Study: Popular people get flu first

[HuckleB]

Source: CNN

As any teenager will tell you, being popular is totally awesome. But it has a downside: According to a new study, popular people tend to catch the flu first.

When the flu is going around, people at the center of social networks -- those who are named as a friend by others -- come down with the virus about two weeks earlier than a randomly selected group of people, the study found.

Monitoring the health of these socially connected people could serve as an early warning system for flu epidemics and outbreaks of other infectious diseases, the researchers say.

The study, which appears in the journal PLoS ONE, was based on a concept known as the "friendship paradox": When people are asked to name their friends, their friends tend to have more social contacts than they do.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/09/15/health.popular.people.flu/?hpt=Sbin

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It's a small study, and, well, who knows, but maybe popularity really isn't all it's cracked up to be.

:hi:

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

1. I very rarely get the flu

even little bugs ignore me.

Oh, the humanity!

:cry:

:hi:

[napi21]

2. Simply a logical conclusion. More contact with more people

means more contact with mosr germs.

[Ian David]

3. I used to get the flu twice a year, until I started getting vaccinated.

I'd get one in the Winter, and one in the Spring.

Maybe the prize for being Homecoming King and Queen should be a free vaccination?

[MineralMan]

4. I don't get the flu. Haven't for 20 years, since I started getting my

annual vaccination. Am I popular? Depends who you ask, I suppose.

[thereismore]

5. Would you rather get the flu now or later? A useless study IMO. nt

[SheilaT]

6. So THAT'S why I never get the flu.

And here I thought it was because I had such an awesome immune system. Sigh. Another delusion shattered.

For what it's worth I never get a flu shot. I really, really thought I had a decent number of friends. And I work in a hospital where I'm in contact with lots of people every day, including sick ones. But despite that I guess I'm not really popular, and people don't really like me and so they don't really come in contact with me and so I just don't get flu. Gosh, who could possibly argue with a study like this one.

[HuckleB]

8. Got Anecdote?

:hide:

[SheilaT]

11. What kind of anecdote do you want?

I have what I consider a good circle of friends. Not sure how "popular" I actually am. I can assure you that in high school I was not at all popular, alas, poor me. But I am going to a h.s. reunion next week. I do work in a hospital. I don't get flu. I don't get flu shots. I've been around others when they apparently have flu and haven't come down with it in probably thirty years.

I think I did get the Asian flu in 1957, but I couldn't swear to it. I know I had flu once or twice around that time, and then another mild case or two during the next ten years or so. But not since then.

[HuckleB]

13. Oh goodness.

Remember, the plural of anecdote is not data.

[SheilaT]

17. I still haven't a clue what

in the world you want.

[HuckleB]

19. That's funny.

[TEXASYANKEE]

18. I'm with ya.

I'm 50 years old and have only had the flu once in my life (I've never had a flu shot). However, I do catch every cold that comes near me. :-(

[powwowdancer]

7. Ah-Ha!

This is one of the many reasons I'm such a misanthropic @$$hole. Looks like we'll be duking it out with the meek for who's gonna inherit the earth... any bets?

[qb]

9. Study: Promiscuous people get VD first

:eyes:

[bikebloke]

10. I had the flu last in the mid-80's.

Afterwards, I stopped wearing a sack over my head. Been healthy ever since.

[LeftishBrit]

12. I suppose if you're popular, you're also popular with people who are coming down with the flu!

And all their lovely germs.

[tanyev]

14. Ha! Revenge of the introverts!

Introverts unite! Oh, wait...

[surrealAmerican]

15. The popular kids get it first ...

... and then everybody else just has to have it too.

[ClarkUSA]

16. Study: Agoraphobics never get skin cancer

:P