.

Fuckit. There are those who will die, it happens every year. There are many who won't. I'm kinda glad there is a shortage of vaccine this season: only those who are truly at risk will get the vaccine, and it may provide some defense. I hope so.

Now pardon me. I've not had any coffee yet.

[Peaches]

35,000 people died in the US last year due to the flu related symptoms.

[Manowar]

Originally posted by Peaches
35,000 people died in the US last year due to the flu related symptoms.

thats more than i would have thought

[LadyMischief]

The flu can be absolutely brutal.. There was a flu going around up north where I lived last year that killed 5 children, and my son was so sick with it he was bedridden for over a month.. he couldn't even stand up to get to the bathroom, and I had to spoonfeed him broth which he could hardly keep down. It can be REALLY serious for little kids and older folks, or people with other health problems.

[Project-Shadow]

As apposed to the estimated 600k deaths cancer will cause in the U.S this year.

[garett]

A flu outbreak in 1918 killed over 1.8 MILLION people.

Of course times were different then. The bubonic plague, typhoid fever and other bacterial diseases that killed millions in the past are mere inconveniences now with anti-biotics.

But the flu isn't something that can be cured with a pill .. and while we haven't seen an outbreak of a strain quite as severe as that of 1918 since .. it's still possible that any seasons' strain could be just as deadly.

Influenza is a resperatory virus. Picture a little ball with tiny spikes. Those spiked balls get into your lungs and start puncturing aeoli .. causing your lungs to fill with fluid. You drown to death.

[Peaches]

Originally posted by Project-Shadow
As apposed to the estimated 600k deaths cancer will cause in the U.S this year.

Per the CDC, the majority of those deaths are tobacco related. We already know how to "prevent" those.

[quiet]

flu kills loads of people every year. it's a huge problem globally.

[Spunky]

Seems to be getting worse every year

[NickPapageorgio]

The flu also mutates into different strains every year. You are never fighting the same disease. It's always a new and improved flu...

[Sarah_Jayne]

Originally posted by Project-Shadow
As apposed to the estimated 600k deaths cancer will cause in the U.S this year.

Yeah but if there was a shot that stopped people getting cancer and could prevent those deaths - or most of them - don't you think people would be wanting it?