Yeah, really.

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One of the reasons we probably won’t ever wipe out influenza over smallpox is that influenza has a *lot* of reservoirs, which is to say nonhuman hosts that can harbor the disease, most famously pigs and birds. As far as we’re aware, smallpox doesn’t have any of these natural reservoirs, and seems to be very specific for human cells. Of course, smallpox can also remain dormant for years, and there are cases of viable smallpox virions being unearthed in centuries-old mass graves, so there’s no 100% guarantee that we’ve completely wiped that out as well, although we’ve pretty much come as close as we can reasonably assume.

Also, I’ll agree that the video and narration was a bit simplistic, but still covered some good material about the way influenza works. A bit of a critique, it seemed that they were showing a polymerase from the cell replicating the viral genome, which I’m fairly certain is wrong. Influenza is an RNA virus, which means to replicate its genome it needs an RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase…that is to say a protein that makes RNA out of RNA. Since our cells use DNA as the primary genetic material, we don’t produce this enzyme. The virion brings its polymerase with it, so it’s viral, not cellular.

Overall, really good video, though. I especially liked how they showed that each virion packs eight segments of it’s genome with it. Each of these segments is unique, and when multiple strands infect the same person (or pig, or bird, or what-have-you), the packaging process isn’t picky about which particle came from which original strand. This means that you can have, in the case of a double-infection, up to 2^8 or 256 different variants of influenza coming out of that cell. This is a big part of why it mutates so quickly and why it’s so difficult to contain.

As for me, my school offered free flu shots, so I jumped on that train as soon as I had the chance!

On a sidenote, ExVivo made the video. The Expelled liars ripped off 1 of the videos from ExVivo and put it in Expelled. ExVivo sued the thieving liars.

Did you get both shots? H1N1 was a separate vaccine.

I still prefer to call it swine flu because it’s funnier.

I have a weird immune response to the flu. I usually feel kinda crappy for 1/2 a day then I’m back to normal. A couple years ago, though, I got some kind of horrible version and I felt like death (fever, chills, you name it) for about 6 hours and bounced right back.

Anecdotal, but everyone I know has had at least a couple bad bouts of flu during their lives, so they know how rotten it can be. I have many weeks scattered throughout my life I’d love to have back as opposed to lying flat on my back not even sure where I was while deep inside fever dreams.

Good lord, the stuff that crawls out of the corners of my mind in fever dreams… yeesh! I had one several years ago where I was convinced I was on an old galleon ship at sea in a storm, and I had to get up to the deck to do… something. I made it to the living room before coming out of it. I could feel the sway of the ship, hear the storm and the waves. No idea where that came from. I am immune to the call of the sea.

My mom once said as a kid I came out a fever dream asking “Why do we have to move to the North Pole?”

It’s a benefit against those three strains. Nothing is perfect. Predicting flu strains is not an exact science, but most of the time they do pretty well considering.

According to the CDC website “The flu vaccine is updated each season to provide protection against the three flu viruses that research indicates will cause the most illness.” … “A number of studies have shown that the flu vaccine works, but how well the vaccine works can change from year to year and vary among different groups of people.”

That certainly doesn’t sound encouraging to me…

This is reality, not a TV sci-fi movie. This is as good as it gets. Some protection is better than none. This “but it’s not perfect” attitude is silly.

Had a discussion with a co-worker recently who said he doesn’t get shots because he doesn’t get sick often, and thinks it’s better just to put up with it when he does get sick than to get the shot. Easy for a healthy man in the prime of his life to say. Then he brought in the “you don’t know what’s in it, and that stuff builds up over time” fallacy.. so I explained to him why that isn’t true, showed him the website where he could find out exactly what is in the shot, and also explained why it’s important for him to get the shot for herd immunity. I’m not sure I convinced him to get his shots this time around, but hopefully I perhaps planted a seed of doubt that he’s the only one in the world who matters.

The virus has a high mutation rate, and there’s no guarantee that the three strains being targeted won’t mutate, let alone the countless other strains which may already exist or come into being at any given point. Sure, we know that most virulent contagions mutate, and therefor we can’t be 100% certain that a vaccine will last indefinitely (IIRC), but with number of people traveling around the world nowadays, is there really a benefit here?

According to the CDC website “The flu vaccine is updated each season to provide protection against the three flu viruses that research indicates will cause the most illness.” … “A number of studies have shown that the flu vaccine works, but how well the vaccine works can change from year to year and vary among different groups of people.”

That certainly doesn’t sound encouraging to me…

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_vaccine#Annual_reformulation_of_flu_vaccine
2. http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/vaccineeffect.htm

(I’m not an anti-vaxer, I just don’t like the list of side-effects associated with flu vaccines that I’ve seen folks experience — especially since I tend to experience side-effects with minuscule probabilities, the kind they don’t have to list in leaflets. I’m also skeptical of the fact that the CDC links to ‘resources’ provided by GlaxoSmithKline and other manufacturers, and doesn’t link to the studies that the site repeatedly references)

People also shrug their shoulders when there is talk of a flu pandemic; they forget about, or are ignorant of, past pandemics. At the end of World War One over 20 million people died from the flu. It spread around the world quickly, without the aid of mass air travel.

I think it is rather selfish for one to say one would not get a flu shot because one has never had the flu. Get the flu shot because you actually care for your friends and family. If you ever have a loved one die from influenza you would change your tune pretty damn quick.

I finally understood how you could die just from the coughing.

And for the anti-vax pro-disease nutters, check this out: http://factsnotfantasy.com/vaccines.php

He doesn’t, but you can’t be sure you won’t either. Once a new strain comes along, you are as likely to get it as GuanoLad. Vaccines protect against (a fraction of) known invaders, not unknown ones, not to mention the ones that evolve to be resistant against the vaccine…

I am one of those people that’s lost a week of work every year I’ve gotten the flu shot so I’ll pass, thanks.

Oh, and to anyone who found the clip condescending – nah, that’s just the way Robert Krulwich plays it on Radiolab. He’s the “everyman” character (as such) on the show.

You haven’t had the flu yet. How do you know you won’t get it next flu season?

I haven’t had the flu either, but I get annual flu shots because (a) I have a crap immune system and wouldn’t like to get it and (b) I don’t want to be responsible for passing it on to others.