You were warned. It’s here.
Flu season has arrived in Houston, and up to 1,600 people on average are sneezing and coughing their way into any of the area’s 42 hospital emergency rooms, according to Houston health officials.
And then there’s the thousand who didn’t go to an emergency room but stayed home and suffered silently. It’s miserable, but at least those are the people who chose not to spread their viruses to co-workers.
For the person in the cubicle next to you racing to hug porcelain, doctors suggest you remind them of the benefits of a flu shot for next year. If they are already sick, it may be too late this year.
If you haven’t gotten sick, yet, and haven’t gotten your shot, yet, there’s still time. Flu season runs through May and it takes about two weeks for the body’s immune system to get up to speed following the treatment. A flu shot might not prevent your coming down with the flu, but it will mitigate the degree to which you will suffer. For those who argue that flu shots in recent years were only around 60% effective, that’s a 60% better shot at avoiding unmitigated misery than you have now.
Feel free to suffer, if you prefer, but for the benefit of everyone else, please isolate yourself and take a couple days off while you’re contagious.
Flu season is here, and it’s going to be a rough month ahead.