Klarinet Archive - Posting 000988.txt from 1998/05

From: "Steven Goldman" <GPSC@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: [kl] biology of colds and flu (was reeds and sickness)
Date: Sun, 17 May 1998 16:46:11 -0400

Have to correct you here. During the flu season (end about march) a finite
number of strains pass through an area, but there can be well over twenty
strains. Immunity to one does not give immunity to another (although it may
make it milder. That's why you can still get the flu when you've been
immunized (only the three worst strains are in the shot). Also your only
half right when you say a virus doesn't die. The fact is it was never alive.
It's just a piece of genetic material coated in a protein waiting to get
into something that is alive so it can reproduce. Add to that the fact that
there are different families of virulent viri (and bacteria) all year long.

If you want to be safe there is only one way - don't play someone else's
setup. Remember, germs are an the whole instrument (keys etc...) and you can
get infected by touching it and simply rubbing your eye.
-----Original Message-----
From: James Rosen <mgervick@-----.edu>
Date: Sunday, May 17, 1998 1353
Subject: [kl] biology of colds and flu (was reeds and sickness)

> Having just completed a course in AP biology, I consider myself somewhat
of
>an expert on these topics.
>Flu - strains don't vary much within the same season. Thus since you've
>fought the thing off once, you'll have no trouble doing it again. HOWEVER,
>the virus is not dead. Viri crystallize when out of a host. Here, they
>simply will not reproduce, but they DON'T DIE. So if someone else picks up
>this reed, they can be infected (unless they've already faught off a
similar
>one).
>

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