Until I got the flu. Thus on Christmas Eve, I was cloistered away in a back room, shivering and sweating simultaneously while reading the thermometer that had just come out of my mouth: 103 degrees. Meanwhile, everybody in the next room was noisily enjoying themselves and making merry. The next day, I lost my voice. It seems I had contracted laryngitis, too, just to complicate things.
Of course, My Worst Christmas Ever pales in comparison to the damage that influenza can wreak when the virus really gets cranky. In 1918, the influenza pandemic that came on the heels of World War I killed more than three times as many people worldwide as the war had: approximately 50 million.
Need I mention that I really, really, really take the flu seriously? Each year at the beginning of flu season (November through April), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention makes available an influenza vaccine that contains the three main flu strains that research suggests will be most damaging in the coming season.
A few years ago, we experienced shortages of this vaccine, and people were told not to get a flu shot unless they were in a high-risk group (essentially those younger than 19, adults older than 50 and people with compromised immune systems). However, this year there are approximately 145 million doses available, enough for more people than ever to receive the vaccine.