Comtrary to the norm for me, i scarcely noticed he shot, and my arm was sore for less than 24 hours. Small price to pay for a good chance at avoiding a miserable bug.

...which used to be the belief.

Flu season occurs during the colder, drier months, when people spend more time indoors.

No, they don't have Thanksgiving in May in Argentina as the austral winter approaches. Ditto Australia.

They don't have a Thanksgiving in November in Canada either, and it's not as if they are catching the flu from Americans traveling for that holiday. The notion that flu season, which is a hemispheric phenomenon, has some connection to a uniquely US holiday is absurd. Are Americans also traveling to Europe for Thanksgiving?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flu_season

Flu season is an annually recurring time period characterized by the prevalence of outbreaks of influenza (flu). The season occurs during the cold half of the year in each hemisphere.

...
In the United States, the flu season is considered October through May. It usually peaks in February. In Australia, the flu season is considered May to October. It usually peaks in August.

It’s not caused by the cold weather. It’s because people are more likely to aggregate indoors when the weather is cold.

You’re basically agreeing with the original post.

Please do not put words in my mouth. The article to which I linked states that it occurs during the cold weather months.

Flu season is not caused by Thanksgiving travel. It occurs in Canada, Europe and other regions of the northern hemisphere which do not observe a particular US holiday. Likewise it occurs in South America and Australia during their corresponding cooler months having nothing to do with a particular US holiday.

The flu virus does not propagate well in warm temperatures:

Research in guinea pigs has shown that the aerosol transmission of the virus is enhanced when the air is cold and dry. The dependence on aridity appears to be due to degradation of the virus particles in moist air, while the dependence on cold appears to be due to infected hosts shedding the virus for a longer period of time. The researchers did not find that the cold impaired the immune response of the guinea pigs to the virus.

Research done by National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) in 2008 found that the influenza virus has a "butter-like coating". The coating melts when it enters the respiratory tract. In the winter, the coating becomes a hardened shell; therefore, it can survive in the cold weather similar to a spore. In the summer, the coating melts before the virus reaches the respiratory tract.

Also dry conditions create vulnerabilities in the human respiratory tract.

I wonder if cold viruses are similar? Flu isn't the only virus the impacts us in the winter.

once since I retired and then it hit me.
I am no longer exposed to so many people in confined spaces. Contagious students pass on lots of colds and flu. We're talking four years without a cold or flu.

you'll be exposed to the virus, I'd think.

The weather in winter is cold and dry. Your mucous membranes in nose and throat dry out and have a harder time keeping viruses out. The odds of infection increase.

born in the summer months . . .

There's a rhyme about that.

My parents know the date I was conceived. My father was about to be shipped out to Europe, during WWII. My mother took a train to the base where he would be shipped out from, and they had one night together before he left. That night was October 31, 1944. I was born on July 29 the next year. They always called me their Halloween baby.

You get less by natural sunlight in the cooler months because you are wearing more clothes and indoors more.

So remember to take your RDA of D3.

I get a lot during summer because I love to lay out on the beach with medium level sunblock but low enough to get some color.

In winter, I dress in my furs. ha.

So I take more Vit D.

during the time most kids go back to school. I have always figured that all of those kids were once again stuffed into a building together and exposing each other to what ever they may be carrying.

All of that sudden close contact has to account for something.

I have also noticed it hits harder with kids in grade school up into into about 7th and 8th. I think that's because the younger kids are still not as good at washing their hands.

I guess as someone who has worked in public schools as a custodian that is what I observed every year.

All increased social activity. More people inside together.

Those vectors then travel to and from other flu clusters. One should see this confirmed in northern versus southern hemisphere comparisons.