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The Retirement Newsletter: Where do we stand with COVID-19 and flu?
Welcome
Welcome to issue -20 — Where do we stand with COVID-19 and flu?
Winter is coming in the Northern Hemisphere, and it’s time to start thinking about our COVID-19 and flu jabs.
Will you be getting your COVID-19 and flu jabs? Let me know in the comments below.
COVID-19 and flu
So, why should we get our COVID-19 and flu jabs? And, if you have stopped, will you start wearing a mask again?
COVID-19 and flu vaccinations
During my second-year undergraduate virus course, I remember studying flu and three things stuck with me:
- First, the Spanish flu in 1918 killed so many people — the surprise was that this was during my grandparents’ lifetime, yet they never mentioned it. The Spanish flu killed more people than the First World War. It’s estimated that between the first reported case in February 1918 and April 1920, around 500 million people worldwide (about a third of the population at the time) became infected, and between 25 and 50 million died.
- Second, the dramatic ‘antigenic shift’ in…
