Get your flu shot

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Added: Wed. Dec 26, 2012 7:51pm
Posted in: Aging

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This year the flu season is the earliest it's occurred since 2003. Ever since 2010, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) had a national health objective of getting 90 percent of people over age 65 and all nursing home residents vaccinated. 

Sadly, the most common preventable cause of death for people over 65 is influenza. Vaccinations could prevent about 80 percent of all influenza deaths. 

WebMD says that flu activity usually peaks in January and February. 

The CDC reports that this year's vaccine is a very good match for the common strains of flu occurring. 

 I was teaching journalism in the graduate school of Northwestern University 15 years ago. One of my students wrote a story in which she interviewed senior citizens on their health. A senior lady told my student that she had been getting a flu shot every year for the past 10 years and not only hadn’t caught the flu, she had not even had a cold since she started getting them.

That's when I started getting flu shots and I have had a similar record of good health. I realize that is just anecdotal, but you get the picture. 

I hope you will take this opportunity to get a shot. 

Tony