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She probably was not vaccinated.

Any viral infection increases the odds of catching a bacterial infection. Sepsis is a bacterial infection of the blood. Many people who die of influenza actually die of the bacterial infection they caught as a result of having influenza.

Influenza vaccines are usually around 60% effective, primarily because there are many different kinds of influenza but the vaccine only targets four of them. Plus, influenza viruses mutate so rapidly that a new one can appear between the time the annual vaccine formulation was decided and influenza season actually starts. Still, even if a vaccinated person goes on to catch a strain of influenza that wasn’t included in the vaccine, antibody cross-reactivity can be enough to protect them from serious disease and complications.

I’ve been getting influenza vaccines annually for decades and have never had influenza. So, for me, the vaccines and being careful about avoiding exposure to disease has worked well. People who have had influenza tell me that it is a miserable experience. That woman’s experience was significantly more miserable than most.

People who have had influenza tell me that it is a miserable experience.

It is. I contracted the “Russian Flu” in HS in 1978. I was one of the first to go to the nurse’s office and sent home, but many dozens followed me that day and the next day even more. Half the school was out sick with it and by the time I went back to school a week later, nearly all the other half the other students were out sick with it. Interestingly much like the related H1N1 “Spanish Flu” but thankfully not nearly as serious, it mostly effected younger people so most of our teachers didn’t get it but enough students and teachers were out sick that when I went back, they consolidated classrooms as some had only a few kids and some only a few kids and no teacher.

All I remember was the high fever, body aches, extreme headache and light sensitivity and fatigue. The nurse reluctantly let me go home on an MTA bus as this was before cell phones and my dad worked construction and was unreachable and my mother didn’t drive, and she couldn’t reach anyone else to come pick me up.

I barely remembered the walk from the bus stop to our apartment, dozens of blocks away. My mother told me I came into the apartment, took off my coat and dropped it and my bookbag just inside the front door and staggered to my bedroom and climbed into bed still clothed and with my shoes still on. She got me into PJ’s took my temp which was IIRC 103, and put cold wash cloths on my head and gave me ice water to drink.

The next time I had the flu was in the early 2000’s. It hit me like a ton of bricks, I felt a bit tired that morning when I got up at 6:00AM but by 10:00AM I was really sick and sent home from work, and I had all the flu symptoms and then some including vomiting and diarrhea the first day (unusual in adults with influenza) along with a sore throat as if I’d gargled razor blades, a deep cough, high fever, body aches as if someone had taken a hammer to all my joints and rubbed my skin raw and I swear that it felt like even my hair hurt. I was so fatigued for the next week that it was a struggled to get up out of bed even to go to the bathroom. I was so sick by the 2nd day, my husband wanted to take me to the ER but I didn’t want to go.

I started getting the annual flu shot after that. Except for the last time I got the flu in 2012 when I didn’t get one. My company provided free flu shots to every employee, but the provider underestimated the demand. I had a co-worker who worked PT and didn’t have insurance but could still get the flu shot for free through our employer. I had insurance so I could get the flu shot anywhere as it was 100% covered. So, when I learned they were close to running out, I gave her my spot, thinking I’d get the shot later, but didn’t.

And guess who got the flu during Christmas and missed out on all the family gatherings? Not the one who got the flu shot.