Flu season is here.  Yes, I know it seems like we just declared flu season over, but flu season is pretty much year-round.  Only the kind of flu changes from swine to normal to something entirely new.  Still, there’s something to be said for knowing your risk of flu and adapting accordingly by getting a flu shot (or not).  If you’re a social butterfly, you’d best get a flu vaccination (or a flu patch) because the more popular you are, the more likely you are to get the flu according to a recent study conducted by two students at UCSD and Harvard.

“Our method goes and picks people at random and then we ask them who their friends are and then we study the friends,” said study co-author James Fowler of the University of California San Diego.  “We studied the H1N1 pandemic last fall in a small group of students (at Harvard, school of fellow author Nicholas Christakis).  This friend group — they got the flu about two weeks earlier than the other groups.”

The goal is to work closely with Google Flu Tracker and various other health organizations to determine how the flu spreads from group to group in an effort to help isolate the strain and more effectively combat against it.  So, Johnny Popularity, I suggest you invest in an awesome flu mask for your own protection.

Tags: flu season, the flu, popularity and the flu, more popular people get the flu first, James Fowler, University of California-San Diego, Nicholas Christakis, Harvard University, friendship paradox, flu trends,  unusual health news

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