I used to work in an environment that encouraged taking free flu shots, and the way they convinced me to get one was with the argument that the shot may not stop me from getting the flu, but it may lessen the severity of full-fledged flu symptoms. And whatever doesn’t kill you makes you funnier, right? I found myself wondering, with every cold or sniffle I caught after being skewered, “is this a diminished flu? Is this the shot working? Am I getting my immune response’s worth?”

This season has been flu shot free, and so far so good. A severe cold here and there, but nothing that a doting partner, calls to Mommy and Thera-flu (the best product ever?) couldn’t handle. Apparently, we aren’t out of the Influenza woods yet, let alone, have entered them. Just in time for sweeps, the flu season has just begun says the NY Times…My winter without a flu-shot experiment continues.

It’s fascinating to me that we can even gauge when a flu season starts and ends, that it’s appearance is so regular, and where it may come from. A Science magazine article from last year describes the travel itinerary of a Ms. Influenza Jones:

Abstract: Antigenic and genetic analysis of the hemagglutinin of 13,000 human influenza A (H3N2) viruses from six continents during 2002–2007 revealed that there was continuous circulation in east and Southeast Asia (E-SE Asia) via a region-wide network of temporally overlapping epidemics and that epidemics in the temperate regions were seeded from this network each year. Seed strains generally first reached Oceania, North America, and Europe, and later South America. This evidence suggests that once A (H3N2) viruses leave E-SE Asia, they are unlikely to contribute to long-term viral evolution.

The paper concludes that if we know the source of evolving strains, resources should be focused in that area to limit the transmission. The idea that flus (or is it floos?) tend to lose the ability to evolve into other strains as it enters other global regions is not a trivial one. Limiting regional epidemics can limit global pandemics.

It’s a sentiment I admire, because it shows that even though that area seems a lifetime away, its well-being is strongly linked to our own. It shows once again that indifference to the pain or negative situation in another part of the world hurts us in the long run.