Grab-bag

According to the Raindrop website, Eaton County got between 0.6" and 1.2" of rain last night.

I am off-the-hook for carrying trees until September 11. That will probably be the last time I water as I let the trees harden-off. I may even pinch-out the growing tips because they act as carbohydrate sinks. Removing them will make more carbs available for the roots and trunk to harden-off.

Sick kids

School started back up a week or two ago, depending on which school district you look at. All of the Petri dishes were dumped in a blender and then sent back home. They mix with their parents and the parents take the plague to work and mingle with their coworkers.

Kubota is sick. Handsome Hombre is sick. Southern Belle is sick. Quicksilver is sick.

Seasonal flu vaccine

I skipped the seasonal flu vaccine last year because research since the mid 20-teens shows that multiple vaccinations for the same strain reduces our body's immune response to variations to the flu as it hyper-focuses on the exact strain that was in the shot.

And, as luck would have it, the CDC/WHO typically recommends the same strains for vaccinations for three years in a row. 

It turns out that two of the three strains in the "Mammalian Cell Culture" vaccines are different strains than the "Egg Culture" strains.

2025/26 Cell Culture

• an A/Wisconsin/67/2022 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus;
• an A/District of Columbia/27/2023 (H3N2)-like virus; and (Updated)
• a B/Austria/1359417/2021 (B/Victoria lineage)-like virus

2025/26 Egg Culture

• an A/Victoria/4897/2022 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus;
• an A/Croatia/10136RV/2023 (H3N2)-like virus; and (Updated)
• a B/Austria/1359417/2021 (B/Victoria lineage)-like virus

I know that many of my readers don't get seasonal flu vaccinations for various reasons, but if you are one of the ones who does, alternating "Egg-based" and "Cell-based" vaccines will give you a wider range of coverage and reduce the risk of "blunted hemagglutinin antibody response".

Antibody levels and speed-of-response

I think it is worth pointing out that the antibody level in our blood is only part of what needs to be considered when thinking about resistance to disease. Our lymph nodes retain cells that produced disease-specific antibodies. The cells might be dormant but they are there, waiting to be reactivated. When our bodies are challenged again, they spring into action much like industries that were idled during the Great Depression sprang into production during WWII.

The size of our exposure is a critical factor. Did somebody sneeze in our face or did we walk 40 yards downwind of that sneeze? Lower exposures are a signal to our lymph nodes to reactivate those dormant cells and our body can stay ahead of the disease pressure. The very highest exposures overwhelm the reactivation process and that is when having a high level of specific antibodies is important.