Vaccination Nation

Alright, is anyone else thinking what I am?

What's the big deal with the flu? I totally get it for the elderly and those with weakened immune systems and all that. But then I read Josh Marshall, and he's all "The President MUST get a flu shot!" which to me, is akin to "The President MUST look both ways and eat his broccoli" insofar as both are good, healthy things to do, but if you skip 'em, well: eh. We're not talking Bubonic Plague here, right?

I know people used to drop dead from it back in the day, but that was when it was called influenza, which is much more dire-sounding. Plus people had chamber pots and no Kleenex and probably didn't wash their hands after using the chamber pot. Now it has a nickname, just "flu," and it really sucks when you get it, but this mass panic? I don't know, I'm surely missing something, but it smacks of beanie babies to me. I never had a flu shot before in my life, but now that I can't have one, I sorta want one.

Really, though. Flu? The Silent Killer? The Masque of the Red Death? Am I just in the dark on this one?