Wait?? There are how many cases of the flu?

Yeah, that right we are entering the dreaded flu season. Everyone’s favorite time of the year. That means you better wash your hands, stay in your room do not interact with any other humans, be that person who walks around in the hazmat suit, and if I find out that you have the flu you are dead to me! I refuse to get the flu this year, last year was bad enough.

Alright, I want to clear the air on a few things right quick. Yes, the Coronavirus is scary. Yes, are a lot of infection cases and as of today there are a total of 37,592 confirmed cases which you can fact check me by following this link to this super helpful website. Here comes the but, since October 1, 2019 to February 1, 2020 the CDC have estimated that there have been 22,000,000 – 31,000,000 flu related illnesses in the United States. Also, if you would like to see these fancy charts that the CDC have and all the answers you could ask about the flu, follow this link to the CDC’s website on the Influenza Virus. Yeah, million not thousands, millions of cases. #Mindblown. So are you going to get your vaccine this year? The answer is yes you will.

The CDC predicts that the flu vaccination reduces the risk of contracting the flu by 40% to 60%, which you can see the measured effectiveness on this CDC website. Not to get on my “anti-vaccine” movement rant again, but I don’t want to hear, “I’m not getting my flu shot this year it only made me sick and I still got the flu”, creating a vaccine for the flu to protect you and everyone you know is hard. Let me explain a couple of factors involved in creating a vaccine: 1) There is this thing called Antigenic Drift, which means the virus changes every year causing the flu to be unpredictable especially to your body which depends on memory cells to recognize the strain of virus to protect you, 2) because of Antigenic Drift one vaccine cannot be made for the flu like the MMRV vaccine every year doctors around the world convene and discuss what they think the flu will look like this upcoming year. I promise they are very smart, but they make effective vaccines but sometimes they are wrong and a lot of people get sick. Also, if you would like to read up on Antigenic Drift follow this link to the CDC’s website.

I know I am not always serious, but I am being serious right now get your flu shot and yes I am trying to scare you. Get your flu shot or I will dropkick you into the century. I am just kidding or am I….

Much love,

Matty Ice signing off peace!!