I'm going to make the Covid / Flu comparison...

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

66. The worst thing you can do for your kid is keep them too clean every second.

That is so true. One thing that bothers me about people thinking that because masks more or less eliminated colds and flu this past winter, is that we should continue masking, is to what extent they do not understand how immunity works.

We absolutely need to be exposed to stuff. And honestly, if people die because their immune systems can't handle the stuff, well take a deep breath and realize that's how it needs to be. And while adult onset seafood allergy is disconcerting at the least, and fatal at the worst, at least those people who get it will have reproduced by that point.

I grew up mostly out in the countryside, in farming country in northern New York State. We did not farm ourselves, but we were surrounded by farms. We did have dogs and cats and spent a lot of time roaming outdoors. That, along with my earlier childhood spent in a low income housing development with lots and lots of snotty-nosed kids, helped. I got sick a lot until I was about six, and after that, other than whatever childhood diseases I hadn't yet had, and several bouts of influenza, I was never sick. Well, okay, I got the usual rounds of colds. But the last time I got flu was some time in the early 1970s, and I have sufficient faith in my incredible, extraordinary immune system, that I simply don't get flu shots. Which is not to suggest that any reading this who prefers to get them should change their policy.

Oh, and I've had maybe three colds in the past ten years. If that many.

Perhaps more to the point, each and every one of us has a different, individual, specific immune system. That should be glaringly obvious by the vastly different outcomes of those who've gotten the Covid 19, as well as the very different responses to the vaccines. I happened to get the J&J one and done, and had zero reaction to it. Others have had completely different reactions, especially to a second vaccine. I honestly think those differences are just different immune system reactions, not that one is better than another.