The information in the story stated it wasn’t the flu she died from, it was pneumonia. The last three or four paragraphs read like a CDC press release for flu shots.
I wish I'd seen this post before already posting the answer to this. I would have pinged both people who said this.
Influenza leaves people extremely susceptible to bacterial infections. She would not have gotten pneumonia if she had not had the flu.
Some pneumonia will take you down Fast!
1st day by ribs hurt and I kinda shrugged it off and tried to walk back in my mind what could be causing the ache
2nd day was like having a knife shoved in my ribcage and I could not breath or walk.
They put me on Anthrax level CIPRO that day.
It took 2 weeks to come out of it
Pmeumonia is a secondary result of infection by a virus (flu, in this case) or a bacteria, and can also be caused by damage from smoke or caustic substances. The lungs fill up with fluid, basically, and you die because you can’t breathe.
She had gotten the flu, in this case, and it was the cause of the pneumonia, so she actually died of the flu.
I’m not big on shots, but I did get a flu shot this year because it’s supposed to be a bad year for the flu. There are two vaccines this year: one protects against three strains, and the other protects against four strains. And then again, the flu that really hits may not be any of these strains.
However, a flu shot betters your odds - and you can usually get a flu shot for free or very little at your local CVS or even the Publix pharmacy, so it’s not a big effort to get that extra protection.
When people die from the flu, it is usually because they get secondary pneumonia due to the lung inflammation from the flu. In non-scientific language. IOW, if they didn’t get the flu, they would not have gotten pneumonia and died from it.