the.com/flu
Evolution's reminder that you are, biologically speaking, mostly a snot factory.
means A contagious viral infection that hits the respiratory system and leaves you fevered, achy, and flattened on the couch for a week.
from Short for 'influenza,' borrowed from Italian, where it literally means 'influence.' The idea was astrological: outbreaks of illness were once blamed on the invisible 'influence' of the stars and planets flowing down on people. By the mid-1700s English speakers had clipped the Italian word down to the snappier 'flu' we use today — keeping the disease, losing the stars.
- actual cause
- influenza virus, not cold weather or wet hair
- mutation rate
- changes yearly, dodging last year's vaccine
- worst outbreak
- 1918 pandemic killed more than WWI combat
- contagious window
- spreads a day before symptoms even appear