Does Anyone Remember Media Coverage of Influenza in the 80'S or 90'S?

I was a teen in the 80s and began my career in the 90s. I always knew the flu was serious, but don't remember hearing about the vaccinations until the 90s. I was young and healthy and didn't take things as seriously as I should. In my first job out of college, my boss rushed me to the ER with the flu when I tried to work (had an office and thought I could keep to myself) and ended up struggling to breathe.

The flu is NO joke. It's not the same as a cold. That case of flu had me moving out of my apartment and back to live with my parents for two weeks while I recovered. I could barely move. I can understand how people can die from the flu.

I have been vigilant about flu shots ever since and have always made my kids get vaccinated.

I remember my mother having to take me to the hospital in 1980, right after Christmas. My temp was over 104. I had been drinking water all day and had NO pee. None. They cath'd me in the ER and there was nothing in my bladder. The doctors decided that my fever had used up every bit of fluid in my body that would have gone to my bladder. They had me on IV fluids for a while, but sent me home because there were so many other people with the flu admitted in the hospital because they were so much sicker than me. Plus, the more people in the hospital with flu, the more chance of spreading flu.

You might wonder why they'd keep people in the hospital when they "just" have the flu. Secondary infections hit HARD. Pneumonia being a big one. Dehydration can hurt your heart. If you're too sick or lethargic to get enough fluid in you, and like me with a really high fever, it doesn't take much to deck you. If I had gone to the hospital like that earlier in the season, they would have kept me.

When you see someone as sick as people CAN get with flu, or you are as sick as some people get with flu (like I was), then you actually gain a RESPECT for what the flu can do. A healthy dose of fear IS respect.

In the 80s and 90s, I was a relative youngster and didn't watch the news all that much. But as I grew older, I learned that in 1918 an influenza pandemic killed ten times more American people than were killed in WW1, and that flu was more deadly for people 20-40 years of age than other groups. (Did a little fact-checking there.) One-fifth of the world's population was affected, 28% here in the US. Those are the kinds of stories that make you take notice.

I started paying attention to flu shots about 10 or so years ago, and have chosen to be vaccinated. I've worked with kids for a number of years and I love them, but they have made me very, very sick. I didn't want to be bedridden for two weeks and couldn't miss that much work (families relied on me). Since then, I've gotten the flu shot every year for the sake of my own health and that of my young charges/ family. And have had NO ill effects from the vaccines.

My Mom was hospitalized with the flu when I was a child. She almost died. This was in the 60's. I get the flu shot and do my best to stay healthy, so not concerned, just aware.

People have always died from the flu. So I guess I have been "concerned" my whole life. Not that I obsess about it, but it's always a possibility.
I guess your mom didn't pay much attention to her history/science classes in school. I never needed the media to tell me how deadly it could be, I learned that in ninth grade biology class.

My parents weren't really vaccinaters except with the few that were required for me to attend school. There weren't any flu vaccines that I recall then that were being recommended. If there were, I would have begged for them.

I had the flu every year. Every. Single. Fecking. Year. Some years I got lucky and got it twice starting in high school and college. Fabulous, eh?

Then when I got married my doctor started telling me there was a flu vaccine I was like, NO FECKING WAY! AWESOME! so I accepted when my doctor offered and suddenly I stopped getting the fecking flu. The years I haven't gotten the flu vaccine, I've gotten the fecking flu.

My parents did always take the flu seriously. They knew how dangerous it was. When they got the flu, it was terrible and I'd have to help care for them. My grandparents would get it and I remember them getting hospitalized... and they were young grandparents. Healthy. I always had a healthy respect for the flu.

When I was in school, we had periods every year where at least half the school at a time was out with the flu. They ended up scheduling Winter break around it each year when they figured out how to anticipate it.

If you go back in history, there were many flu epidemics that killed hundreds if not thousands of people. Entire towns would be quarantined. Until flu vaccines were developed there really wasn't much that you could do to avoid the flu. I had the flu back in the 90s and was so miserable! I never want to experience that again or see my kids go through it. Even if it weren't life threatening. Even if you are a healthy person with no other health issues it can still be life threatening. Heard a story this year of a 9 year old girl who was extremely healthy. She developed the flu and did die. Personally, I think the vaccine is a good thing.

i started getting concerned after I had kids. we have gotten the flu shot almost every year, and gotten the flu a few times even though vaccinated. but it was much milder than it would have been had we not gotten vaccinated.

I became concerned when I got it - it was 1986 - it felt like being run over by a truck and I was exhausted for weeks afterward.
I've had a flu shot every year after that - often my employer provided them at no charge.
If there's anything that might help me not go through that again - I'm for it!

Different strains of flu affect different age groups.
The Spanish flu of 1918 hit mostly young adults - soldiers and parents - which was why it created so many orphans.
My great grandmother died leaving 6 kids ranging in age from 18 months old to 12 yrs old (my grandmother was the oldest) (their coal miner father couldn't work and raise the kids at the same time) who were adopted out all over Pennsylvania and New York.

I wos probably agree with that. I'm an 70's/80's kid and I don't remember getting flu shots or even hearing much about it.
I do remember my dad and mom getting the Hong Kong flu (seperately ) in 68-69.
I don't remember them being hospitalized....

I'm not afraid of influenza, but I am aware that it causes approximately 50,000 deaths each year in the US and about 500,000 worldwide.

I believe people in the higher risk groups should protect themselves and those around them by getting vaccinated.

I have never been concerned about getting influenza. And I don't vaccinate against it.

I'm in my 60's. I became aware of how deadly this illness can be nearly 30 years ago, when my grandmother died from the flu, which quickly morphed into pneumonia and organ failure. She was kept alive in intensive care for 9 days of pure hell before family could let her go. The same year I heard of deaths of several more family members of friends.

Before then, I had heard of the vaccine, but while it had been used with select groups (such as our armed forces) since the mid-1940's, it wasn't widely available. Production gradually ramped up to meet rising demand, and the vaccine was finally available almost everywhere by the 1990's. Because there was so much invested in all that product, promotion also became important to sustain the effort, so the campaigns have gradually increased, as well.

I don't think it's 'scare tactics ' to let people know the flu is potentially very dangerous. People die every year from influenza, and this year's H1N1 outbreak has been hospitalizing and killing more, in younger age ranges, than usual (as was true in 2009). My daughter just learned that a young, healthy father in her social circle died in a couple of days from this disease. The shock is bottomless.

In my experience, the vaccine was still locally unavailable twice since the 90's, and I got the flu both years. Both times, it settled in my lungs for month's-long bouts of bronchitis that cracked ribs and tore a hernia into my belly. The fever and illness itself was more than bad enough; days of I-wish-I-could-die aching, fever, and congestion. I have never had the flu in years I got vaccinated, though I understand it is still possible to get a milder case of it.

Recent research shows that some people are naturally more resistant to the flu virus, and probably would not get it even if not vaccinated. I'm hoping someday there will be an easy, inexpensive test to find out who doesn't need the vaccine.

It seems to me that in the 80's and 90's the strains of the flu were more dangerous to the elderly and people with health conditions, whereas the strains we have today are affecting more young healthy people.

I came of age in the 80's and I don't remember it in the 70's and 80's at all - and my parents were major news watchers (and are to this day extremely PRO vaccine).

Flu "news" - otherwise known as "hype."

Ugh.