I have this funny belief: it goes like this...

[CTyankee]

My mother survived the Spanish influenza (as she called it) in the early part of the 20th century. She was born in 1911 and lived in El Paso, a city now but then was a dusty border town that was regularly terrorized by Pancho Villa. She tells of diving under beds when he and his men came riding into town and "shot out all the windows."

I have the strange belief that because my mother never got the Spanish flu that I have some inborn protection against this flu, despite my head telling me that they are different viruses and my theory is brainless hogwash.

Hubby and I got the Pfizer two shots last month so don't think my crazy flu idea interferes with my better judgment.

So, if there any virologists out there, does having a parent(s) surviving one flu have any protections against subsequent but different flu viruses?

[tblue37]

1. Influenza viruses are different from corona viruses. Covid is not a flu.

[CTyankee]

5. Thank you. This stuff just fascinates me.

My grown kids are kind to their Mom's funny ideas.

[soothsayer]

2. My grandmother also survived the Spanish flu at age 8

She never even caught a cold after that, but her daughter gets flus and stuff.

[CTyankee]

7. My mother lived to be 93. I'm pretty healthy and my kids are too.

[marble falls]

3. Sometimes. A flu shot I had in the mid eighties kept me from having to get a shot four or five ...

... years ago.

One of the few strokes I've gotten by being old enough.

[Ocelot II]

4. Covid isn't a flu virus; it's an entirely different kind of virus.

Influenza is an orthomyxovirus while covid is a coronavirus, like many corona variants that cause the common cold. So even if immunity is inheritable (a question that's still being researched), acquired immunity to the influenza virus wouldn't translate to immunity to covid.

[CTyankee]

6. Thank you for your wise response.

[Ocelot II]

9. I'm not a virologist, nor do I play one on tv,

but I'd read up on the 1918 flu because it killed off a couple of great-aunts and I was curious about it. The book "The Great Influenza" by John Barry, which describes how scientists were trying to figure it out, is really interesting. I've since read that the inheritability of immune responses is being researched, and it seems possible that the general effectiveness of a species' immune system can be inherited, such that a species' exposure to disease over time will make that species more resistant to it.

[Silent3]

11. Species immunity is nothing more than the individual immunity of members...

...of that species becoming more and more prevalent in the gene pool, as those with immunity survive and reproduce, and non-immune members die off and fail to pass on their genes.

The inheritance each individual gets from its own parents is how an immunity gets passed along. No individual inherits anything from the species as a whole, except indirectly.

[Ocelot II]

12. Yes, of course. But it's a gradual process, and it doesn't mean

that just because your parent didn't get some virus, you will automatically be immune to it, too. Your parent might for unknown reasons have had a strong immune system which you might have inherited, but you could still get the virus anyhow. However, maybe because of your stronger immune system you would be less likely to die of it and so would live long enough to produce children with strong immune systems as well. Viruses tend to fade away when enough members of their host species are immune to them, which is basically what herd immunity means. The question is whether enough of that immunity will be passed on to offspring that could prevent another covid pandemic.

[Siwsan]

8. Until last year, the only flu vaccine I ever took was a mandatory one while I was in the Navy.

My maternal grandfather helped his priest give last rites to 'Spanish' flu victims. He never caught it. He had 4 very young children, at the time. They, nor his wife, ever got sick. Both of my paternal grandparents both came from large families (12 siblings, each). Those that survived early childhood (which was most) all survived that pandemic, unscathed. Looking back, I don't remember either of my parents ever having flu.

I have never had flu. Am I an asymptomatic carrier? Who knows. I took the flu AND pneumonia vaccinations, this year, out of an utmost of caution, due to Covid.

My brother had Covid and was at my house, twice, when he was highly contagious. This was very early in the pandemic, before we really knew what was going on. I never became ill. Was I asymptomatic? Who knows. But I took the Covid vaccine because it was the responsible thing to do.

My immune system has served me really well, over my lifetime, but I will never again risk taking it for granted.

[hunter]

10. My great aunt never got any flu.

During the Spanish Flu she got a job delivering prescriptions for a pharmacy after the regular delivery boys got sick.

She lived a few years past 100.

I wish I had her immune system. The flu and other viruses have put me in the hospital at times.

My wife has seen me at my worst, when I looked like a skeleton man. I got that flu when I started teaching.

She married me nevertheless.