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Selects: How the Flu Works · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Ooh god, Hi everybody, it's Chuck here. Oh boy. My
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: selection this week is Hell the Flu Works, and I'll
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: give you one reason why. This is from November fourteenth,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: twenty seventeen. H I hope you like it. I'm going
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: back to bed. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Charles W Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry. This is Stuff you
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Should Know about the flu, which I have.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: You know the flu?
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Do you? I don't know, man, I can't. I can't.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: I've been on the planet for forty one years. Okay,
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: I still can't really tell the difference between a flu
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: and a cold.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: I think the difference that I can tell, and I
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: don't get a flu much. You know, always get the
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: stomach bug, which, as it turns out, is not a
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: flu I just learned. But I don't get the flu
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: flu much. But I can always tell though when I'm
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: super achy, like the flu just makes me feel like
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: dog doodoo. Right, Where's the cold? Is just a big inconvenience?
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've had uh no, I've definitely had like lots
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: of aches and I woke up like shivering one night.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: I don't see you. I had a fever, for sure,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: I guess.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: So, I guess it must have just been one night
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: in the middle of the night. So that's that's the flu, right, probably,
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: So I guess I do have the flu. No, no joke, everybody.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm erecting the clear glass in between us.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think that I've had it long enough now
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: based on the research from this article that I'm not contagious,
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: or else I would have called this off.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: So did you get it in New York?
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: I wonder, I think so. Yeah, I'm letty New York, right, Yeah,
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Which I was like, I was just walking walking around
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: like with my hands inside of a couple of like
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: plastic Dwayne Reid bags and it still didn't work.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Well, that was your problem probably right there, Dwayne Reid.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Because I didn't take them off when I ate gross. Yeah. So, yes,
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: we were in New York for some Bellhouse shows, right,
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: those went pretty well?
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought they were great.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: All right, So the flu. We won't reminisce about past victories.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: We'll just talk about the flu instead.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, how about a stat right off the get go? Here?
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Okay, the flu. And also sorry everybody for the sniffling
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: that we knew inevitably happen. I'm trying hard not to
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: do it.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: You're a method podcaster, all right, which is also what
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: I said in my very first episode. That's right, remember that. Yep,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: it's not any funnier now. So the CDC right here
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: in Atlanta Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, not the CDCP.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: No, they just stuck with the original.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Yes, they reckon that. About five to twenty between five
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: percent and twenty percent of United States people's get the
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: flu each year, compared to about ten percent to twenty
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: five percent in dirty cold Canada.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: Right, I know. And normally when you get the flu,
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: it's just you're laid up for a couple of days, right, Yeah,
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: like you said, you feel like dog do or something
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: like that. Yeah, that's the seasonal flu. But even with
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: the seasonal flu, which usually here in the United States
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: or in North America runs from what like October to March,
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: yeah roughly. Uh, and then I didn't really think about
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: this before, but in the Southern Hemisphere it runs the
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: opposite and actually peaks in August, right, Yeah, most of
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: the time, it's just an inconvenience for you, but it
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: actually kills people sometimes.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it can be dangerous for sure.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: So in two thy eleven and twelve that was a
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: pretty low year, and for deaths from the flu in
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: the US, there were twelve thousand people who died from
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: the flu or complications from the flu. Twenty twelve thirteen
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: flu season, fifty six thousand people died that year, and
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: I think the average is something around thirty six thousand
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: people in the US die from the flu every year.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and apparently the World Health Organization says around the
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: world as many as a quarter of a million people
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: to a half a million people can die every year
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: from the flu.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: Right, there's a lot of folks it is. So, I mean,
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: in the idea of dying from the flu, that's awful
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: because I mean, if you feel bad enough, as it
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: is from a flu that you recover from in a
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: few days, imagine dying from that. That would just be
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: a terrible way to die.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: And the whole thing, chuck, comes down to this little
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: tiny virus, that influenza virus, and there's different types and
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: influenza I found actually a shout out to the Italian
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: name for it originally did you know this? Uh? Did not,
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: So I'm going to say it normally, but then you
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: have to say it in your famous Italian accent, Influenza
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: di fredo.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Are you talking about the influenza de fredo?
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, which means influence of the cold. Oh, all right,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: a lot of For many, many, many many years, because
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: the flu is most predominant in the colder months, everybody
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: just assumed that it was the actual cold that was
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: getting you sick, right, That turns out not to be true.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: It's an actual it's a virus that does seem to
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: favor the cold, drier conditions of the winter months. But
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: this little tiny virus gets into your body and it
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: starts this chain reaction that is just fascinating.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so it is a respiratory illness. So, like I
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: said before, when you hear people say the stomach flu,
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: which I've said lot in my life because I get
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: it once a year with the poopy butt and the
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: vomitous mouth and the ill belly.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: At the same time. Though I can't I think I've
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: asked you this before, but.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: As it literally ever happened at the same time, I
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: think once in my life.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: Man, that's rough.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: I was on the john with a bucket. That's so rough. Well,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: the worst time I ever had it. I may have
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: told the story before. I was sick at a friend's house,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: which is the worst when I was not living in Atlanta,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: but I was in Atlanta, and I was like, I
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: just got to get to my mom's house. Well, yeah,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: I was like, I just much more comfortably being sick there,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: and he was working. It was just one of those things.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: And so I got in my brother's car that I
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: was borrowing while I was in town.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: I don't like where this story's going.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: And I drove no lie, probably about one hundred miles
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: an hour to Snellville from Atlanta, thinking, and I pooped
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: in my pants in the car, and I remember thinking,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: if a cop pulls me over, he would have to
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: be a cold heartless individual to give me a ticket,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: because I would just say, sir, don't take me to prison,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: take me to a hospital because I'm dying. Yeah, so
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: I trove one hundred miles an hour. It's kind of fun.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: So you made it home. You showed up with poopy
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: pants and your mom took care of you.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Yep, showed up to Diane's house, and I lived. But anyway,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: that was a long way of setting up this which
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: is that is actually not a flu. The stomach flu
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: is not because the flu is one hundred percent of
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: respiratory illness, right, and is not something that happens in
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: your stomach or in your butt. Right.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: And let's let's talk first before we talk about the
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: actual effect of the flu. Let's talk about the virus
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: a little bit. I second, Okay, So back in nineteen
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: thirty one, there was this Iowa farm physician, which is
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: to say he was a human physician of humans, but
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: he probably lived on a farm because it was Iowa
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: in nineteen thirty one. Yeah, his name was Richard schop
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: and he was trying to figure out what this bug
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: that was getting people was. And he investigated with pigs first,
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: because there are plenty of other animals that can come
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: down with the flu, not just humans, right, right, And
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: he finally isolated, isolated a flu virus in swine and
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: it led to this discovery of the isolation of the
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: flu virus in humans too. So right after that they
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: started classifying the flu by strains.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: You got A, B, and C, right, So A is
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: the most common and most severe that's the bad news. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: B is a little milder, a little less prevalent. And
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: then we go all the way down to C, which
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: is I get the feeling. CE doesn't happen a lot,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: and it definitely isn't the one that you're going to
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: have like a big epidemic of the flu from a sea.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I couldn't find much on C influenza either orse C. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: it'll make a comeback one day and it'll shock the
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: heck out of all of us. Right, So Type A
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  Speaker 2: infects all sorts of different species, right, humans, birds of
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: all kinds, pigs, bats, horses, even.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean remember the Avian flu that was that
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: scared the world, and that was a right, that was
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: a strain.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: B strain is almost exclusively effective of humans. Apparently. The
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: only other species we've ever found a Type B influenza
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: virus in is seals. God knows where they got it from,
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: or if we got it from seals, who knows? Maybe
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: up North, I don't know. And then that C one,
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: it just infects humans and pigs. So you got the
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: three types. And then one other thing about them about
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: the classification of flu strains is that there are also subtypes, right,
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: And so you mentioned like avian flu and the one
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: that scared everybody. I think H five N one, Yeah,
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: that was it.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: I remember.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: So that H and the N are the they refer
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: to the two kinds of the two main proteins that
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: you find on the outside of a flu virus, hemagglutinin
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: and neurrominiase. Okay, and so depending on those types of
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: H protein or M protein. Uh, that's that's how they
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: subtype flu strains.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So, I mean that's a good little factoid. I
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: don't think anyone really understands what those letters mean.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: That's what they mean, you know.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, But as far as you're concerned, just pay attention
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: to the news, and when they talk about the scary ones,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: they'll mention those letters in numbers, and then you can
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: impress your friends.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you can be like, oh, well they're talking about
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: hema glutenant and neurominidase, and they'll.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Say, shut up, nerd, I hope you get sick. So,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: as far as the standard flu that we're talking about here,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: the virus, it gets into your body and it kind
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: of makes a b line to your respiratory tract and
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: it binds with your cells. It's viruses. Did we do
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: one a general on viruses?
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: The one I think we really went in depth on
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: was HIV, where we talked about how virus centers the
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: body takes over. It's just vicious, it is, but it's
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: also it's kind of like admirable in a really deadly
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: efficient way, you know.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: It is. So they bind to the surface of the
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: cells in that respiratory tract and then they say, hey,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: i'd like you to meet my little friend RNA. Why
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: don't Why don't I inject my genetic information into your
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: nucleus and see how you like it? Right?
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: And when it does that, the cell has been officially hijacked,
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: and the virus uses the cell's own RNA transcription process
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: to create the proteins that are needed to make new
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: versions of the virus. The virus is using this host
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: cell in your respiratory tract to make copies of itself,
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: and suddenly, before the cell knows what's going on, it's
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: made millions of copies of these viruses. Right, And apparently
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: when you talk about it step by step, it seems
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: like this takes a little while, right, No, in seconds.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: Seconds after that, the virus has entered your respiratory cell.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: Millions of copies of it have been made.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Like this is happening so fast it moves in there,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: it says I'm in charge.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: Now, so out of the way.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, completely out of the way. I'm running the show. Here.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: We're copying each other and we're going to move out
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: to the cell membrane because this cell's going to die
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: very quickly, and then that's just going to poof me
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: out into the body further to infect other cells. And
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: it's scary how quickly this happens.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: Right, So if you think about it, if that first
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: cell produces millions of viruses, viral copies, and then they're
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: released from the cell out into the rest of the
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: other respiratory cells, and each of those infects another cell,
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: and then those cells all make millions. You see how
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: quickly these viruses reproduce in your body. Yeah, And once
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: that starts to happen, you are infectious. I think once
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: that first cell ruptures, you become infectious. But this can
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: be like a day before symptoms. Right, So this is
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: something people are always saying, like, oh, I'm not infectious anymore,
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: like me I said it earlier too, right, But supposedly
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: the day before you even know you're sick, the day
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: before the first symptoms start, before you start like sniffling
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: a little bit or whatever. Huh, you're infectious, buddy. Yeah,
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: And you're infectious up to seven days after that day
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: you first start showing symptoms with the flu. And if
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: you're a kid, you can be infectious even longer because
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: if kids are anything, they're walking germ factories.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: They are just disgusting monsters.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: It's hilarious.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: It's true. Man, Like, my kid didn't get sick at
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: all for the first eighteen months of her life, and
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: I thought, I've got a wonder baby. Yeah, really, I
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: don't know what's going on. We put her in daycare
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: a couple of days a week, and she was sick
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: NonStop for the next six months.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: Man. That is rough.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: It is rough. And then they get the family sick,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: and we'll talk a little bit about that and how
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: that happens. But all this is to say, during flu season,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: especially if you work in like an office where you
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: know when you hear like the flu's going around or whatever,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: or anywhere you work, or in school, if you hear
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: about the flu going around, even if you don't feel sick,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: or your cube mate doesn't feel or look sick. Just
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: start washing your hands a lot.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's like they say, that's the best way
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: to prevent getting the flu or spreading the flu is
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: washing your hands a lot.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: Do it.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: And it's so simple that you almost might discount it,
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: but it's actually true, Like that's the best way to
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: do it. You can wash the flu virus off of
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: your hands with some soap that will buy and the
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: water will wash it right off.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: Wash that flu right out of your hair.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and if you have the flu, stay home. Yeah,
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: everybody but me stay home.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Well, we're up against it. We had to record a.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: Today and also wash your hands just constantly. Like if
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: I'm about to touch anything, I'll wash my hands first.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: If I'm going to go somewhere outside of the hot zone,
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: which is whatever room I'm sequestered in, you know, I
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: will wash my hands.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: You know I appreciate that. I mean, trust me. We're
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: in this tiny studio now, the three of us.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: I know, I'm trying not to breathe.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: You know, you've done all this on one breath. It's impressive,
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: I know. Well, quickly before we take a break, so
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: you can breathe again. We're going to talk about symptoms afterward.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: Before you get these symptoms, though, what's happening is your
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: respiratory system is going to become inflamed, and this inflammation
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: might stick around for a few weeks, but from there
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: it moves into your bloodstream, and then that's when you're
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: gonna get these symptoms once it sort of moves into
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: the bloodstream, right, and we're gonna talk about those symptoms
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: as promised, right after this, all.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: Right, Chuck, let's bread yeah a little bit, let's talk symptoms. Okay,
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: you know what I need? I need one of those
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: like reads that bugs Bunny used to like hide in
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: the water when Almer Fudd was hunting him.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: Uh huh.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: I could just like get a long one and maybe
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: a crazy straw would be even better, and just like
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: pipe it out to the air duct right there.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: That's a great idea.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: What do you think we'll get everybody else sick except
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: you and Jeer.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: So the symptoms sound a lot like a cold because
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: the symptoms are kind of the same. A cold is
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: usually not as fraught with potential complications and maybe a
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: little less severe, but they're pretty close which is why
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: you couldn't tell earlier if you had a colder fever
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: or flu.
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: Right now, but that fever, that's the big one. Apparently,
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: it's a big distinction between the Yeah.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: I think that's kind of the way I just distinguish it.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, And the cold colds are also caused by
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: viruses are caused by coronaviruses, which can there are types
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: of coronaviruses that are really bad that cause like MYRS
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: and SARS. Yeah, but for the most part, when you
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: catch a cold from a coronavirus, it's a low level virus,
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: or it's a rhinovirus. That's the other one that causes
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: the common cold, right, So it's just a different kind
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: of virus producing similar symptoms to a flu.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: Do you remember when Peter Sarscard was on Saturday Night
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Live years ago? He was, you know, the actor. Sure,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: he was on there during the SARS when there was
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: that t SARS scare in the United States, and one
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: of their skits was he had developed the SARS Guard.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: SARS Guard just basically a surgical mask. But it was
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: just funny. They said Sarsgard Stars Guard like thirty times
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: and I laughed every time.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: I think his younger brothers was Pennywise, the clown in
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: the IT movie.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: Right, Oh, I don't know.
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure that was a Sars guard and he
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: is amazing. Yeah have you seen it?
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: No?
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: Oh, you got to see it. You're gonna love it.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: Now. Was he a Sar's guard or a scars Guard?
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: Oh? God, I didn't know there were two different things.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: Well, there are the scars Guards, which is like Stellin'
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: scarsguard is the dad, okay, and then the son was
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: the dude on True Blood the vampire show, and then
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: recently on that pretty Little Liars I think one with
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: Nicole Kidman, Okay, that's Alexander scars Guard.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: I think that might be him. Is sars Guard the
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: one who's in Fire Starza? No, who is that Peter
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: sars Card?
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's another dude. What is up with all these guys?
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: So are you sure you're not just dropping the kof
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: of Peter's scars Guard?
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: All right, here's the deal. Okay, the guy in Fargo, Man,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: this is such a bad sidetrack already, it's pretty bad.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: The guy in Fargo was Peter Stormyre.
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: Okay, so he's not even in the equation.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: Then no, but I definitely know that there is Peter
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: sars Guard okay, because he either was or is married
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: to Maggie Gillenhall.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I guess I knew that Peter sars Guard.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: Okay, and then they're stelling an Alexander scars Guard and
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: I don't know who it the clown was.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: It's Bill scars Guard.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: And is he related to the scars Guards?
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: I guess so.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: I believe he's the youngest of them.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: Oh, I'm sorry. I was wrong. It was Tim Curry
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: I was talking about.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: No, Actually we didn't know. Looks stuff up. But I
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: didn't look that up because the headline here says Alexander
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: Scarsgard's reaction to his brother Bill's clown costume.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's good his acting, it goes way beyond the costume.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: They did good with the costume, but it was doing that.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it was good.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: I know there were so many people screaming at their phones,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: but I think we finally got it right.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, sorry about that everybody. I also want to apologize
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: for any medical students who are being forced to listen
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: to this as part of their class. Hopefully your instructor
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: fast forwarded through that part.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: All right, fact this all got started with Stars Guard
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Stars Guards.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's right, because that's from the coronavirus. This
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: is the influenza virus we're talking about that creates this
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: inflammation which is your immune response right in your lungs.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: That's correct. And the symptoms like a cold are coughing, sneezing,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: that the fever which is different, like we said, with
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: the flu, achy body which usually comes with that fever,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: and then Josh's running nose and congestion that you can
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: hear in your overall lethargy.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I am a little under the weather, I guess
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: is a good way to put it. I can tell.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: So those are just standard flu symptoms. You can have
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: secondary symptoms from complications of the flu. Right. One thing
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: that has long gone hand in hand with the flu
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: as far as like death from flu complications goes is
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: bacterial pneumonia.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah. That's good.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: And for a very long time science wasn't quite sure
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: why that why you were just so susceptible to bacterial
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: infections when you were battling the flu, and they figured
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: it out. It's actually your body's immune response that is
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: responsible for it, right, right, So when you have the
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: flu and your body starts to battle it off and
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: you get a fever and your lungs become inflamed, that's
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: that's your immune your immune system's response to the flu virus.
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: But when your body says, okay, calm down, everybody, let's
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: bring the temperature back down, and your body represses its
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: own immune response, it opens the door for bacteria that
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: normally it would be able to fight off, to take
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: advantage of this kind of naturally weakened state that your
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: immune system is in, and you can you're much more
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: susceptible the infections from bacteria, and that's where pneumonia comes from.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: You can get viral pneumonia, but you usually get bacterial pneumonia.
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: And that's the stuff that people can die from because
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: that bacteria infects your air sex and your lungs, which
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: feel a fluid and puss and blood, and you die
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: from choking on bloody froth that fills up your airway. Yeah,
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: it's a bad jam man.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: Severe dehydration is another secondary symptom of the flu. That's why,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: of course you always want to drink plenty of water
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: when you have a cold or flu.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: I look that one up too, Chuck, Because if you
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: think about it, why why would you be dehydrated from
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: the flu. It's from sweating, yeah, sure, your nose running.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just leaking fluids.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: You you are, and like they start to add up
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: and all of a sudden you're dehydrated before you even
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: knew it.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: That's right. Ear infections, especially if you're a kid, sinus issues.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Emily always gets bad sinus problems along with this stuff.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: I know she was starting to get a little Sniffley,
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: is she sick? She did get sick, that poor lady. Yeah,
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: New York Man. Yeah, it killed everyone I love.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: And then if you like, in Emily's case, she's slightly asthmatic,
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: But if you are asthmatic, you're like diabetes, it can
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: make that stuff worse.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she doesn't have diabetes, right, No, Well, the reason
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: diabetes is comorbid with the flu or is problematic when
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: you have with the flu, is because type one diabetes,
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: especially is an autoimmune disease, So your immune systems already repressed,
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: I guess yeah, And then heart conditions can be exacerbated
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: by it because you're getting less oxygen from your lungs
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: into your bloodstream, which strains the heart. And if it's
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: already weak, people have heart attacks from the flu if
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: they already have a heart condition. Isn't that crazy? Yeah, again,
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: it's a bad jam.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: Well, actually, we in the episode coming up about the
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: silly one about the ten Cursed movies. Remember the little
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: girl from Poltergeis died from at twelve from a heart
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: attack brought on by the flu.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah right, yeah, or she had like a stomach blockage.
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: They initially diagnosed it as the flu.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: Oh okay, but I thought it was not never like
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: a virus like that.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: I don't think so. I think they mistook it all. Well,
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: then forget all that, but people do, so your point
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: still remains correct.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: Okay, So how you get the flu? Is this? Like
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: you said, it's generally about November through March. Jane in
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: February tend to be the worst of it here in
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: the United States, And as we mentioned, offices and schools,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: especially because children are filthy monsters who just don't wash hands,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: and they breathe on each other and touch each other,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: and they don't cover their mouths when they call for sneeze.
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: But it's pretty cute when they hug each other.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: It's very cute.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: Actually, it's worth it's worth all the sickness in the world.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: It's pretty great. But that's the reason that kids tend
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: to spread it more because as much as you try
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: and teach them to cover their mouth when they call
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: and sneeze and wash their hands a lot, it's just
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: not really on their radar like it is for adults.
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: No, you know, because they are dirty, dirty, dirty creatures.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: And then you know, the kid then in turn brings
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: it home and the family gets infected pretty quickly because
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: try as you might, there's just a lot of close
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: contact with kids that you can't avoid. And even if
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: you're washing your hands, they will find a way to
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: infect you.
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: Right, And if you go even further back, there's an
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: even earlier origin before kids picking it up at daycare
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: or preschool. For the flu, usually it comes from other animals.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: We were finding, right, Yes, frequently birds, like we were saying, right,
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: And they used to think that for a human to
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: catch a flu from a bird, especially, that flu had
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: to show up in a mixing vessel. Usually a pig
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: which was capable of taking it could be infected by
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: a bird flu and a human flu and flu viruses
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: have this amazing talent called reassortment, where a flu strain
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: and another flu strain can get together and be like, oh, hey,
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: you have eight proteins that make up your RNA. I
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: do too, Let's mix and match and see what happens.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: And they thought for a long time that this really
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: only took place in pigs and then out would come
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: a new super virus that no one had ever seen
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: before that humans could catch. But from Southeast Asia, people
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: being in close contact with infected birds, especially like in
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: the poultry industry or something, there have been cases that
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: started in the nineties of AVM flu coming directly from
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: birds to humans, so that that theory went out in
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: the window. Yeah, and that's what set off those fears
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: of a bird flu pandemic that we lived with for
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: many years.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right as far as and you know that
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: a lot of that was just spread from bird poop.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it scared people because that those bird flus
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: are no joke, Like they have like a sixty percent
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: mortality rate sixty percent. Six out of ten people who
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: come down with H five N one bird flu die right. Luckily,
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: it's really really difficult to catch it even when you
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: are around sick birds. It doesn't very frequently make the
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: jump to humans, but it can, is what they what
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: they found.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, as far as the regular flu, the garden variety
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: flu that we're talking about mainly here, it spreads from well,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: like we said, from touching stuff, from coughing and sneezing.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: When you cough and sneeze, even even if you think
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: you're covering your mouth pretty well, there may be little
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: little fluids squirting out between your fingers up to a
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: few feet. It's in the air around you. That stuff
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: can travel, you know. So if that lands on a doorknob,
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: or if someone covers her mouth like a like a
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: normal and then opens a door or borrows a stapler
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: or whatever, it's going to be on that door knob
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: and then you touch it. And that's why like hand
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: washing by the sick and by the non sick is
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: so crucial. Yeah.
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: And if you're like having an anxious day at work
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: and you're doing your normal thing of chewing on your
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: stapler to relieve anxiety and the guy who borrowed it
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: was sick, your toast.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: You are toast. And as you mentioned earlier, bears repeating
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: you can be sick a day before symptoms, and you
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: can or you can be contagious a day before symptoms
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: and still remain contagious up to seven days after the
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: symptoms start. Right, So even if you feel better after
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: day four, you could still be spreading that junk around
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: for a few more days. Right.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: And they say that even after you feel better, you
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: should stay in bed an extra day because again, your
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: immune system is compromised and you are are like, you
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: can catch other stuff, so you want to be careful.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: That extra day really pays.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Off, and that's when you just lay in bed and
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: watch Stranger Things.
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: Too, Right, I haven't seen it you? Is it good?
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we just finished it last night.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: Cool.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: Did you see the first season? Yeah?
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, that was great.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: Season two is just as great, if not better.
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: Wow. I'm glad to say that too.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: I was a little nervous, you know, because it was
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: something I loved and it's like, oh man, it's easy too.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: A lot of pressure.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, that's how it happens. The sophomore season is
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: very frequently like everyone's aware of the success of the
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: show and what people are saying about and they try
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: to adapt to the expectations rather than continuing on doing
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: what they were doing before. But good for you guys.
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: Stranger things.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah so great. I want to get those Duffer brothers
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: on movie Crush.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it'd be cool.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: Those guys'd be great.
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: Should we take a break, yeah, I think so.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: All right, we'll come back and talk a little bit
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: about pandemics, all.
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: Right, Chuck. So we were talking about how seasonal flu
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: has seasons. That's why it's called seasonal flu. Right, That's
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: that's I guess one classification of flus. There's also a
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: pandemic flu, and the same kind of flu virus can
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: be a pandemic flu or a seasonal flu. And I
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: think usually the way it happens is a new virus
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: will emerge from say like livestock or poultry or something
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: like that and infect humans. And if it's totally novel
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: where no human has ever encountered a flu of this
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: type before, it can just lay waste to people. It
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: can kill a lot of people, It can infect a
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: lot of people that can spread the world. And when
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: that happens, it becomes classified as a pandemic flu. After
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: a couple of rounds around the world, people will have
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: started to develop an immunity to it, but it'll still
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: be passed around. And so for the decade or so,
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: it can be the predominant strain of the flu, but
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: it'll be it'll have changed over to a seasonal type
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: of flu. So it's almost like that the pandemic versus
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: seasonal type flu describes how contagious it is and how
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: virulent it is. I think that's the big distinction.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think also in a pandemic, doesn't that
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: mean it is left the country?
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that is kind of one of the
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: indicators of it too.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Nineteen eighteen, that was These numbers are staggering. This
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: is the worst flu pandemic and world history in nineteen
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: eighteen for I don't know what months exactly, but nineteen
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: eighteen and nineteen and it killed more than twenty million
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: people around the world.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: And it killed most of those people actually in four
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: months from September to December.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: Isn't that crazy? More lives were lost than all twentyth
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: century wars combined to the flu.
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you said twenty million, twenty.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: Million worldwide, about half a million in the United States.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: I saw in many reputable places fifty million people died
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: around the world.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: It's just it's staggering.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And that was like right at the end of
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: World War One and just came out of nowhere. And
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: one of the other really noteworthy things about it that
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: just baffled people was it was killing like healthy people
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: under the age of like twenty two, twenty three, twenty four,
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: like just healthy young people killed by the flu. A
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: lot of them died from pneumonia. And they finally figured
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: out that it was because it had been about twenty
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: something years since a flu resembling that type of strain
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: had made the rounds, so people under say, like age
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: twenty five had never been exposed to it. So it
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: was a novel flu which just leveled the people it
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: was exposed to had never never encountered something like it before.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's I mean, it's scared to think about. I mean, truly,
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: that couldn't happen today, could it? Or could it?
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: Oh?
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, sure, man, you think that we could had
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: something like that off these days?
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: Do you know, like a of the population of the
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: world was infected with that flu that year? Wow, isn't
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: that crazy?
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: I know, that's hard to believe.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that can totally happen. It's a real concern, all right.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: So as far as your risk of getting the flu,
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: if you're a kid, like there's different risk groups like
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: high risk, low risk, whatever, medium or average risk. But
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: if you're under two years old, your little immune system
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: isn't quite smart enough yet to know how to fight
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: things off, so you're definitely more at risk. And as always,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: what affects the children also affect the elderly. So if
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: you're over sixty five seniors is elderly wrong to say,
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: I think elderly?
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: Technically eighty one? Oh?
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: Really? Yeah, all right, so we'll go with seniors.
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: Seniors, active senior adults who have decades left ahead of them,
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: that's right.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: Who else, anyone who has any kind of chronic like
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: I mentioned asthma or diabetes, any kind of chronic condition,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: if you're pregnant, if you work in a hospital or
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: a doctor's office or nursing home.
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: Nursing home is not just people who work there, but
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: the residents too are in a really vulnerable position. Because
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: they are in the elderly age range, their immune systems
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: are pretty compromised. If they're in a nursing home, they're
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: probably ill already and then they're living in close quarters
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: with other people who are ill. That's a that's a
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: recipe for a disaster.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, sure is. It's also a recipe for tapioca pudding.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: It is the best around remedy wise. And we'll talk
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: about vaccinations here in a minute, because I thought that
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: was kind of one of the most interesting parts of this.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: But as far as remedies, if you get the flu,
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: it's a it's a virus. So you can't take anti biotics. No,
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: you can't take a pill that's going to cure you.
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: There are some anti viral drugs, which I've never tried
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: any of these of you.
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: No, no, no.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: I tried zycamlast year once. I think that's for colds.
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought that was like discredited.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean I had a few people say, oh,
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: you know, you try as I can. It helps not
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: cut your cold faster.
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: It killed my sense of taste and smell. Oh no,
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: for several days, to the point where I was scared.
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: I don't remember that. I'll bet you were scared.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I looked it up and it's a thing.
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: Oh I do remember that actually.
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's just really unnerving. The idea of maybe it's permanent.
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah it was. It was pretty pretty freaky, yeah, I'll bet,
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: and super noticeable. It wasn't like a subtle thing.
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: You'd be like chilling, I miss you.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: So that was my experience. I'm not making some sweeping
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: statement about that medication.
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: Way to see amen.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: But there are antiviral drugs called there's one called tama
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: flu relenza flumidine a little on the nose if you ask.
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: Me flu stop, Well, any viral they seem like a
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: good idea, But they seem like a good idea under
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: the premise that seasonal flu strains were used to think.
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: They used to think that they died out at the
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: end of a season. Right, Well, they started tracking them,
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: like our global monitoring system is really top notch and
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: they can track flu around the world, and they've found
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: that seasonal flu at the end of the season in
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: North America, it just goes to South America. So since
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: since that's the case, when you use anti virals and
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: you're exposing these flus that go on to survive, you're
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: also training them evolutionarily speaking, to adapt so that those
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: antiviral drugs are useless against them. For people who really
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: need them. So, just like with antibiotics, using anti virals
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: just to cure a common flu or to shorten a
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: common flu is probably a bad idea when you're talking
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: about the whole population.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's what they do. They they what they
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: try to do is just keep the red cellular spread
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: from happening as much as it can. Right, And that's
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: sort of the easiest way to say it.
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, there's there's one keeps them well to a
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: pair of them, keep them from replicating, and then another
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: one traps them inside to sell. Once they enter, it's like,
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: oh God, I can't get out, the door is locked,
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: and then death.
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: And they're all prescription drugs, right, if I'm not mistaken.
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: So vaccines are like pretty hot. They're like the hot
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: thing to do on a Friday night is to go
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: get a flu vaccine, right.
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't get I didn't get flu shots for many, many,
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: many many years until I had a kid.
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And they say like if you especially if you
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: have a baby under six months of age, they can't
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: be vaccinated and so everyone around them should be vaccinated,
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: is the recommended recommendation from the CDC.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like our close family, the grain and the abbas
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: all and the pop pops and the papas and the
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: poupas and the memangs and the momos. Yeah, yeah, Momo
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: got a flu shot.
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: That was nice of her. She's very kind.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: So yeah, we all got flu shots. And I just
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: wasn't you know, I never got the flu much. I'd
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: never I didn't have a disbelief in the flu vaccine.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: I was just like, yeah, I don't really need to
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: bother with that.
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's kind of it was fine. Do you get
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: them now though? Is it a habit of yours now?
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: Well? Yeah, now, just they just sort of recommend it.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: When you have kids up up until they're a certain age,
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: you should get vaccinated as a family.
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: Right, And when you have kids, if you get them vaccinated,
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: you once they're able to be vaccinated again under six months,
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: they say, no, no, no, don't do that. When they're
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: young though, and you're getting them vaccinated, they need to
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: be vaccinated twice, like a month apart. Yes, And so
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: with flu vaccines in general, they recommend that you get
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: it as early in the season is possible because it
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: takes about two weeks for that to take effect. So
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: with a kid, then I guess you would want to
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: get them, so that six weeks before the flu season,
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: I don't know, or there is that second one pretty
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: much like, okay, now it's taking effect. So is that
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: four weeks plus two weeks or just.
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: I don't remember the schedule. Yeah, I don't remember the schedule.
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: Well, ask your doctor. Okay, we're not doctors. Stop pressure.
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: They'll tell you, like when you go to get your
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: little kiddy checkups, they say, you know, come back in
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: this month and get your flu shot number one and
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: then flu shot number two.
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: And so for a while there they there were two
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: kinds of flu shots that the CDC recommended. One was
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: an actual shot, the flu vaccine that was in a
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: shot form, yes, and then there was another one that's
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: called live attenuated influenza virus, which came in the form
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: of a nasal spray, and that was usually recommended for kids.
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: I don't know if it's because kids still like needles
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: or what, but the CDC is officially stopped recommending nasal
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: flu vaccines. Yeah, don't do those right.
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: Well, And when they were doing it, when we say kids,
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: you had to be over five because it was a
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: like you said, a live a live virus.
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: Right, it was a live, weakened virus.
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And that's different. Like if you think, all right,
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna get a flu shot, so that means I'm
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: going to get the flu virus shot into me, and
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: so I might feel like I have the flu. That's
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: not really the case. It's it's really kind of neat
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: how they do it. These these scientists and doctors, like
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: you said, track what's going on in the world of
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: flu all over the world, and they they sort of
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: make up normal. They don't sort of. They very definitely
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: make a prediction and say, here's the flu strain specific
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: to the United States. Let's say that I think we're
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: going to be faced with this year, and they make
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: their best side scientific guests possible, and that is, you
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: get a not live version of that virus injected into
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: your body. Your body sees, hey, foreign invaders here, let
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: me produce antibodies. Then if that virus or if the
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: real flu knocks on your door later that winter, your
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: body says, wait, I've met you before, I know how
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: to fight you.
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's pretty cool.
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: And it literally the effectiveness. I looked up this year
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: and it's a year to year thing. It's forty to
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: sixty percent on this year's strain, and it varies because
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: it really just depends on how well those scientists have
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: predicted how much they get it.
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: Right right, because if they get all three wrong, well
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: then you're toast when you encounter the flu that's going
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: around that season's right, it's introducing. But even when they
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: do get it right, it's kind of baffling that sometimes
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: the flu vaccine just doesn't bestow any kind of immunity. Yeah,
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: apparently Australia just came out out of a really bad
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: epidemic flu season down there, and what didn't cause a
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: lot of deaths, but everybody was sick with the flu.
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: It was an H three type flu that went around.
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: And even though that strain showed up in the vaccine
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: that was given out, only like fifteen percent of people
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: who got vaccinated and were exposed to the flu were
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: immune to it. Like eighty five percent of people who
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: got flu vaccines and then encountered the flu still got sick.
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: That's a pretty bad track record for a flu vaccine,
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: and they're they're just not sure why. And one of
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: the theories is so when they make flu vaccines they
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: grow them in egg protein typically like hats eggs. That's
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: the medium they use actually grow the viruses that they
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: then kill. One researcher pointed out that at least one
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: kind of flu virus mutates in the presence of egg protein,
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: so that the virus that you put in to grow
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: in there is different from the one that comes out.
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: It's a mutated version, and so maybe that would would
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: prevent your body from recognizing the original one that you
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: were trying to introduce it to in the vaccine. So interesting,
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: it is pretty interesting.
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: Well, and they say there's a list of people who
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: should not receive the flu shot, and one of the
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: one of those qualifications is if you are allergic to
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: chicken eggs, then you shouldn't get a flu shot.
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's like a couple of other ways that they
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: make flu shots flu vaccines, but that chicken egg is
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: the most predominant way to do it.
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, if you're currently have a fever weight on your
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: flu shot under six months, of course, we said you
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: cannot if you have had flu shots in the past
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: and you had a bad reaction, because like I said,
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: it's not going to make you sick, but you might
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: feel a little achy or have sore muscles or something,
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: but you can't have a bad reaction. And if that's
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: the case, then maybe flu shots aren't for you, right.
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: And if you're an anti vaxxer, then you probably are
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: decided that flu shots aren't for you, correct, which we
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: will never do an episode on that.
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: On vaccinations, right. Oh, you don't think.
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: So, I don't know, man. So the idea that a
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: flu vaccine can, you know, check all the boxes but
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: still just be wrong, wrong, wrong, or not confer immunity
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: has some people looking for a universal vaccine or one
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: that lasts way longer than just a year. What they're
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: targeting is, so when you get a normal vaccine, that
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: vaccine is based on that HA protein, the hema gluten. Yeah,
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: and that's the most quickly evolving part of any flu virus. Right.
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: So they're saying, well, let's look at other parts of
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: the flu virus that don't evolve nearly as quickly and
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: target that. And some of those parts are even basically
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: universal among all flu viruses. So if you can find
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: if you can create a vaccine based on a stable
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: part of a flu virus that's a part of every
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: flu virus. One vaccine could confer ideally lifelong immunity from
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: all influenza for anybody who takes the vaccine.
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: One vaccine to cure them all exactly. Wow.
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so you got anything else?
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: No? I mean, I guess we're not going to cover
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: the boogie Wigi Flu.
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: I thought that was boogie woogy fever.
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: No, it's the rock and pneumonia the boogie wigy flu.
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: Oh that's nice. What's that from? Is that an Atlanta
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: Rhythm Section song?
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: No, they're better than that.
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: Okay, Uh, well, since I said Atlanta Rhythm Section everybody,
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: that means it's time for a listener mail.
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: Uh. Yeah. This is a Simpson's Overlooked overlook Simpsons bet
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: from us. And this is not one of those We
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: got plenty of things where people like, hell, could you
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: not have mentioned this quote or this episode? But the
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: response was good. Then people weren't necessarily poopooing it.
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: No. And also I want to say thank you to
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: everybody who wrote in to just say congratulations or to
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: thank us. That was all. Every single one of those
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: emails or tweets or posts were all well received. So
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: thanks for those guys.
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: Totally, But this is something we failed to mention, which
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: definitely deserves its own email. And this is from rich
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: our Man on Cape cod As. He says, Hey, guys,
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: was listening to The Simpsons two parter. Enjoyed it very much.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: You explained how an episode came to be, from conception
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: to animation, etc. And you paid respect to each portion.
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: But then you slide it off one of the most
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: important men in the franchise, you just said, and then
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: they slapped Danny Elfman's score on it and it's done well.
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: Is any true Simpsons officionado would know? Danny Elfman has
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: never once written a score to The Simpsons. He wrote,
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: as we know, just the title or the theme song.
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: So he says that job fell to the immensely talented
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: and recently terminated via email, Alf Clawson. For twenty seven years,
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: every score, every queue, every song was composed, orchestrated and
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: conducted by Clawson and his live orchestra. He's won two
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: Emmys and seven Annie Awards for his work. The reason
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: this is such a painful sight it was because this
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: omission has been happening for years. Clawson has worked insane
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: hours writing music for a live orchestra to accompany an
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: animated show. He's always played second fiddle. Nailed it, he
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: said to all those who think Elfman is any part
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: of the show, after he pinned the main title. In fact,
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: the main title theme song We All Know and Love
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: is actually Clawson's re orchestration of Elfman's theme that took
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: place mid season three with a lusher, more crisp orchestration. Wow,
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: I bet you anything, Rich plays the obo.
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: Alf Clawson. I'm so sorry.
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: I know, he said. I myer your podcast for being
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: light to information that has been stuck lurking in the shadows.
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: You always make sure a credit is given to those
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: who sometimes went their entire lives without getting the nod
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: they deserve.
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: Well, this guy's really turning the knife in our back,
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: saysn't he.
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: And I feel you, oh Clawson, that respect. So Alf
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: clawsan for real. And then it was a bit of
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: a longer email. He told the story of how he
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: was recently fired by email, which is not cool.
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: No, it's definitely not Yeah. So twenty seven years yeah,
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: of dedicated work.
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: No man, not cool, guys, So that is a rich
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: our Man on Cape cod.
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: Well, thanks a lot, Rich appreciate that that was one
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: of the better emails I've heard in a while.
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: I agreed.
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: If you want to try and top Rich, let's see
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: what you got. You send us an email, stuff podcast
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: at houstuffworks dot com and join us at our home
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: on the web. Stuff you Should Know dot Com.
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts,
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.