One thing that stands out this season is the severity of the Flu and Influenza virus - and honestly, people don't take it seriously enough - and for some - it turns out to be fatal.  But it's not the first time and I've heard of at least 3 cases in the last month that are related to The Flu - which is pretty bad this year.

In Russell Shaw R.I.P. here's the latest case - just read it - what Russell Shaw ultimately died of - the autopsy will reveal - but just hear me out:

 "…Russell passed away suddenly in his hotel room in San Jose Thursday night or early Friday morning. According to his girlfriend whom I spoke with after being advised of Russell's unexpected death by CNET Editor in Chief, Dan Farber just moments ago.

Russell was best known for his BlackBerry blog that he was often the most proud of and his work with ZD Net where he blogged on all things Telecom.

According to Ellen, Russell had been suffering a very bad cold for a few days and been traveling across the USA. She spoke to him the night before and they were discussing how he could return back to Portland. He was found by the hotel housekeeper when he didn't answer his door after check out time on Friday, having traveled to Silcon Valley to attend eComm.

I never read Russell Shaw's writings - at least, not knowingly - but his death rings a bell - that blogging should not over consume your activities to the point of death - that as we get older - we have less ability to handle something like The Flu -and this Flu was really, really bad - if you had health problems anyway - and you cought it, it could kill you - and has killed a few people I know recently.  I don't mean to be alarmist - but Russell Shaw's death seems to me to have been preventable - if was not traveling and had good medical care - he'd probably still be here.

In Fact, in just about every case - the people I'm talking about here didn't even see a doctor - and this is one time they should have.

I'm not saying that consulting a physician woud have solved anything for sure - but it probably would have prevented the deaths that I'm writing about today AND made recovery for those I know who got sick a little easier and smoother.

In Baird Jones dead at 53 we have a similar case, someone who probably wasn't in the best of health to begin with - someone who I occasionally met and was actually a guest at my wedding back in 1991 - someone who I've known for 20 years, when I last saw him, several months ago, looked pasty and not nearly as well - clearly he looked less well than when I knew him better - still - I considered him a friend of sorts - just one I rearely saw.

But read this:

A sad day in New York - Gossip guru Baird Jones dead at 53.

“..A friend of his told the Daily News that Jones, the son of People magazine co-founder Cranston Jones, recently complained about being “sick as a dog.”

 

Again, I don't know what Baird Jones had - along with The Flu - but if you get this Flu - you know it - your really, really sick - and from the 5 or 6 people who are friends of mine who got it this year - they were as sick as a dog - sicker and for a few weeks.

You don't want to travel - or do anything when your that sick - this Flu can kill you - which is why I went out of my way to avoid catching it - along with getting my Flu shot early this year (in December -before going to LeWeb3) - when I got the Flu shot - I had no idea the Flu would be as bad as it was this  year - my doctor simply offered it to me and I took it.

And the Flu Shot was only 40% effective in protecting you - my doctor told me recently.  But 40% is better than nothing.

Among the friends of mine who caught the Flu this year and got hit really, really hard by it were Carlos Hoyos and his wife (Carlos was a former coworker who is still working for IBM) - he was slated to speak at SocialNetworkingConference in Miami on February 1st - and did - but he was as sick as a dog, and his wife was even sicker.  They're OK now.,

Another friend, Liz, was so sick who could literally not breathe - and this went on for about 10 days - and yet another good friend, Sebastian Wenzel - who's a bit younger than me, was thrown off his feet for over a week with what he called "The New York Flu" about a month ago.

"… Sorry for not posting for the past days, but I did some A/B testing with the famous New York flu, that everybody is talking about.  And being almost finished with the flu before it finished me (results are worse than I ever could have imagined)  it’s time to optimize the Google Analytics campaigns. Here a quick post about the Google Analytics free training session:"

All I want to say here - since this is my most widely read blog - is that if you get this Flu - don't travel - don't think you can automatically beat it - it's costing people their lives - and if you don't believe me read about Russell Shaw and Baird Jones - but I bet if you dig around, you'll find a lot more cases of people who got really, really sick lately and some who didn't recover.

The Flu, especially this year, is nothing to fool around with - its deadly serious.