Flu shot more than likely would NOT have prevented this. This year's shot has proven to be far more effective than last year but still working only at about 50%. the last few years has been hard on the CDC getting a handle on the make up of the virus pool early enough. Last year the shot was as close to worthless as possible. but saying that, no question it does most often make the disease process more tolerable with a faster recovery. People who refuse to take the shot give all sorts of reasons for not taking it but truth be told, in this country the flu kills an average of 40,000 people per year. And that is only because we have yet to see a major shift in the flu virus make up. If that ever happens, we could v3ry well see a pandemic like the Spanish flu here in 1918 where millions died. In spite of all sorts of medical advances, we really do not have adequate treatments for many viral diseases and the flu is far more contagious than most of them.
Those who have never had the flu have been quite fortunate. It is not like a bad cold. It hits suddenly and you can feel like a truck ran over you. best advice, if you have no absolute contraindication to the shot (like certain allergies), take it every year about a month before the season starts in your location of the country (almost always begins earlier in the south and moves north). At about age 60 take the first of the 2 available pneumococcal pneumonia shots (Prevnar 13) and a year later take the second which boosts immunity against 23 separate strains. This is not fool proof and you may still fall quite ill but it is the very least you can do to avoid some really serious stuff.
Now back to hockey-RPI is only a slight 3-2 underdog for Saturday with a 40% chance of victory. If we are healthy (and we never know that until game time) my money would be on RPI but only by a goal. Hoping i will be here to start the score thread but I will most certainly try to start the next one for a league game as I am on my longest hot streak ever (2 in a row). Of course I want to see all wins from now on but I must say this team just looks better in so many fundamental ways now than it has for some time. It is starting to be fun to be an RPI fan again. LGR!!!
