About the flu

[Chase Mueller]

I never got the shot when I was younger and didn't get the flu until I was in my late-20's. This was despite working retail for many years. Plenty of common colds but no flu. Then, when I did get it, it felt like I got hit by a car. It actually turned into walking pneumonia over a period of months because I was stubborn and figured it would "heal itself" rather than going to the hospital. Ended up losing almost 20 lbs. due to chronic fatigue and lack of appetite. I remember having to call my mom because I couldn't get myself out of bed. When she finally took me to the hospital, my temp was 104F and I remember all the oncoming car headlights looking like different colors of the spectrum. I took me MONTHS to get back to a normal state, all because of my IDGAF attitude. Point being, if I could go back in time and give myself advice, "Get the shot". Just my 2-cents.

Erik

Similar situation happened to me as well. Was working two jobs supporting my ex through college, got what I thought was a cold, week and a half later I'm at the urgent care and was straight up told by the doctor that if I would have waited one more day, I could have fallen into a coma. I have no clue why, I guess I was too scared to ask.
But trust me, I have nothing against the flu shot. I really do forget to get mine. I just never have had it so it never dawns on me that I need to be more proactive about getting it

[Bill Jobe]

I supposed I was right that a virus is not a living organism, that is, until recently. I am seeing more and more information that says to the contrary.
Has research found out in recent years that what they knew at the in the past was wrong?

Is a virus a living and breathing being?

[Chase Mueller]

I supposed I was right that a virus is not a living organism, that is, until recently. I am seeing more and more information that says to the contrary.
Has research found out in recent years that what they knew at the in the past was wrong?

Is a virus a living and breathing being?

Does something have to be breathing to be living?

[Mike Cary]

im just curious if it's possible some people might have a natural immunity to the flu virus. Possible? I have a natural immunity to smallpox that was passed to me via DNA from my Northern European ancestors. As well, there are some instances of folks immune from the AIDS virus.

There are many natural immunities. Both genetic and environmental. An example of each, people with sickle cell are immune from malaria (genetic)and people who used to milk cows were often immune from small pox because they had been exposed to cow pox.

[roger wiegand]

The question of "are viruses alive?" is an interesting philosophical one. Here's the dictionary definition of life: the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death. Viruses are a little borderline on some of those criteria, they replicate in a very host-dependent fashion, I don't know that they change much during their existence, they certainly reproduce. A functional virus like MS2 can get by with only four genes, so not much there to work with, but much closer to "alive" than, say prions, which you can't really effectively kill without complete destruction of the molecule. Viroids are a whole other question, only a couple hundred bases long.

I use a very pragmatic definition of life, to wit, if I can kill it, it was alive. It's pretty easy to render a virus unable to infect and replicate (a dash of Lysol, or a bit of heat will do it), so I'd give them the benefit of the doubt and say they were alive. Something like a viroid or prion, just a bit of infectious RNA or protein that gums up the works, I would say no.

[Bill Jobe]

The question of "are viruses alive?" is an interesting philosophical one. Here's the dictionary definition of life: the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death. Viruses are a little borderline on some of those criteria, they replicate in a very host-dependent fashion, I don't know that they change much during their existence, they certainly reproduce. A functional virus like MS2 can get by with only four genes, so not much there to work with, but much closer to "alive" than, say prions, which you can't really effectively kill without complete destruction of the molecule. Viroids are a whole other question, only a couple hundred bases long.

I use a very pragmatic definition of life, to wit, if I can kill it, it was alive. It's pretty easy to render a virus unable to infect and replicate (a dash of Lysol, or a bit of heat will do it), so I'd give them the benefit of the doubt and say they were alive. Something like a viroid or prion, just a bit of infectious RNA or protein that gums up the works, I would say no.

Well then it seems to me you've opened the door to elements having "life".