The Friday Five

Enrollment for my calligraphy class has fallen over the past few years. I've created a poll (see the side-bar ---->) with five+ reasons people might not be interested in taking a calligraphy class. Your answers will give me some insight and perhaps help me improve the catalogue description. Multiple answers in the poll are allowed.  Also feel free to leave a comment here that is not addressed in the poll. Remember you can enter your comment anonymously. Thank you for your help.

To Flu or Not to Flu

With all the media coverage about the seasonal flu and the H1N1 (Swine) flu, I find myself twixt and tween about getting a flu shot. Is this year's strain of flu and the H1N1 (Swine) something to be worried about or is it just a Chicken Little media campaign pushed along by the drug companies?

Normally, I don't bother getting a flu shot. Himself got a flu shot one year. And he got the flu. I caught the flu from him and was down and out for three weeks. Neither of us have gotten a flu shot since then, and neither of us has gotten the flu. Knock wood.

And then how much immunity does the flu shot provide? The flu shot is only good against one strain of flu. If the researchers pick the wrong strain or the strain mutates, the flu shot is ineffective. The seasonal flu shot will not provide immunity against the H1N1 (Swine) flu.

Recently on a media campaign, I heard the seasonal flu shot was 70% effective in providing immunity. There's still a chance of contracting the flu and supposedly because of the shot, the severity of the disease will be lessened. So you'll feel crummy for a few days less, but you'll still feel crummy. 70% effective. That's a "C" average. I'm not sure that's good enough. Whatever happened to 100%?

And then if the seasonal flu isn't bad enough, this H1N1 (Swine) flu seems to be a super bug. At least according to the media reports. The new vaccine for this strain should be released sometime in the next week or two. But how much research and testing was done on this vaccine? And will there be a shortage of vaccine: seasonal flu or H1N1 (Swine) flu?

Chime in with your thoughts. Take the poll. I'd be curious to see what others think.