I'm getting over Covid rn. It's not "just" the flu, even deeper in this article they say so. I wouldn't be surprised if there's another huge outbreak on the way.
this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2023
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Even the flu is not "just" the flu. I think a lot of people mistake nasty head colds for the flu when they say "I get the flu all the time " I've only had flu twice in my life, and trust me, it's way worse than most respiratory viruses. Covid was the same for me recently. Trending very badly in just the 24 hrs before I started Paxlovid
So much this. People underestimate the flu and don't take it seriously. Here's how many it kills in the US by year. Usually in the 30-50,000 people range. Except for the 2021-2022. Since everyone was masking and careful about infections.
Some things people don't realize influenza can cause in addition to respiratory symptoms and pneumonia which are already bad enough include Guillan barre syndrome ( a severe inflammatory neuropathy) , Encephalitis (brain infection/inflammation), heart attacks, myocarditis (inflammation and destruction of heart muscle), rhabdomyolysis (destruction of skeletal muscle), and of course plain ol septic shock with every organ system failing.
Anyways the majority of these deaths are preventable if people get their flu shot. Does it protect against every possible strain of flu? No, but most years it protects against most of them. And it's impossible for the injectable vaccine to actually give you the flu, that's a myth. If you feel a little sore that's your immune system doing what it's supposed to after the vaccine.
I think if we told most people, hey there's this new disease leopard pox and it killed 50,000 people last year, do you want a vaccine that's 40-60% effective at stopping all infection and an even higher rate of preventing serious disease? People would be like hell yeah. Influenza is a bad disease, get your shot. Doubly so if you're young, old, or have pre existing health conditions.
I don't believe influenza has the same risk of long-term symptoms or disability as covid. It still sucks to get it though.