Yeah, you are part of the 60% that I can't figure out -- but Mom did mention that you were dropped on your head as a baby, so that might explain many things.

Or there is the option that one believes it is not necessary for themselves, like myself!  I don't get colds and I don't get the flu.  I have not had either in the 21st Century and I am not sure I remember when the last time I had one in the previous Century.

It does not make me complacent, ignorant nor fearful!  It is a choice I chose to make!

Go figure!

Au contrare!  It is indeed your choice, but remember that part of the reason for everyone to get vaccinated is that it lowers the spread of the disease to the rest of the susceptible community. We had polio obliterated (thanks to Salk and Rotary International). Until people stopped getting the vaccine. We had measles almost totally obliterated until this past couple of years, when people stopped having their children vaccinated. Fortunately, smallpox is totally obliterated, (except some esoteric scientists have it stored in federal labs just in case it is needed again). The vaccine is still given routinely as far as I know. So part of the reason to reconsider is help reduce the spread in the community.  Flu vax may not protect some folks completely, but it reduces the severity and the spread of the disease. (don't forget it is also free to most folks. And conveniently available at most Walgreen's during the season).  By the way, I don't know why there is smallpox stored in labs, since the vax is made from Cowpox virus. Just hope they don't have it stored in Wuhan.   

If I don't get sick in the 1st place, how am I going to get others sick?

Do you think it is the cheeseburgers that fight off the illness?

I often say that for me eating spicy food and drinking beer keeps away those bugs.

If I don't get sick in the 1st place, how am I going to get others sick?

1. You can get sick!  You just haven't yet. Immunity usually lasts one season, and the virus changes almost annually. That is why they change the vaccine every year or two. Also, as with coronavirus, many people confuse Influenza as a "cold".  Bet you have had chills, fever, mild cough and some  muscle aches at the onset of what you thought was a cold. But it may have been mild flu. Total immunity in non vaxxed people is really rare. (will check it out).  As a mild illness it can still be transferred to others, just like the Corona.  Hope I am not being aggressive about this, but you asked.
 

I WAS WRONG!  You can be immune naturally, but since the virus mutates frequently, you might be susceptible to certain possibilities. So my comment that you just have not caught it yet may be true. My apologies for misinformation.  One article I scanned said that some folks with partial immunity, do get just as sick when they get the flu, but don't shed as much virus and are not as contagious.  Very strange disease.  Might be time for me to be quiet and pay attention.   

I will say, he is never sick. No fevers, no chills, no coughs, no sneezes, no coughing  -- in short, no nothing.  I on the other hand, seem to get everything -- pneumonia brochitis, more colds than I have years, lucky to only have had flu twice.  But Bent does seem to not be susceptible -- maybe all the garlic and chillies?

I love this forum!

Or there is the option that one believes it is not necessary for themselves, like myself!  I don't get colds and I don't get the flu.  I have not had either in the 21st Century and I am not sure I remember when the last time I had one in the previous Century.

It does not make me complacent, ignorant nor fearful!  It is a choice I chose to make!

Go figure!

I knew a guy like you once.  He never got the flu or colds.  He was my construction manager on a home I was building.  I got the flu in early 1997 while my home was under construction and was out of commission for a week.  Many of guys that worked on the job also got sick but not Cliff.  I asked him what was his secret.  Cliff told me he never touches his face except when washing up and he washes his hands frequently.  Sounds a lot like what they are telling us to do now. 

Of course, this is a topic close to my heart and especially on International Guide Dog Day. I feel for the gentleman whose guide is getting old and needs to retire and he was to go to GEB on April 2 to receive a new partner. Now, he waits. Does it place his life and the life of his older guide in jeopardy? I don't know. There is a lot of fall out from these stay at home orders that folks never hear about.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2020/04/11/coroanvirus-service-dogs/?fbclid=IwAR03T66KnAamFT0rye_scCTH3vgF9jE07ZLms8i0eQ8UoyJJQB8Bs5T0FHQ


Bent said he could not read,so I cut and paste: 

By Kim Kavin

April 11, 2020 at 9:00 a.m. EDT

Eric Caron, a retired guidance counselor who has been blind since birth, recently moved to a new home. He noticed his guide dog, a yellow Labrador retriever named Ryan, had trouble leading him across a busy intersection he must cross regularly. Caron knew what that meant: It was time to retire Ryan, a near-senior citizen at 9 years old, to pet status and get a new guide dog.

But as the novel coronavirus spread, Caron’s “dog day” appointment on April 2, at the New York-based Guiding Eyes for the Blind, was postponed indefinitely.

“I had packed my bags a good month before the class date, including some special toys for the new dog,” said Caron, of Brattleboro, Vt. “I had a new pair of shoes for walking and a special shirt for graduation. I was ready. And now, you just have to take that bag and roll it in the closet.”

Like many people with disabilities, Caron relies on a service dog to help him navigate not just the world, but also his home and property. The dogs are trained to do specific tasks such as guiding people in public, opening doors and interrupting anxiety attacks. That training can last up to two years, and it is now on hold nationwide as the coronavirus crisis continues.

The handoff of already-trained service dogs to people like Caron also is paused, because it has to be done in person and with instructors and clients standing close together. That means people whose dogs are ready to retire, as well as people who have been on waiting lists a year or longer to get their first service dogs, remain in limbo.

“We’re under orders, depending on what state you live in, not to do activities that are not deemed as essential. Because this is considered education, it’s not deemed essential,” said Ben Cawley, director of training at Guiding Eyes for the Blind. “A guide dog-user would argue that it is essential, but we can’t be putting our staff or volunteers or applicants in an irresponsible situation.”

When New York ordered a statewide shutdown, Guiding Eyes for the Blind had 178 dogs in its Yorktown kennels as well as puppies in a second facility. Those dogs went home with staff and volunteers who are keeping them happy but who can’t train them during the pandemic to walk in grocery stores or down crowded sidewalks.

Canine Companions for Independence, based in Santa Rosa, Calif., faced a similar situation. Its six nationwide campuses are now closed, some 420 of its dogs in training are living with staff and volunteers, and the 400 people with physical and hearing disabilities on its waiting list are going to have to wait for the program to resume.

“We would love to be able, during this time, to continue to train the dogs at home and then perhaps look at doing some virtual training,” said Jeanine Konopelski, national director of marketing at Canine Companions, “but still, that in-person connection, the person meeting the dog, that still has to happen, and we can’t do that right now.”
Michelle Barlak, a spokeswoman for The Seeing Eye in Morristown, N.J., said a class to pair dogs and clients was in progress when the state shut down most businesses. The organization accelerated the training, got the dogs into homes with clients and has been following up by phone, Skype and email, she said.

An immediate challenge, Barlak said, is that the organization’s in-house veterinary clinic also was forced to close. That means local veterinarians end up handling problems, a more costly option eating into existing funding.

Another concern is making sure essential workers who rely on guide dogs can keep doing their jobs, said Thomas Panek, chief executive of Guiding Eyes for the Blind. If for some reason such a worker needed a replacement dog, he said, handoff could be tricky — and their critical work put in jeopardy.

“Right now, there are people who are blind and on the front lines in this crisis,” he said. “I know four people who work in the federal government. They have to go into places like the emergency response centers. They’re using their service dogs to get to work. They’re part of the crisis response team; they just happen to be blind.”

How quickly future cohorts of service dogs can be ready remains an open question. Training programs are run on schedules, and those schedules are set back every day the pandemic goes on. Dogs living in foster homes may be safe and content, but some are losing skills.

“Many of our dogs need to learn how to work around adaptive equipment like wheelchairs,” said Sarah Birman, national director of training and client services at Canine Companions. “I don’t have a wheelchair in my house to practice with. I don’t have the special light switch to practice with, like the one that’s specially constructed at our center.”

The longer the crisis persists, Barlak said, the harder it will be for the dogs to get back on track. For now, she said, “I think our dogs are going to be able to catch up quite easily. If we’re all still sitting here a year from now? Then, I would be concerned.”

Teal Morris, a family caseworker for the Indiana Department of Child Services, is waiting out the worry with her golden retriever-Lab mix, Phil. She got him through Canine Companions in 2011 to help with her lifelong spina bifida. Phil picks up things she drops, and she uses his leash to maintain balance if she stumbles or trips.

But Phil is 11 and due to retire. Morris was supposed to meet his replacement in May. Now, the earliest possibility is August.
“There’s just so many unknown factors,” Morris says. “I’m trying to take it one day at a time. I have a little girl who is 2½, and with her, things are changing every day about regulations and schools being opened and closed.”

Caron, in Vermont with his guide dog Ryan, also is waiting out the crisis as his wife picks up extra 12-hour shifts. She’s an emergency-room nurse treating coronavirus patients.

“I know that Guiding Eyes is trying really hard to keep everything flowing. When they know what the virus is going to let us do, they’ll get back to me,” Caron added. “I don’t even know which dog would have been mine, but in my heart, I’m picturing this dog just waiting.”

For now, he’s focusing on Ryan. “I still have to go to Tractor Supply to get dog food. I still have to do things,” Caron said. “Right now, I need him to stay healthy so we can go for walks and stay connected to the world.”

Every year I would get a flu shot and every year I would get the flu. They would say “Oh, our vaccine this year does not cover that strain.”  The last two years I have not had a shot and I have not gotten the flu.
Go figure!
Al

The last time I got a flu shot was 23 years ago, and that was the last time I got the flu.  I credit the Voodoo doll that hangs over the front door...  The garlic and single malts are for insurance. 

I'll wait and see what the Dr says once a Covid 19 vaccine is tested and released.   

https://www.yahoo.com/news/why-avoid-cough-syrups-think-031441686.html

I understand they really have not been able to test this theory extensively, but something to think about if you start coughing.

Had a doctors appointment Friday. Now I live in a rural area, the office I see has maybe 4 doctors and a pa or 2. So they see a lot of people, it is hard to get an appointment and many of the doctors are not taking new patients. I asked mine how things were gong with the sickness. He said they have not had 1 case out of those tested and where he thought they would see positives were with the antibody tests, as they have had people come in and say I had that is Jan. or Feb. but not 1 positive antibody test came back either.

I carried my mask in my pocket, the staff only had theirs up when they were actually dealing with a person.

Went to the hospital for some tests this morning and you have to find the right door to get in the place as most are locked, Masks were mandatory but again the staff only had theirs in use when they were actually dealing with someone, the lady that registered me had hers just below her nose, I saw many staff people with theirs half off or in their hand.

We are to be Green for go here come Friday restaurants are to be 50% capacity, one of the ones we go to often posted. Per our governor masks must be worn anytime you are not seated at your table. I was kind of upset about that as my mask wearing is to protect the people in the building, but who is protecting me when I walk past unmasked people at a table?

Went to vote today, out of maybe 12 people only 1 had a mask, the people working there didn't have any on, and they didn't seem to care if you id or did not.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/evidence-suggests-covid-19-may-195153450.html

Don't know how they will have a vaccine in 6+ months if they don't even know what this virus is yet.

The only good news I read recently, if it is true, is that it appears the strength of the virus is weakening.  Cross your fingers, and maybe it will disappear on its own.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/evidence-suggests-covid-19-may-195153450.html

Don't know how they will have a vaccine in 6+ months if they don't even know what this virus is yet.

The only good news I read recently, if it is true, is that it appears the strength of the virus is weakening.  Cross your fingers, and maybe it will disappear on its own.

I thought I read a while back that it does not do well in warm/hot temps, which is why it seems to thrive in the nasal passages as the air is cooler than the body temp.