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The Flu Shot


This morning's Burlington Free Press showed several pictures of hundreds of people who had lined up at Colchester High School on Saturday morning (some as early as 4:00 AM, one with seven week old baby tucked in a down jacket!!) to wait for the H1N1 flu vaccine. Yikes! It's one thing to line up in the wee hours outside of WalMart on Black Friday to score the latest "Tickle Me Elmo" or "wii" system (not something I would ever do, BTW), but this is flu vaccine. Have we not been hearing about the "swine flu" threat for at least the past three years? Fox News assures us that we, in the USA, have the best health care system in the entire world. So how is it that there is not enough vaccine by now? FOX, POX!

A couple of days ago, we went to the cemetery in Graniteville, Vt, to visit the grave of Mike's grandfather, who died in the 1919 flu pandemic. Harvey Hebert was 28 years old at the time of his death. A flu pandemic is not something we are really taking lightly, but shouldn't we also have the expectation that we, as a society, have progressed beyond the medical knowledge of the early twentieth century? Remember, experts were predicting this.

I have had the flu for sure three times in my life, and maybe a fourth time. It is not fun. Now, I am not in a "high risk" category so I will not have a flu shot this year, but one of the things I am doing is avoiding crowds (like in a four hour line for a flu shot) and using the disinfectant wipes at stores and other public places.

Since I have an herb garden, I use this recipe for disinfecting around the house--and its green:


VINEGAR OF THE FOUR THIEVES ( the story is that grave robbers rubbed this concoction on themselves in an effort to avoid illness)




2 quarts apple cider vinegar, handfuls of lavender, rosemary, sage, rue, and mint


Mix all in a large jar with a tight lid and let sit for four weeks or longer.


Strain herbs and pour liquid into spray bottle.

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Comments

  1. Arkansas PattiNovember 9, 2009 at 7:52 AM

    I have had the same thoughts about the lines to get shots being a great way to get the flu.
    I'm in the "you are on your own" age group also.
    People forget that 36,000 die each year from plain old flu. That stat surprised me.
    Don't have all the ingredients for your preventive spray. Sounds interestin.

    ReplyDelete

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