Flu Season: Here's some good advice on beating influenza. In a related vein, our office got the first installment of our influenza vaccine shipment two weeks ago, and we started immunizing our patients at highest risk (the elderly, those with severe lung disease). Word has gotten out, though, and this past week we had several irate calls from younger, healthier people wondering why their neighbor or co-worker got the shot and they didn't. After spending several minutes on the phone calming down one woman, the receptionist in our office turned to me and said, "Can you imagine what it would be like if there were an outbreak of smallpox?" I've never mentioned the smallpox vaccine or bioterrorism to my staff before, but she's right. It would be chaos, and that's one more reason we should be offering the vaccine before an attack rather than after, or at least publicly debating the issue.