wrote in message

Ya' don't get flu from flu shots.

That's true if the vaccines are properly made and tested. In an era where
even kiddy Tylenol has had massive recalls and where vaccine makers are
"suit proof" I have serious reservations about the quality controls.

http://children.webmd.com/news/20100...yrtec-benadryl

stuff snipped

Elderly can't fight off flu as younger people can.

Interestingly enough, that's not always a given. The recent flu as well as
the flu that caused the great 1918 epidemic killed more youngsters than
oldsters. The reason? "Juicy" young people can apparently generate enough
phlegm to drown themselves in it. Dried up older people like me and Willie
Nelson (who claims to have "outlived his dick") can't produce nearly as much
phlegm as so can't produce the prodigious amounts of it that clog the lungs
and helps cause death.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic

"Among the conclusions of this research is that the virus kills via a
cytokine storm (overreaction of the body's immune system) which perhaps
explains its unusually severe nature and the concentrated age profile of its
victims. The strong immune systems of young adults ravaged the body, whereas
the weaker immune systems of children and middle-aged adults resulted in
fewer deaths . . . The unusually severe disease killed between 2% and 20% of
those infected, as opposed to the usual flu epidemic mortality rate of 0.1%.
Another unusual feature of this pandemic was that it mostly killed young
adults, with 99% of pandemic influenza deaths occurring in people under 65,
and more than half in young adults 20 to 40 years old."

There are other reasons why older folks sometimes fare better than
whippersnappers:

http://www.virology.ws/2009/11/02/wh...fluenza-virus/

The problem, as I see it, is that each flu season is a "new deal of the
cards" and it's very hard to figure out what the parameters of the latest
epidemic will be.

I found that I stopped getting really sick when I stopped flying
commercially. Overcrowded planes during holiday flights are about the best
disease incubators you could design. Over-recycled and under-filtered air
combined with lots of passengers who decide to "fly sick" rather than miss
their flight packed tightly together is a recipe for disaster. Pilots are
encouraged to save money by recycling air rather than pulling in outside,
frigid air and pressurizing and heating it. The world's next great epidemic
will most likely be spread by our airline system. It may be that only
countries like China, willing to quarantine whole planeloads of travelers
for weeks, will survive relatively unscathed.

Air quality was SO bad in some older aircraft that aircrews would often pass
out:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...e-1646350.html

"Boeing 757s, Airbus A320s, Boeing 737s and Embraer ERJ-145s have all had
incidents reported. Nor is the experience restricted to aircrews -
passengers are affected, too. On a Swedish flight some years ago, Captain
Neils Gomer would have passed out if he hadn't reached for the oxygen (the
aircraft might have crashed too). When he went to check on his passengers,
many were close to unconsciousness - the crew described them as being in a
"zombie-like condition"

Sitting on the tarmac, sucking in jet exhaust doesn't help, either. The FAA
mandated, a while back, that the pilots HAD to have better air than they
were getting or planes might start falling out of the sky. I read part of
the Boeing Dreamliner's new improvements are a vastly improved air
filtration system. It's about time.

--
Bobby G.