But have you actually had the flu? I ask, because most people say “oh, I had the flu” when in actuality they just had a common cold.

The flu, the real flu, knocks you on the ass so hard that you actively start considering that death is a possibility and that heading over to the hospital would be a good idea.

I’ve had the flu perhaps twice. Once as a child, once in my early 50s. The latter completely recalibrated my understanding of illness.