Had a healthy male adult "grippe" about 15 years ago. Rested (half flattened) in bed, took aspirin, sluiced the dead spores out the open window, kept warm, and regenerated hemoglobin & red blood cells with iron sulfite. Could imagine the disease in the midst of WWI hitting healthy men & women let alone children & elderly. They called it a generational flu. In good shape from running & cycling, it felt like a whole body encasing strong cramp. The virus went for red blood cells & hemoglobin, right into the marrow. It killed thousands. Get a vaccine when available. Used to ponder whether the old virus spores could live in old books & papers; as if from my grandparents age.
1
I got the flu shot when I was 17 weeks pregnant. Today, we live daily with the nightmare that it is to have an autistic child. If there was a next time, I'd take my chances with the flu.
1
My original training was as a microbiologist. I worked at the USEPA on health related issues. I read The Great Influenza several years ago and was truely impressed with the devastation wrought at the time. I remember asking my parents why we couldn't swim at the pool in the summer. Polio. I felt the Salk vaccine a miricle. I returned from Venezuela last week, where 2 children of a family were asked to be vaccinated for multiple diseases, one being polio. One was, the other wasn't (possibly because she already had her shots). But I have my doubts. People should take vaccination seriously.
2
My father was born on December 18, 1918 – at home in NH because it was too dangerous to go the hospital. Now I know why.
5
Read”Pale Horse, Pale Rider” by Katherine Ann Porter for a true picture of the havoc wrought by the 1918 pandemic. Then get yourself vaccinated.
7
I've missed two days of work in the last 40 years.. with flu in 1999. Like others have written a truly horrid experience. Please get your and your children's shots this and every year
1
For many years I never got a flu shot. I had a job where I was required to wash my hands multiple times a day and I rationalized that I rarely got sick. I hate getting shots, so I avoided it.
Then one of my co workers, who was younger than me and had two small children, contracted the H1-N1 flu several years ago. She was hospitalized for several weeks and ended up with a pulmonary embolism, the very complication that caused many of the deaths from that particular strain of flu. It caught me off guard.
I gladly get the flu shot every year without hesitation now.
10
I get my flu shot next week -- why toy with the devil?
3
According to my great aunt, she and her sisters survived because when they were very ill with the flu their father concocted an onion poultice that they rubbed on their chests. Yuk.
However if it saved their lives, who’s complaining.
3
My mother was close to seven years old in the late fall of 1918. Her father was a doctor in rural Colorado. Growing up, she spent a lot of time with him, after school, hanging around his practice, going out with him on calls. She never spoke of the flu pandemic, and when I once asked her about it, she was already in her eighties, she said it was just too awful to even think about, much less talk about. I let it drop. As an adult, she often “practiced” pre-antibiotic or old-time medicine on us kids, and I remember her making me onion poultices when I had avian flu in the late 60’s — probably 1968. She would cook up the onion in a pan and add corn starch to thicken the poultice, before putting it on a thin cloth on my chest. My job was to breathe in, breathe out. I think her knowledge and care saved my life. She got me a small set of Lincoln Logs from the store, but I was much too sick to play with them at the time. Eventually, they became a real favorite. My mom was 49 when she had me, and raised me in a small town in Oregon. Once, she couldn’t go to the doctor’s office with me, and pinned a note to my coat with instructions for the doctor. I walked the four short blocks from our house to his office and when he read the note he said, “exactly.” He didn’t seem to mind the note - he knew my mom.
6
@M. Superstitions abounded in the days before modern medicine, and unfortunately they are still widespread. No one should mess with folk remedies. Everyone should get a flu shot to protect themselves and the people around them!
1
I got sick after a flu shot one time and made a choice to forego the shot for a few years.
Then I was discussing it with my daughter who said, “Mom, you’re not just getting it for you, but also the people around you who you could give it to.”
Made sense to me and I’ve gotten one ever since. (And never had a reaction)
9
People are linguistically lazy about what they call “the flu,” using it to refer to any upper respiratory illness. The real flu will knock you back with fatigue, body aches, and fever, and often takes six weeks of recovery time. If you’ve ever had the real flu, you may have had a glimpse of your mortality. I have, and I will never miss taking my flu shot.
17
@Bamagirl
I suffered through influenza A two years ago. Along with the symptoms listed by Bamagirl, add severe headache with light sensitivity, vomiting, cough, and post-viral fatigue syndrome which lasted a month. Yes, I did glimpse my mortality and there were moments I felt death might be more desirable. If you haven't had it, I don't believe you can comprehend how brutal it can be. Get your flu shot.
5
Just wait for the measles outbreak, courtesy of the anti vaxers.
4
I decided to live dangerously, and got three vaccinations in one day (flu, tetanus, and one other, none attenuated live). Didn't want to go back a couple more times for vaccinations separated in time like we do for our kids. Three hours later I was pretty much out of it with a low grade fever and that achy sick feeling. Recovered in about 36 hours.
The moral isn't fear the vaccination, but not to get 3 at one time!! I do not want to get any one of the diseases the vaccinations are for.
Indeed, by my logic I'd like to get the smallpox, rabies, and many other vaccinations "just in case" (oh, and yes I have Lymerix this being NY, the Lymerix name alone terrorizes the anti-vaxxers more than a tick hypostome filled with spirochetes). The anti-vaxxers are nuts, they fear the vaccine and not the disease.
5
One of the dangers of flu not much spoken about it that patients who take critical life savings medicine to function in pill form if having the flu and vomiting cannot swallow and keep those pills
in their body and may require in the worst case scenario injections of that medicine ,this is true of the administration of
Leva-Dopa for Parkinson's patients who cannot move well without that vital drug.
3
The article quotes a NIH scientists saying that the 1918 pandemic was the deadliest in history in terms of numbers. Not to underrate this disaster, but the Black Death in the 14th Century killed a much larger proportion of the human population and had much greater and longer lasting social and economic consequences.
6
Yes, critics, people still get flu despite vaccination, but they don't end up on ventilators in the ICU, or worse.
Sure, heart disease and cancer kill more people; it shouldn't be a surprise that a flu shot isn't a substitute for healthy lifestyle and screening to detect cervical, breast or colon cancers before they get dangerous.
A flu shot won't make you live forever, and it won't guarantee a life free of pain or suffering, but it's still a safe, quick, easy, and relatively painless way to help make sure you live long enough to worry about those other things (and to complain about flu shot side effects) for years to come.
8
My grandmother survived the Spanish flu as a toddler. Doctors thought she would die. She lived until 94 years old. I’m thankful for her resistance.
6
My late father was born in 1914. About a year before his death at almost 91, he mentioned to me that his earliest memory was all the horse-drawn hearses in Philadelphia carrying victims of the 1918 flu epidemic.
6
@Janet
My Mom’s mother died in March of 1918.
She left behind three children 5 and under
Momma always called it,’Galloping TB.’
I suppose because TB was a respiratory disease and the flu did ‘gallop’ it was an appropriate name at the time.
My grandfather married the woman who came to help. She was the only grandmother I knew.
My Dad’s mom died in 1938 from asthma.
I get my shot every year.
2
Dr. Klass and the NYT:
Please keep writing about the potentially deadly consequences of influenza and the important of receiving the flu shots. This information could save not only the life of the individual who receives the shot but also the people this person comes in contact with.
Influenza is not a hoax. It is not fake news. It is not some exaggerated illness. It's real. It kills. Its important can never be overrated.
Thank you for this article.
13
@Marge Keller
Sincere apologies for writing "important" when I actually meant to write "importance", especially after repeating my error not once, but twice.
1
I had a friend whose grandfather was a pilot in WW1. They had a graduation book much like with any school and I was amazed at the number of pages that had indicated the person died of the flu. It was deadly to young people and being all young in the military they gave it to each other readily.
6
By the time I was working as a nurse in an ICU dealing with patients on live support I witnessed several young adults dying with flu.Such avoidable tragedies as with measles in Europe currently because of poor vaccination rate; PLEASE take the shots.
12
On September 15 at 3PM I received my annual Flu Shot at the local CVS. Four hours later, My bones began to ache, I was listless and just wanted to sleep. Saturday and Sunday were even worse. I called the pharmacist who told me that the vaccine he injected was inactive and could not have possibly caused the symptoms I was experiencing. Four weeks later and those same symptoms persisted. I never knew what the next day would bring. Thank heavens it has finally passed -- I hope!
1
@Jack You may have suffered a rare reaction to the flu shot. You may also have coincidentally contracted the flu around the time of the shot. The vaccine is not perfectly preventative and takes a couple of weeks to achieve peak effectiveness. But your anecdotal experience aside, flu shots are generally effective and recommended for nearly everyone.
2
I had the flu twice in my life, at 14 and 34. Both horrendous and at 34 I missed two weeks of work. I do not want to be that sick again. One cannot function at all and it takes a long time to feel really good again.
The vaccine will make the symptoms less and that is reason enough even if one doesnt believe there is the threat of a pandemic.
11
I never knew until I was older, that my father and uncle were only half brothers. My uncle's mother died in the epidemic in Detroit, and my grandfather remarried within a year.
3
My father lost a sister in the 1918 flu epidemic. My aunt was born in 1915 and died as a child.
4
The reason the mortality rate was so high was the use and over use of aspirin. It was used in such toxic amounts that led to pneumonia: hemorrhagic, viral and bacterial.
https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/49/9/1405/301441
6
Libby, the article read that taking high doses of aspirin caused ailments (such as pneumonia) as being the reason so many deaths occurred during the 1918 flu pandemic is interesting but it is a hypothesis. The flu virus today can often lead to pneumonia.
This influenza was uniquely vicious because of who and how quickly it killed. Young adults would feel perfectly healthy in the morning and be dead that evening. I find it doubtful that large doses of aspirin caused the high mortality rate of the 1918 pandemic.
23
@Jami
Aspirin was the miracle drug in the early 1900s. It was advertised for everything and little was known about lethal dose. Doctors were prescribing 1,000mg of aspirin every three hours which is the equivalent of 25 standard 325mg aspirin tablets in a 24 hour period. Autopsies of these deaths showed lung damage consistent with aspirin overdose.
1
@Jami
Aspirin was the miracle drug in the early 1900s. It was advertised for everything and little was known about lethal dose. Doctors were prescribing 1,000mg of aspirin every three hours which is the equivalent of 25 standard 325mg aspirin tablets in a 24 hour period. Autopsies of these deaths showed lung damage consistent with aspirin overdose.
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/health/13aspirin.html?_r=3
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091002132346.htm
https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/49/9/1405/301441
There is a theory that Woodrow Wilson was suffering from the flu when participating in the determination of the reparations that would be placed on the German nation after World War I. He was part of putting German on the course to financial ruin (the proverbial wheelbarrow of marks being rolled to the store to buy a loaf of bread) causing the desperation that allowed Hitler and his group to come to power. Add World War II to the price tag for the flu epidemic. Get your shots!
10
The term "the flu" has been hackneyed and tossed around lightly; enough to defray serious concern about it among many people. (The term "Concentration Camp" used loosely to define a strict parent or school, etc. also detracts from the reality of what those places were like). In the case of influenza, maybe we need another name for it that sounds as bad as it is. I had it in 1991 and felt close to death. It. Was. Awful. Not like any cold or fever I ever had prior. People need to understand that "the flu" is not just another reason to take cough medicine. It's a reason to make a will.
32
@Kathleen H
When I was a child in the early 1940's if anyone had the Flu one was required to put a sign on the front door stating that as a warning.
3
@Kathleen H, I agree. It is dreadful. I think I had influenza 3 times, the last time in my 30s. I am 69 and have asthma. No one has to remind me to get the shot on time every year, now the extra-strong version.
7
@Kathleen H
I had it in 92 or 93. I have never been so sick in my life. It went on for two weeks. I have never missed a flu shot since. People get sick for a couple of days: "Oh, I had the flu." No. You. Didn't!
10
In a perverse way my siblings and I owe my existence to the 1918 flu pandemic. My grandfather's first wife died of the flu in Philadelphia on October 11, the highest death toll day. A few years later my grandfather married my grandmother which resulted in the birth of my father.
4
@popeeugenev And probably almost everybody in the Baby Boom generation owes their existence to World War 2. It doesn't do to think too much about these things; you start to get over your head in the ironies of history.
2
On FaceBook, a group related to the Times's Social Qs column has been debating whether an expectant mother was in her rights to keep her baby away from relatives who refuse to get the flu vaccine. The in-laws say they are "not flu-shot people." She has emailed articles about the need. Some people in the group are saying the mother is being unreasonable. Obviously, they aren't aware of how dangerous the flu is.
28
The expectant mother should get herself a flu shot now to protect herself and her unborn baby from this year’s flu strain.
1
@Jane K
Of course she is. It's the relatives she's concerned about. Way to miss the point!
1
My Aunt, age 23, died in the 1918 flu epidemic, seven days later her husband and his brother died. My Grandmother raised their then three month old infant. A flu shot is something where we can make a difference; we can do this for ourselves and our neighbors.
41
My husband’s grandmother died of influenza in November 1918, a few weeks after she had given birth to her eighth child. She was only in her mid-thirties. She lived in a small town in very rural North Dakota. Theory is that returning WWI soldiers spread the flu. There are graves of several young men in ther twenties buried near her grave in that section of the cemetery. Were they the returning soldiers?
The family was torn apart by her death - children parceled out when father could not care for them and later abandoned them. A disaster for my father-in-law who was taken out of school when he was given to a farmer to be a little hired hand.
I post this story every time I see an article about the 1918 world wide flu epidemic - not to bore anyone but to honor her memory.
39
@Kristine Walls,
My grandfather often spoke of how the flu affected our family, also.
My grandmother died at age 36 from the 1918 flu leaving 6 kids. It had generational effects on my mom and her siblings as we were also recovering from the enslavement of my great grand parents.
Our family is just recovering from the havoc it caused during my kids generation.
21
Had the flu in 1991. Couldn't get out of bed for a week and it took me months to recover. Have never missed a flu shot since and don't plan to.
28
@Margaret Brown
After having gotten the flu shot for several years running I decided to skip it last year. It was almost spring, after all. I couldn't get out of bed for a week. Constant writhing in pain and aching and I lost eight pounds. Fortunately, I did recover fairly quickly, but never again.
21
Almost exactly 100 years ago, both of my maternal grandparents, in their 30s, died from the great influenza pandemic. My mother, 15 months old at the time, and her older brother and sister were orphaned. In addition, we lost my great aunt, who had gone to take care of the children and was planning to adopt them.
The risks from influenza are real -- the 1918 epidemic was unusually bad, but any flu can take a bad turn. The benefits of getting a flu shot greatly outweigh the risks. Get one.
37
For children and elderly people, vitamin D supplementation has been found to be about as efficacious as a typical flu shot in preventing one from becoming ill from a flu virus. Vitamin D has other benefits, whereas flu shots can be dangerous for some people.
Case in point, my significant other, who has been infected with chronic Lyme Disease (confirmed by a Western Blot test meeting CDC standards) finally gave into the pressure to get the shot. Within hours, she was having nerve pain, tingling, and numbness, in addition to involuntary muscle contractions. It took days for the symptoms to substantially improve, and she still has residual numbness in several fingers. Given the autoimmune aspect of her condition, she will not be getting a flu shot next year.
The Times, like most media outlets, does its readers a disservice by repeating the hype about flu shots without heading the warnings or explaining other proven methods (such as careful hygiene) of slowing the spread of influenza. For some people, the pressure and scare tactics being used can be dangerous.
8
@Hugh Wudathunket
Simply not true. Dark Ages dribble. One might argue that people with this willfully ignorant thinking have a right to put themselves at risk for disease and death. However, they put us all at risk of contagion and epidemic. They also should be denied insurance and required to pay all the costs of there unnecessary treatment after there “vitamin therapy” fails them. Hype, hardly.
42
@Hugh Wudathunket,
In 1957 at age 11 years old, I missed a whole month out of school because I almost died from the flu that year constant bloody nose, too.
Last spring, I had the worse case of flu I can ever remember and that was with flu shot and excellent medical care as well as Tamaflu.
No kidding, Influenza is a killer, be afraid.
19
@Hugh Wudathunket So I'm assuming you'll be getting a flu shot to offer your SO some herd immunity? You understand that a major positive effect of mass immunizations is protection for those for whom the vaccine is ineffective?
6
I am well aware of this being the centennial of Armistice Day. My maternal grandfather served in the Army and documented a complete journal of his experience while serving in France. I donated his journal to the Library of Congress when they commemorated our entrance in the Great War in April 1917.
In it he described how severely affected the Black troops were when exposed to the Spanish flu. The mortality rate was much higher than the segregated White troops. So much so, that he was ordered burial detail duty in order to help inter the Black troops.
This gave a very powerful impression on me on the importance of being immunized, not only for this disease, but any and all other diseases that can be prevented or tempered by vaccination.
15
I recall the "American Experience" episode "Influenza 1918" and to this day, it still terrifies me. It was so frightening because no one knew of this stealthy killer, had never witnessed such unprecedented symptoms nor speed of how in the morning someone could be healthy and by nightfall, that person perished.
Thank goodness science and the media have greatly improved with treating this illness and alerting the public. But another pandemic could occur. I think it is paramount that every person, especially the elderly, receive a flu shot if for no other reason, to lessen the symptoms should they become ill.
A friend of mine was recently discharged from the hospital. He was having difficulty breathing. He thought his symptoms were asthmatic in nature but in fact, he had influenza. He was shocked. Thank goodness his wife called 911, he was transported to the hospital and thank goodness his doctor acted quickly with a correct diagnosis. This is how insidious and unassuming this illness is and can be. My friend is 67 years old.
My sweet and seventy-something husband never misses the mark and gets his shot every Autumn. And I'm right there, behind him, getting mine. Science can only do so much. Every individual has to take the responsibility in hopefully preventing or lessening the onset and spread of this horrible illness.
I am extremely relieved and grateful that the NYT prints stories about this fast and deadly pandemic. Prevention is greatly underrated.
44
World War 1 was raging in 1918 causing mass migration, food shortages, terrible sanitation issues and poor medical care. The strain of virus was not much different than the ones we have now. The affected population however was under severe stress and and vulnerable to secondary infection which is often the real killer.
Let's all take a step back for a second. Historically, washing hands and quarantine is far more effective than the often weak flu shots. Why is this rarely mentioned?
4
@ScottI Personal attacks aside, it is important to remember there are more than just the flu shot to help prevent the spread of flu. Relying on only the shot can be false equivalency.
Have a look at historical vital statistic of developed countries. Mortality rates from infectious disease fell to very low levels before vaccine campaigns. Vaccines are one tool to battle epidemics. Not the only one.
@glas
"Historically, washing hands and quarantine is far more effective than the often weak flu shots. Why is this rarely mentioned?"
Because it is complete bunk.
50
@glas
Actually the vast majority of deaths from influenza in 1918 were among young, otherwise healthy people.
Especially those in Army camps training for the War.
Do you think Dallas, Texas had food shortages, mass migration, sanitation issues, and poor medical care?
813 people died from the flu in Dallas that year - for a death rate of about 250 per 100,000 population.
(New Orleans had a rate of 734/100,000 and Birmingham around 592/100,000)
20
I was resistant to the flu shot, viewing it as a preventative for a disease that had been around for millennia and, thus, probably a shot with unintended consequences. Then, I got so sick from the flu (confirmed), that I was sick for months---a compromised immune system due to flu led to pneumonia and mononucleosis. I will forever have asthma due to the lung scarring and the post-viral syndrome fatigue lasted at least 3 months. Get your flu shot. It might give you chills for a day, but it's better than death or serious illness.
51
The first child I ever knew who died was my neighbor and friend who died from the flu. I will never forget the sound of her mother wailing. The child’s name was Maria.
30
Both of my maternal grandfather's parents died in 1918 epidemic, leaving him to raise seven younger sibling. My maternal grandmother - his wife - lost her mother (and the baby she was pregnant with) when was when she was 5 or 6. Her younger siblings were placed with other family members, the older ones were left on their own. She married my grandfather shortly before her 15th birthday. It took generations for both sides of the family to recover.
Get your flu shot.
59
I used to think of this modern society as the only reality that humans have known. The great skyscrapers of NYC or Boston or Chicago look so permanent. Then I realize that the amount of time between now and my birth year is almost the same amount of time between my birth year and the end of WWI and this flu pandemic. We live in an amazing age….one that the technology of the last 100 years has become so pervasive that we forget how new and fragile so much of it is. I need to go stare at the Grand Canyon again to remind myself that the arc of history is not measured in decades but in millennia.
7
For those that live in the metro area, the museum of the City of New York has a fascinating exhibit on now called “Germ City”. It’s about the history of epidemics in NYC including, of course, the 1918 pandemic. Highly recommended. You might also want to try: “The Great Influenza” by John Barry. Jaw dropping. Believe me, if you see the exhibit or read the book, you WILL go get a flu shot.
27
@Ken G, agreed. I read the book also, and it's an eye opener. Especially the bird to pig to human transmission.
9
My grandfather lost his mother in that 1918 flu epidemic. His mother's sister gave her life over to raising my grandfather and his four siblings until they were grown. That event colored the lives of my relatives for the rest of their lives.
It is incomprehensible that there are those who refuse to get flu shots. Educate yourself! Do YOU want to be the person who transmits the flu to someone who may not survive it? If you don’t get the shot for yourself, be generous of spirit and get it for the sake of others.
56
Maybe, those who refuse the flu vaccine educated themselves and know better than believe in value of the flu vaccine. Flu of 1918 was exceptional and most people were killed not by flu itself but by secondary bacterial infection. it is still mystery why it happened, but it had not happened before and it haven't happened since. The science of flu vaccine is murky, because of rapidly mutating of the virus, but the death rates are quite steady and showed little correlation with vaccinations. Occasionally spikes would occur as it was last year, but nothing on the scale of 1918. And tracking flu epidemic is really inefficient in this country, so it difficult to say how much the vaccine curtailed the spread of flu in the population, because the system only registers a serious cases or deaths, and guess what? People who got vaccine die from flu as well.
2
@yulia
" educated themselves and know better than believe in value of the flu vaccine."
The internet is a terrible place to "educate yourself." There is an enormous body of medical science that strongly supports vaccination as effective, although it is not the only arrow in the public health quiver.
8
@yulia You would be well-served by learning some facts before posting to a national comment board.
7
We should do what Japan did several years back, and require that all children have annual flu shots as a condition for attending school.
Not only would this protect the children and their classmates from an illness that even if it doesn't kill cuts severely into school time, but in Japan, the death rate among vulnerable family members -- the ill, the elderly, and the very young -- decreased substantially as a result of the policy.
Since the vaccine isn't 100% effective, even vaccinated children can bring flu home and infect an infant. Herd immunity, which depends upon a high level of vaccination, can prevent that.
18
if the vaccine is not 100% effective how it could lead to the herd immunity?
4
@Josh Hill
There is considerable resistance to compulsory medication in this country, some of it armed.
1
@yulia Herd immunity is effective if the immunization rate is 95% or greater. It works by breaking the chain of infection, not preventing the disease in everyone. Some individuals cannot get vaccinated because of a weak immune system.
4
My great uncle was 18 in 1918 and died of the flu. He was destined to inherit the family business as the youngest child of his older father. The business closed with no one to take over. I am always amazed people do not take advantage of modern medicine. They do not see themselves as lucky to be able to diminish the fears and pains of an illness taking a turn for the worse. Such fears haunted past generations.
19
what the article should have highlighted is that the US death toll in the 1918 flu epidemic was relatively benign: as compared to the rest of the world, the US was comparably insulated against this tragedy (only about 200,000 dead, compared to about 50 mil. worldwide; the same is true for the overall death rate in world war I). There is no reason to assume, that this benign effect would repeat itself if a global pandemic event takes place today; in the contrary, given the low standard or complete absence of preventive medical care for wide swatches of the US population and the high mobility and diversity of the population, I would think that the magnitude of a real pandemic event would be so much more punishing today.
13
@Tom Mix
The U.S. was very fortunate. It is generally agreed today that the epidemic began in this country, and spread from here around the world.
I almost died from the 1957 variant of the 1918 flu.
I’ll take my chances with an imperfect vaccine.
I also wear seat belts, and they aren’t perfect either.
44
@Tom Mix
My mother was born in October 2018 in poor, western Pennsylvania, but she and her famly were so isolated in that coal mining area that they didn't get the flu. Today with our cars and high mobility, who is similarly isolated? And that coal-mining area still doesn't have preventive medical care for all its residents.
10
My grandfather died on November 11 1918 of the Spanish flu. He was 26 years old and the father of three children. My mother was three years old and was sent to live with other family members until my grandmother remarried.
14
My great grand parents died in 1918 of the flu. They lived in Philadelphia, PA and had six children who were separated among relatives when their parents died.
16
My grandmother got that flu in western Ohio. This is what she said in a 1981 interview (when she was 91) by my cousin: "I had a fever of 106. My hair came out, and came back in white; I had beautiful brown curly hair. I almost didn't make it, and I was nursing Victor [my father]. Well, I had a fever of 106. I became quieter and I lived through it, finally. That was in December and I didn't get out until the first of March, to leave the house." I knew her well, as she lived to be 95 (as did her husband, my grandfather, who was in Europe at the time following the end of WWI).
15
My grandmother was pregnant with my mother when she lost a beautiful 3-year-old boy during the 1918 flu epidemic. I can't imagine the level of grief she must have felt. I'm sure it contributed to her early death.
While I feel we should be vigilant and analyze what the medical industrial complex advises, I do not think we should overcompensate by totally accepting facile counterarguments either.
There may in fact be truth AND manipulation on both sides of some medical issues. I have a terrible time with the issue of chemotherapy for instance, because of heartbreaking experiences among my loved ones. It's a challenging and complicated topic.
Because of the level of money-grubbing in our society, people are now skeptical of the motives behind many medical recommendations. I wish this were not true and we could always rely on the pure intentions of people. It is shocking to me that we know that even highly reputable scientists have skewed results for less than altruistic reasons. But that's what we have.
In all fairness, this places a great burden on the consumer to tease apart a lot of information. We have to do our best for our own good and for the welfare of society,
As for me, I strengthen my immune system with diet and exercise, and yes, I get the flu shot every year and hope for the best.
21
@TM you summed up perfectly my concern with the flu shot. I have a thorough distrust of the Western medical products. It seems that so many of the pharmaceutical companies act more as "drug dealers" than in the interest of public health. And I've had experience with doctors pushing drugs that, if I would have filled the script, would have done nothing for the ailment and may have had serious side effects. It does feel like a great burden has been put on us.
It's a shame that there is so much distrust of the "medical industrial complex". No wonder we're suspicious of their recommendations.
2
@JuliaK
" It seems that so many of the pharmaceutical companies act more as "drug dealers" than in the interest of public health. "
Vaccines are not a source of significant profit for pharmaceutical companies, and they have no particular interest in selling these products as they do with new expensive drugs covered by patent.
It is not the pharmaceutical industry that promotes vaccination, but rather highly informed medical authorities. Recommendations are based on very solid science.
8
My mother (now dead) remembered the 1918 flu. She said everyone but her grandfather was sick. He made the rounds all day long emptying
waste pails ( no indoor plumbing) and bringing food, most probably some kind of broth.
7
@CassandraRusyn I read somewhere (I know not helpful) that the older generation at that time (1918) had been exposed to the strain but the younger generation hadn't. It effected younger people disproportionately which is usually not how the flu works.
5
@MJMoore I wonder if my mother's exposure might have created some kind of immunity that has been passed on to me through breast milk or through the birth process.
This article is very interesting in that it brings up the current hot-button issue of many people doubting vaccinations especially the flu-vaccine. As a medical student I think this is a very important topic as one day we will have to be able to explain to patient’s the risk and benefits of vaccines and make sure they fully understand how vaccines work. I also believe that teaching a patient about the history of previous epidemics makes them realize how fortunate we are today to have vaccines that can protect us from deadly diseases such as the 1918 Infleunza. However, I do believe as a physician we need to respect a patient’s opinion and not bombard them with why they should vaccinate, but listen to their concerns and try to address these concerns in calm manner that helps the patient to understand the benefits of vaccinations. The article also brought up the interesting point that the majority of the people alive today do not have memories or direct experience of a loved one being affected by the Influenza or even other vaccine treatable diseases such as Polio or Measles, so they do not realize how deadly these disease can be.
26
I’m still alive and tell everyone that my hearing loss is the result of measles. With measles making a come-back, perhaps there will be more stories to tell.
16
The sister-in-law of my best friend died of polio in 1952 leaving a new born and grieving family to raise him. It was a horror in our little upstate NY town. When polio vaccine became available my mother loaded us five children in the car and drove us to the doctor for our shots.
1
According to a study I read (sorry, can't remember where) that recently autopsied flu victims remains in Europe showed that people most likely died from aspirin overdose. Docs didn't know what to do, so were prescribing MASSIVE doses of aspirin that would never be prescribed today. It was concluded many, if not most, people died from their blood being too thin not the flu. I know I can't prove it cause I didn't keep the study, but I read it and I believe it. It would explain the massive death rate.
2
@MorganMoi salicylate overdose certainly wouldn’t have helped, I’m sure, but I’ve read that the pandemic was especially devastating in South Asia, and I imagine they likely didn’t have access to massive doses of aspirin. The physicians there also were widely separated from those in Europe, so may not even have been doing the same things. Interesting, nevertheless.
7
@MorganMoi
The study is widely available using a tool called "Google". It was covered in the NYT in 2009. Its conclusion was not at all that "people most likely died from aspirin overdose". Some indeed may have, and no one has any idea how many. Remember that the enormous majority of the people who died worldwide had no access to aspirin at all.
2
Found out last week that the people with whom I share a small office "don't believe in getting flu shots." I got mine so fingers crossed.
17
Move to another spot if you can. They are putting you in danger.
@Darby It's sadly ironic that so many people fail to protect themselves from a virus because of viral superstitions and rumors. Nearly everyone should get a flu shot every year.
My late grandmother's first husband was a pharmacist, who died from the flu in 1918.
The only time flu has ever visited our home was the year we forgot to get the vaccine. That was over 30 years ago. We have never missed another vaccine.
14
I was about 50 when the flu vaccine first became available. I went to get a flu shot at a hospital and was told that it was only available for people over 65. When I told them that three of my four grandparents died in the 1918 flu epidemic, I got my shot. The medical community thinks flu is still very dangerous.
35
I am an 87 years old and I remember when I was young an "old timer", Herb, telling me he lived ajacent to St. Raymonds Cemetary in the Bronx. Old Herb stated that in 1918 he remembered funeral cortège backing up for blocks awaiting entrance to the cemetery because there were so many being buried.
And that I remember.
42
My grandmother was 9 years old in 1918 in Michigan, when her family was hit with the flu. Everyone in the family was sick, except my grandmother. The house was quarantined. Neighbors left food on the porch for the family while my grandmother cared for everyone inside. They lived.
21
There were flu epidemics before the Spanish Flu. My grandmother lost two children in one week to an earlier flu epidemic. She came home from the funeral of one child to find that another of her children had died.
One unusual feature of the Spanish flu is that many of the victims were young adults, who were healthy and in the prime of life.
34
My father, the youngest of 6 children, was born on August 1, 1918. As a precaution, my grandparents relocated most of the children temporarily from Brooklyn, NY to my grandmother's hometown of Cumberland, Maryland, for about 2 years. That was just one example of the extraordinary measure people were taking at the time to avoid the ravages of this deadly pandemic.
23
I had the flu in 1983 when I was 30. I was a very healthy married mother of a 5 and 2 year old. I developed pneumonia that put me in the hospital for a week. It took me 3 months before I didn’t need to nap every afternoon and before I could talk on the phone (I had severe double ear infections that temporarily affected my hearing.) The hospital pulmonologist told me he’d never seen someone as sick as I was recover! I know that if I got that sick now at my age I would die. I get a flu shot every year and I have not had the flu since.
52
My grandfather died of the Spanish flu in 1920. It was a financial disaster for the family. My father (he was 8 at the time) described
how the family were recovering and his father read him a book at bedtime. He them got up and collapsed and died in his son's bedroom.
24
Get a flu shot!
As a 12 year old, I saw my aunt and grandmother die within a week of one another because of the flu. The emotional devestation in my mom's family was permanent. With a year my grandfather died of a broken heart and my mom couldn't talk about this terrible event without breaking down and sobbing.
62
Well, I haven't known anybody who died of flu, but I know a lot of people who died of cancer. And even more people who died from heart diseases. So, in my mind flu is not so scary as cancer or heart disease. I know several people who got the flu shot and still got confirmed flu. I also know a lot of people who got the shot and got flu-like sickness that could be cold but could be flu. Nobody cared to check. So, I am sceptical about efficiency of the shots, especially considering how fast the virus could mutate and therefore, escape the immune response. I haven't seen a good epidemiological study that would show great benefits of this particular vaccination.
2
@yulia Your anecdotal evidence doesn't outweigh decades of scientific research. While the flu virus does mutate, that takes months & the vaccine is reformulated each year. There are very few things in this world are perfect. Statistically, a flu shot is a very good bet.
Since you haven't seen good epidemiological studies I suggest you start with the Wikipedia article on "Influenza vaccine" and follow up by reading some of the research footnoted there.
3
@yulia
If you haven't seen a study, it's because you haven't looked. You're correct that people still get flu despite vaccination, but they don't end up on ventilators in the ICU, or worse. And yes, heart disease and cancer kill more people, so a flu shot isn't a substitute for healthy lifestyle and screening to detect cervical, breast or colon cancers before they get dangerous, but it's still a safe, quick, easy, and relatively painless way to help make sure you live long enough to worry about those other things.
3
My grandmother was a telephone operator in Wilmington, DE when Philadelphia was under quarantine. Telephone calls were restricted to emergency calls only. The operators were required to listen in and disconnect non-emergency calls, like the ladies discussing the latest fashions in the department store windows downtown.
26
The flu can affect you and your family in ways you never would expect. Several years ago, my husband and I both got the flu. I had had a flu shot, he did not. We were both very sick, but I got better after several days. He remained sick for nearly two weeks. He got better, but we learned about a year later that it had damaged his heart muscle and has led to heart failure. He can still work, but there is a marked change in his energy level, and I can tell it’s worsening slowly. We have a child, and the whole thing is very upsetting and never far from my mind. Get your flu shot.
107
Remember my grandfather telling me about the pandemic, and the loss of his 5-year-old little brother. We lost an 8-year-old in the neighborhood next to mine to flu last year. I can't hold my tongue with the scientifically illiterate/conspiracy consumers who constantly post on parenting message boards asking for tips on evading vaccination requirements.
105
@Working Mama
I, too, remember my grandmother recounting the sad train trip she made with her mother from southern Arizona to Kansas City to bring her deceased (from Influenza) older brother's body home for burial. When I visited Nome, Alaska a few years ago I was interested to see there was a separate 1918 Influenza Cemetery and when we commemorate other 1918 events in Alaska this year, the fact of The Flu Epidemic is omnipresent. I find it impossible to accept contemporary Alaskan parents reasoning for evading vaccinating their children.
55
At age 37 in Germany I went from feeling fine in the office to so sick two hours later at home, too sick to seek out a hospital, that I suspected I would die and felt that that would be the best thing. I missed two weeks of work and walked (as I told myself) like an old man for six months. Since then I have never missed a flu shot and have never gotten it again. It was the sickest I've ever been.
81
@interested
I had a similar experience in 1992. Took me months to fully recover. Have not missed a flu shot since.
6
According to the British Medical Journal: "The [flu] vaccine might be less beneficial and less safe than has been claimed, and the threat of influenza appears overstated."
The title of the BMJ article is " Influenza: marketing vaccine by marketing disease" https://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f3037.full
This NY Times article is a perfect example of the medical industry and the media using fear to bully gullible people into blindly accepting an ineffective but profitable flu vaccine every year, without mentioning the adverse events that the FDA requires drug makers to put on the package insert, such as encephalitis.
FLUVIRIN (Influenza Virus Vaccine)
https://www.fda.gov/downloads/biologicsbloodvaccines/vaccines/approvedpr...
"Postmarketing Experience ...
Nervous system disorders: Headache; dizziness; neuralgia; paraesthesia; confusion; febrile convulsions; Guillain-Barré Syndrome; myelitis (including encephalomyelitis and transverse myelitis); neuropathy (including neuritis); paralysis (including Bell's Palsy)."
Buyer beware.
15
The flu shot is free if you have health insurance (even in this backwards country). So what exactly is your problem here? Not like anybody is asking you to pay.
44
@The Refusers The article you shared was from an associate editor at the BMJ who is not a medical doctor--according to his own bio on the site, his Ph.D. is in history, anthropology, and science, technology, and society from MIT. While the case he makes in his article is certainly interesting, I would be loathe to make any decision related to vaccination efficacy based on one article from a non-physician that was not even peer reviewed.
The article you shared made an interesting case accusing the CDC of artificially inflating the risks of getting influenza in healthy adults. However, we today can look at this from the luxury perspective of not knowing the true terror of the diseases that plagued our parents, grandparents, and other ancestors. I think you would be singing a different tune if you had to witness the true devastation that these diseases can cause. To not get vaccinated when you are able to is not only irresponsible, but also endangers the lives of those who cannot get vaccinated and depend on group immunity.
109
@The Refusers
Doshi lacks the credentials to be taken seriously regarding efficacy or safety of flu vaccines. The citation is 5 years old; studies from the last 2 years show that flu vaccine reduces flu associated deaths in children, serious respiratory infections in pregnant women, and ICU admissions in adults. A 2014 study showed fewer ICU admissions in vaccinated children. Doshi asks a lot of questions but does not back up his conclusions with any good evidence. No vaccine is 100% effective, but the flu vaccine is at least partially effective and saves lives.
63
The movie "contagion" by Steven Soderbergh brought it home for me.. a very cold view on how a pandemic might play out in our modern world..
16
Would that it were true. I like the idea of the magic potion as much as the next person, but the flu shot always made me sick for a few days and recent research shows that those who get the flu shot (especially in 2 or more consecutive years) have higher more illness. Plus, apparently those who get the flu shot spread disease.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22423139
9
@K Spencer,
I used to run a fever and have mild aches after a flu shot. (I get fevers whenever I have a viral or bacterial illness.) For the last several decades I have followed up the shot with a couple aspirin - no fever and no aches.
16
@K Spencer
small sample size limits the reliability of the conclusions. Even if the results are correct and have been replicated, a few extra colds seems a small price to pay for protection against something that might kill you or at least put you in bed for a week.
15
@K Spencer- Yes, you should get some minor illness symptoms after a vaccine. That's how they work. Yours sound a little worse than normal, but still within the expected range.
Basically- most of what we associate with viruses like the flu is actually our body's response- fever, etc. is your body trying to increase your core temperature to reduce the efficiency of viral replication (which is best at the regular body temperature of the host species).
When you get vaccinated, your body thinks it's being infected by the flu (which, in a way, it is) and responds accordingly- fever, antibody production, etc. It should be mild, usually making you feel a bit off for a night.
It may be a pain, but it's a good thing- it shows the vaccine worked and your immune system is functioning.
If people report the above as true flu, then the stats will be swayed as shown in your article- but that's not 'true' sickness.
32
My husband , adult son and I all have had our flu shots. We would be irresponsible not to do so since we all have chronic health problems. My daughter-in-law has four children and works in a pediatric health office. She refuses to immunize herself or her kids. I could write boatloads about that but instead will simply say, "How stupid can you get?"
98
@george
Many but not all medical health providers who have direct clinical contact with patients in office practices and in hospitals are required to be vaccinated for flu, but most are.
The unvaccinated health care provider is at risk for transmitting the flu virus to patients or could become infected by a patient carrying the flu virus. A person exposed does not manifest symptoms for 1-4 days following exposure. A person with a compromised immune system, if infected, is at special risk for flu and its complications.
Your daughter-in-law is foolhardy for the giving and taking risk she seems to be embracing in a pediatric office. Her medical judgement is half-baked.
I would not receive my care at a medical practice/office if the clinical staff were not immunized.
52
@george
Some people are actually afraid of the shot. So far, three out of three people I talked to gave me that same story, two of them from my family. I couldn't convince them. What's so tragic is that my two year old cousin died last year mysteriously and I suspect it may have been from the flu. I don't think the child nor anyone around her had gotten a shot. At least they won't be getting the flu from me.
11
@Kathryn
There is absolutely no data to support any statement that healthcare workers transmit influenza to patients. One is far more likely to become infected @ school, a grocery store or sitting next to an ill patient in the waiting room - NOT from anyone working there.
I'd be more concerned about the health care worker, or receptionist, becoming infected by you, rather than the other way round.
4