It's official.  Winter is upon us and the aptitude of catching that cold-bug sky rockets percentage wise...thus, what do you know, I got sick.  My friends were sick.  My colleagues were sick.  Yup, it was only a matter of time.  What, you too?  Surprise, surprise.  What did you have?  A common case of the cold?  A common case of the flu? i.e. influenza?  Mono? i.e. Infectious mononucleosis / the kissing disease?  WHOOPing cough? i.e. Pertussis??

To Vaccinate or Not to Vaccinate?

Before treating my case I consulted my friends: acupuncture didn't help.  I refuse to take antibiotics these days (heaven knows what they really do to your insides).  The homeopath may have helped (yes, I'm a believer), but who really knows?  I took American label drugs, Israeli equivalents, throat lozenges, drop-y things, nose-spray-things, etc...When it came down to it, I literally had to bite the bullet and let those that love me force me to take a break, stay in bed, eat lots of soup and sleep it off.  

But for some, that's not enough.
 
Because this year, our usual winter cold poses to be an even worse threat -- The Swine. i.e. Swine influenza, Pig influenza, pig flu, and hog flu.  
Honestly, pig?  What?  I keep kosher.  Lo hevanti.

I mean, what could possibly be so threatening that it had the power to nearly shut down entire countries?

 Limmud FSU lost its hotel and 2009 convention in the Ukraine due to it.  Heck, when I flew to Greece, airport security was handing out informational pamphlets in multiple languages by the dozens as we passed through customs that read - QUOTE:  If you are feeling weak and/or have had a Fever in the past 7 days please see an official airport staff member immediately. (Right, like even if I had a temperature I would've turned myself in!?) What is swine flu anyway?  Is it true that more people have died from the vaccination than the actual disease?  Not exactly.  
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had this update to say about the 2009 H1N1 Flu:
During the week of November 15-21, 2009, certain key flu indicators declined while others rose as reported in FluView. The number of states reporting widespread flu activity decreased from 43 to 32 and nationally visits to doctors for influenza-like illness declined. Flu-related hospitalizations and deaths have declined slightly over last week, but are still very high nation-wide compared to what is expected for this time of year. The proportion of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza (P&I) was above the epidemic threshold for the eighth consecutive week. 

Yeah, I didn't vaccinate.  Whatever.  I'm just glad I'm feeling better.  And if you're sick, remember rest, eat plenty of Jewish penicillin (that would be matzo ball and/or chicken soup), and be sure to get plenty of TLC (that would be Tender Love and Care).  Hopefully that will do the trick -- unless you have the Swine.  Sorry.