he 1918 strain also killed by provoking such a violent immune response that patients' white cells essentially devoured their own lungs, but that was special circumstances.

Ish. Sometimes I wish I'd paid more attention in Biology, and then I remember, no I don't.

I have spent the last 20 minutes learning exciting things about Streptococcus pneumoniae. Apparently, about 40% of the population at any given time have strep wandering about in their systems. There are more than 30 identified strains, some of which are antibiotic resistant, and some of which are total monsters. The same strep that causes pneumonia (especially in adults) causes most children's ear infections.

There's a vaccine for S. pneumoniae now, but the CDC is worried that is it not in common enough use.

There was a whole other lot about autolysis and glucose in the vaccine and the fact that on an agar culture, tiny little streps go in pairs (diplococci) and look like the seeds in the middle of a plaintain. I happened on an online textbook about bacteriology, and kind of got sucked in.

Huh. I had strep almost non-stop as a baby. I wonder how many of my numerous cousins had inner ear infections at the time.

Is there something about the survivors and ancestors of the 1918 flu having immunity? Again, with the foggy memory. If so, I'm screwed if it reappears in a similar form, because I think half of my genetic component didn't get exposed.

Is there something about the survivors and ancestors of the 1918 flu having immunity?

Hell, no. Flu is constantly mutating. That's why you can get it every year.

huh. I got disconnected. I had honest-to-god strep (as opposed to the shorthand drs often use, which is antibio treatable, but not real strep) when I was 16, coming back from the USSR. OH MY GOD. That was hideous. Shred your throat, swell it up, pour acid down it, start vomiting, paste with huge white puspockets, that's strep. I probably lost 15 lbs while I had a 2 inch growth spurt. I half hope that the three days it went untreated innoculated me. That was BAD. And it made me crave pork chops coated in peanut butter upon my recovery.

Betsy, I meant immunity to that particular variant and its like.

How do people feel about cranberry relish? I always make it by grinding cranberries coarsely with oranges, peels and all and just enough sugar to take the edge off.

We totally do it like that in my family, in the old school meat grinder that clamps to the table. LOVE IT.

And add my to the no-flu-shot group, due to not being in or near a high-risk group. Also, a couple of years ago when I was feverish for two weeks and in bed for one week, that was apparently not the flu, anyway. So whatever, is what I say.

My cranberry sauce has brandy-soaked apricots in it. It's nummy.

I meant immunity to that particular variant and its like.

That is the incredibly bitchy thing about influenza: there is no such thing as "and its like". A year after a given strain hits your immune system, its surviving descendants are very likely to be completely unrecognizable as far as your antibodies are concerned.

As far as I understand the newspaper stories, that's why (some) people are unhappy that they've completely sequenced the genetic code of the 1918 influenza strain: if you released it into the wild today, it would sweep through killing just as many people. Nobody's ever been exposed to it, nobody's immune. (I suppose there are still a few survivors of the 1918 strain, but precious few.)