# Super Flu Shot for Presidents **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 9, 2011, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-flu-shot-for-presidents/595760 "2011-09-09T22:00:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-flu-shot-for-presidents/595760/21 "2011-09-10T19:12:12Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > Influenza kills geezers and babies, and people with otherwise compromised immune systems. Deaths from flu are extremely rare among healthy adults, even during pandemics like the 1918 flu. > > There’s no particular reason for a president to avoid getting a flu shot, but _not_ getting one is hardly a risk to national security. That’s not true (about the 1918 flu, I mean). It preferentially killed young healthy adults, apparently because of an overreactive immune response. For ordinary flu it is true, though. I am a flaming liberal, but I approve of Bush’s gesture. It was a serious way of suggesting that healthy adults should not use up the flu shots that could be used for the very young or very old. And let’s face it, could he have done a worse job had he been out of action for a few days (or even a few years)? ---
**Author:** ![WILDJC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cdc98d/32.png) [@WILDJC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WILDJC)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-flu-shot-for-presidents/595760/22 "2011-09-10T19:42:35Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I’ve never had a flu shot and only had the flu once (maybe twice) in my life. > > Also, why do you think you would know it if the president had the flu? It knocks you out for, what, a couple of days. You don’t think he could lay low for a few days and suck it up for an hour here or there if he had to be in the public eye? The flu usually knocks you out for a week or more. Since I don’t recall any President ever getting the flu or some other virus that the general population usually get, I suspect that the President has access to a super vaccine that the public will never know about. ---
**Author:** ![Knocean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8edcca/32.png) [@Knocean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knocean)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-flu-shot-for-presidents/595760/23 "2011-09-10T19:47:45Z")
Ha ha ha ha – classic! ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-flu-shot-for-presidents/595760/24 "2011-09-10T20:40:21Z")
> [@WILDJC](#): > > The flu usually knocks you out for a week or more. Since I don’t recall any President ever getting the flu or some other virus that the general population usually get, I suspect that the President has access to a super vaccine that the public will never know about. Yes, you’ve said this twice now. If the President got the flu, you would never know about it. Do you have any evidence whatsoever that this “super vaccine” even exists, or that the Prez is a recipient? ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-flu-shot-for-presidents/595760/25 "2011-09-10T21:03:33Z")
> [@WILDJC](#): > > The flu usually knocks you out for a week or more. I think I’ve had the flu a few times. It’s never knocked me out for more than three days. Even then, I would have been, at my worst, capable of talking and listening and making reasonably lucid phone calls from my bed or an armchair. Flu also responds quite well to simple treatment. Generally aspirin alone diminishes my symptoms by over half. I’ll still be tired and achy, but those are not incapacitating. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-flu-shot-for-presidents/595760/26 "2011-09-10T21:22:29Z")
President Ford got the 1976 swine flu vaccine, which actually caused more problems than it prevented. But then I was an assembly worker for a Fortune 500 company at the time and they offered it us free at work (I took it and survived).[1976 swine flu outbreak - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_swine_flu) You have to figure these guys have the best medical care available and handlers who worry over everything they do. ---
**Author:** ![WILDJC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cdc98d/32.png) [@WILDJC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WILDJC)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-flu-shot-for-presidents/595760/27 "2011-09-11T00:05:38Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Yes, you’ve said this twice now. If the President got the flu, you would never know about it. Do you have any evidence whatsoever that this “super vaccine” even exists, or that the Prez is a recipient? I’m Italian. I always repeat myself. Know what I mean? Know what I mean? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-flu-shot-for-presidents/595760.md?page=1)