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Article snippet: It’s inevitable. We’ll wake up this winter with a sore throat, knowing we’ll soon be going through a box of tissues an hour and unable to taste that comforting dark chocolate mousse or the ill-advised ghost pepper enchiladas we ordered in vain, hoping to ignite a single taste bud. Cold and flu season spares few between now and spring. “There are usually about 50 flulike illnesses that circulate during flu season that can make you feel pretty miserable, but they’re not all the flu,” said Melody Butler, R.N., B.S.N., executive director of Nurses Who Vaccinate and an infection preventionist at Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip, New York. The best most can hope for is getting a brief cold instead of a more serious infection like the flu, an underappreciated danger that kills thousands each year. Now is the time to prepare. Take steps to reduce your and your family’s risk of sickness and assemble a flu and cold “survival kit” for when viruses come knocking. The first tip is a no-brainer: get the flu vaccine, said Dr. Julie Brandies, a physician at Advocate South Suburban Hospital in the greater Chicago metropolitan area. There’s virtually no reason to not get one. “It’s not perfect, but it’s a lot better than getting the flu,” Dr. Brandies said. Flu vaccine effectiveness varies season to season, from 10 percent to 60 percent over the past decade, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But it’s beneficial even without completely... Link to the full article to read more