The Late but Useful Obligatory Cold and Flu Post

• OK Cold season is year round and flu normally runs from a couple of weeks before Halloween to May.The Flu season is on us and it is in widespread mode. Wait. What? You’re talking about flu when we have a world ending pandemic on our hands?Well YES.

  Here are some facts on the 2019 Wuhan Corona virus.

  As of 9 February 2020, 37,596 cases have been confirmed (6,106 serious)

  As of 9 February 2020, 813 deaths have been attributed to the virus since the first confirmed death on 9 January, with 2,690 recoveries.

  The first local transmission outside China occurred in Vietnam between family members, while the first local transmission not involving family occurred in Germany, on 22 January, when a German man contracted the disease from a Chinese business visitor at a meeting.

  As of 9 February 2020 there are 12 cases here in the United States. China has 37,221.

  From a Time article from June 2019 that details the effect of the 2018-2019 Flu season.

  “In total, the CDC estimates that up to 42.9 million people got sick during the 2018-2019 flu season, 647,000 people were hospitalized and 61,200 died. That’s fairly on par with a typical season, and well below the CDC’s 2017-2018 estimates of 48.8 million illnesses, 959,000 hospitalizations and 79,400 deaths. Time Jun 20, 2019“

  Read that once again please.

  Sixty Two THOUSAND DEATHS. As of 11 February, 2019 Wuhan is under a thousand? Yes. The virus is just starting and it is very early. But a known “enemy” with 62,200 deaths annually. VS an unknown. NOTE I am not saying to ignore it. Lets just get to work on what we know and with the tools we know work.

  The You MUST get your flu shot! Look I don’t care if you do or don’t. I HAVE to get one. Well not have to but if I don’t it can get difficult. Get one. Don’t get one. Your choice.
  The CDC and your family doctor recommends that you get a flu shot each year. Umm OK.” But I thought if the body survives a viral attack it is immune to that virus. But they say to get a flu shot each year. “

  Well yes that is true in most instances. You survive a virus attack, Say our old and supposedly extinct friend Smallpox makes a come back. You catch it. And say you survive it. Your body builds an immunity and when it sees that bug again it mobilizes the defenses and beats it back with little to no damage to the body. Flu is a nasty virus. And for a single piece of RNA it is SMART As nasty as Ebola in its shear brilliance of execution (bad pun I know). The flu is almost intelligent,. It attacks like a human army. It does so targeting and then killing off special cells of the immune system that are actually best equipped to neutralize the virus.

  Attack!

  When confronted with a harmful virus, the immune system generates B cells capable of producing antibodies perfectly suited to bind to, and disarm, viral invaders. That is like the defensive properties of an army guarding a city. BUT enter Mr Flu. The flu virus exploits these receptors to gain entry, allowing the virus to disrupt antibody production and ultimately kill the cells.
  By dispatching its enemies in this fashion, the virus is able to replicate efficiently before the immune system can mount a second wave of defense. Just like a secret attack on a enemy city, Infiltrate. Kill the guards. Kill the city.

  I am sure glad Ebola hasn’t figured out that little trick. The common cold virus works in the same fashion. But it is much much weaker and much slower. The body can counterattack and beat it. Star Trek’s Dr Leonard “Bones” McCoy said it best. Modern medicine can cure a cold in 7 days. But if you wait a week it will go away on its own. (Okay I don’t know if he said it but it sounds like something he would have said)

  The flu vaccine. First some ground rules. I am not publishing support for or against the flu vaccine. This is pure information. Next Do not misconstrue anything we say in this to be supportive of against the flu vaccine. Got it? Thanks for your understanding

  Lets start with some myths about the flu vaccine.

  Myth #1

  “I got the flu shot last year and the next day I got the flu!!”
  The flu vaccine does not contain a live virus, so you can’t get the flu from the shot. Now some people get a bit feverish or pick up some muscle aches and pains. IF a person got the flus shot AND did catch the flu well it probably is pure coincidence. Like was said above the flu shot does not contain live virus.

  Some logical explanations are, 1. You already had the flu. Very early stages. The Flu shot weakened your immune system just enough to give it that stepping stone it needed. This has happened. 2. There 4 codes in a the flu shot. Influenza A and Influenza B And then 2 more that are the most probable for this year. In a Facebook post I wrote, The shot is a roll of the dice. Sometimes it works very well sometimes not so well.
  Via the CDC website

  The A(H1N1)pdm09 vaccine component was updated from an A/Michigan/45/2015 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus to an A/Brisbane/02/2018 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus.

  The A(H3N2) vaccine component was updated from an A/Singapore/INFIMH-16-0019/2016 A(H3N2)-like virus to an A/Kansas/14/2017 (H3N2)-like virus.

  Both B/Victoria and B/Yamagata virus components from the 2018-2019 flu vaccine remain the same for the 2019-2020 flu vaccine.

  This is the flu vaccine for this year. (2019-2020) This is the shot you got. But say you were infected the day you got the shot with H4N3 Sweden Mallard flu? Well guess what thats what you got. And no fault of the shot.

  The other method of “getting the flu from the vaccine is the nasal vaccine. It does contain a minute amount of modified live virus. It is EXTREMELY rare to get the flu from it. All of the examples of people getting it are those with depressed immune systems for one reason or another. Now that is NOT to say someone could not get infected from the nasal vaccine. Anything is possible. But highly improbable.

  Myth #2

  I am perfectly healthy. I NEVER get sick, so I do not need the vaccine.
  AWESOME! If you are then you need to sell your blood to science so it the massive antibodies can be made available to all! See the explanation above on how the flu attacks. EVERYONE is susceptible to it
  The age of the vaccine recipient also determines effectiveness. Adults 65 and older the average effectiveness is @ 58% when the vaccine vs virus are well matched. 36% when not. Adults under 65 with immune-compromised patient’s it hit upwards of 76% and had lows on normal immune system adults as low as 16% Children 1 to 15 years were the best protected during the 4 year study with up to 91% for H1N1 and 77% for H3N2.

  Flu Shot Facts.

  A flu vaccine that is only 50% effective can protect a lot of people No vaccine is perfect, and even if you are protected just 50 percent, you are shielding yourself from more severe disease.
  Even in flu vaccine failures, the illness is less severe, you will still provide yourself with some partial protection and afford your body a better chance to survive. I make fun of it. We all make fun of how on a GOOD year the vaccine is only 65% or so effective across all age groups. But that 65% effectiveness protects millions of people. Especially those that are immune-compromised from cancer or other diseases.

  Now here is where my professional health care buds will go from cheering me to booing me.
  Say you do NOT want to get the flu shot. Religious Personal, Just cant take it, whatever. And you want protection from the flu what can you do?
  Well you can NOT have contact with a living thing for the duration of the flu season. It is how the Native Americans lived on this continent for so long with out smallpox. Once the Spanish hit the western US and the British colonized the east coast they brought along their diseases and the natives were mowed down as if from mini gun fire.

  What can you do?

  Today there is not to much more we can do. We have HEPA masks. They do work. IF USED ACCORDING TO THE INSTRUCTIONS. But they suck to wear. I am a big proponent of Colloidal Silver. Made correctly and exactly with is safe to use. AND in practical use I have known some people who do use it correctly to either not have had the flu or got a hit less hard. During the Swine Flu outbreak of 2009 I personally know people who used silver and for to most part did not get as bad a case or not infected. 3 people I know who were infected had symptoms equal to a a moderate cold but did test positive for the virus. I am not going to say dump the vaccine for silver. I am saying to keep it in mind. There MAY be a day when the vaccine is not available.
  So what is available?

  4 things have shown to either boost the immune system to help the body fight off flu.

  The goods

  Elderberry. Elderberry has been show to be effective in combating flu. It has been show to lessen the effects of the virus. There are THOUSANDS of elderberry concoctions on the net. Make your own. Please.
  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/147323000403200205Star Anise. Star Anise used to be the prime source for the chemical shikimic acid. That is the active ingredient of Tamiflu. Current web searches do not find the older studies on it vs flu. But in Chinese medicine it is one of the main go to for flu treatment

  Echinacea. This is an older plant one that for generations has been a go to for viral infections. It is also a complex plant. Hundreds of studies on it and its effectiveness on cold and flu are about evenly split on it works or it doesn’t work. Used correctly I have found it to be useful when combined with other herbal antivirals
  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27055821

  Reishi Mushroom This little guys has show a lot of promise in tis immune system response on many fronts. Including anticancer and antiviral. Polysaccharides isolated from reishi have been proven effective in vitro against herpes simplex virus types 1 and Reishi isolates also have been tested against other viral strains, including influenza A, and demonstrated effectiveness against their replication.
  https://www.drugs.com/npp/reishi-mushroom.html#fandc-np5266.b46

  Colloidal Silver

  Colloidal Silver has been used for decades as a go to for cold, flu and bacterial infections. There are HUNDREDS of studies both pro and con. Up to and including the famous Blue Man Paul Karason who turned himself blue with colloidal silver that was made by adding salt to the solution which made silver chlorides. This gave him the disease called argyria.
  CS made correctly has been proven safe to use. But the key words here is MADE CORRECTLY. It has shown a wide effectiveness against common bacteria’s and even against viruses. The link is to a dear friend of mine website. He has used silver every day for over 20 years and still has the same skin color he had when he started. Sunburned. In all that time I’ve only seen him sick maybe a couple of times.

  The flu season is bad this year. No it is not a mutated Super Flu that is laying waste to the American Way. But it is pretty widespread this year. In my work a high percentage has got the flu. Not think that they have it. But got it. Swab Positive is the term used. All had the flu shot. Including family members. One a pediatric patient did get moderately ill but is making a full recovery.

  Via the CDC;
  During week 5, the following ILI activity levels were experienced:

  • High – New York City, Puerto Rico, and 45 states (Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming)
  • Moderate – the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and two states (Nevada and New Hampshire)
  • Low – two states (Alaska and Delaware)
  • Minimal – one state (Idaho)

   

Yes the corona virus is scary. It is spreading. It is killing people. The rumors and unsubstantiated stories are even worse. The other day on a talk radio show they talked about a web page that showed increased Sulfur Dioxide levels in Wuhan China. The web page stayed that the high levels were from the Chinese “burning the bodies of the dead”. Sigh.

The tips and items we talked about today not only help with the flu. But with most any other virus. No there are no magikal cures. Your best defense is to stay as healthy as possible. Stay away from sick people. And.

WASH YOUR HAND!

Thanks for spending some time with us here at TMS. We do appreciate it.

Chuck and Christine Hudson

Summerville SC