February 11, 2005

What the Walgreens Pharmacist Told Me About the Flu

The best thing about Walgreens is the drive-through pharmacy. No wait, the best thing about Walgreens is that you can order refills online and they email you when they're done. No wait. The best thing about Walgreens is what the pharmacist told me last night.

You see, this mighty illness is rampant around these parts, and from what I'm reading, much of 'Merika. The thing about this illness--which has passed through, and is still passing through, our house--is that it doesn't really want to go away. It's an upper respiratory thing that hits fast and stays longtime. Our friends have it. Some of the cast members of Ain't Misbehaving (Hi George! Blog, wouldya?) are suffering from it.

George finally got it, after two runs of antibiotics and steroids for me, and he has not been able to shake it. As is part and parcel of this little bug, it turns into a bacterial infection after it hangs around for what seems like a year.

So, I'm picking up his medicine at Walgreens and I ask the pharmacist, "Hey, is this thing the flu gone wrong or what?"

She tells me that they are nearly out of cold and flu medicine at their store, and that they're running low on certain prescribed medicines too. She tells me that they've been talking about it (I guess she means some informal network of pharmasists) trying to figure out what the deal is.

Then she said they have a theory. Remember when 'Merika ran out of the initial supply of (killed) flu vaccine? Well, there was a lapse, a panic if you will, in usable vaccine, until finally--late in the season as far as flu goes--more vaccine arrived. (I believe that was right after the contaminated batch from the UK was turned down.)

Well, turns out that those folks who had been waiting to get their pokes rushed to get their flu shots. Thing is, according to my new pharmacist friend, the second round of vaccine that arrived was the live (not the usual killed) vaccine. So "their" theory is that the folks who got the live vaccine late in the season are in essence giving the flu to the non-vaccinated. That's the oddity of the way it's spreading.

Anyway, you know as a serious Journalist, I've checked all of my sources and stopped by the CDC in Atlanta yesterday to check this theory out.

NOT! But you did hear it here first.

Stay well.