A health care practitioner approached me to extol the virtues of flu shots. In her pitch, she concentrated on “young girls” who “benefit enormously from flu shots” and suffer more than anybody else from bad cases of flu. I had no idea what all this yammering about young girls had to do with me, so I left.
Only now, several hours later, did I realize that “the young girls” were a way of flattering me in order to attract me to the idea of a flu shot. And I, with my literal brain, thought the woman was weird or confused me with someone who knew many young girls.
I now want to send my husband into that pharmacy to see if the lady will approach him with a story about young boys. Knowing N, he will be freaked out.
Clarissa's Blog 
Free medical advice:
Unless you have a medical contraindication to the flu shot (such as an allergy to one of the vaccine components), you should get the shot every year, whether you’re a “young girl” or an “old girl.”
“Old girls” on Medicare — not you, I know! — get it with no copay.
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I’ve never gotten one in my life. It’s not like I have anything against them but I don’t have anything in favor either. Maybe I’ll do it this year, just for the sake of new experience.
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The shot will reduce your changes of catching the flu SUBSTANTIALLY, and in your role as a professor you come in contact with a large number of people who could be spreading the virus.
It’s not a pleasant disease to have, although at your age you would almost certainly survive it. So the wise thing is to get the protection. (If you have doubts, I’d recommend discussing the vaccine with your own doctor.)
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Eh, I suppose at her age, Clarissa knows her vulnerability to respiratory illnesses. Me, I always catch everything that’s floating around and that I’m not vaccinated against, but that obviously isn’t the case for everyone. There’s an altruistic case to be made for getting the flu vaccine just in case, but she’s usually around college students rather than babies or barely-functional elderly people, so it’s not like she’s the only person involved who could possibly vaccinate herself.
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These days, I’m not around anybody at all. I’m not going back to the university until next September, actually. So I just stay at home most of the time.
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I admire you for being able to get shit done without spending hours at your out-of-home workplace, btw.
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I LOVE working from home. It’s blissful.
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N could bring the flu virus home to you.
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Yes, he actually could. He catches this sort of thing easily.
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I winced a little reading this because there was a well-known flu death in the dorms of my university while I was going there. A guy who was away from home for the first time got a bad case of the flu and was unable to get out of bed for food or water. His roommate assumed he was resting and decided not to bother him. The sick student ended up dying of dehydration.
That story is one of my major motivations for getting the shot every year.
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Ok, ok, I’m going. Let’s consider me saved by the blog. 🙂
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They’re not going to concentrate on young boys with an adult man, they focus will shift to ‘mature men under a lot of stress’ (or similar) to imply they think he’s an executive…..
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In Sweden the shots are free for senior citizens. They recommend the old, weak and feeble and the sick to take the shots – healthy people rarely get more serious effects from the flu – but in order to stop the epidemic and avoiding absence from work, and to avoid infecting others it is a good thing to get a shot. Some years ago, I used to visit the biggest book fair i Sweden, with visitors from all over the world, breathing the same air – and I got flu or a severe cold every time. So, when my parents were old and sick, I stayed away so I wouldn’t be their angel of death.
Reminds me – I must renew my vaccination for TBE, so I can stroll in the nature without fear of neurological damage for life. (TBE stands for Tick Borne Encephalitis if any city dweller hasn’t seen it before. For the Lyme Disease, there are no vaccine as yet. The warmer weather has made the ticks multiply tenfold here, when none of them are killed by any winter frost.)
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Ah, so you suffer from warmer weather, too! I can’t wait for the endless summer to go away where I am.
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