Don't get your flu shot high on your arm

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

52. Actually, the reason we have the

yearly shift in influenza is because of the raising of pigs and fowl together in China. The two species pass the influenza virus back and forth, quite happily. Neither of those two species get ill. But when the virus moves to humans, oh crap. We get ill. Sometimes we die. If we could persuade the Chinese to stop raising pigs and duck together in close proximity, the entire world would be better off.

I wish I could recall the specific book in which I learned this. Alas, it was many years ago, sometime in the 1990s. The connection between pigs, ducks (and to a lesser extent chickens) all commingled in China isn't very well known in the West, and that's a shame. There are lots an lots of books out there on this topic. One of the best is The Great Influenza by John Barry. Among other topics, he talks about how President Woodrow Wilson was on the verge of drafting every single man in the U.S. between the ages of 18 and 45 to handle the manpower needs of the Great War, when the Great Influenza outbreak of 1918 occurred. Incredibly enough, that didn't accelerate the plans to draft almost every man in the country.

The influenza outbreak of 1918 changed lots of things, but has been largely forgotten. Read this book.