Latest / Stuff You Should Know / How the Flu Works

Transcript

How the Flu Works · Stuff You Should Know

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