Once upon a time, influenza used to be closely synonymous with death. In fact, in 1918, the Spanish influenza, a particularly nasty strain of the H1N1 virus, infected about one-third of the global population at the time and led to the deaths of 20-40 million people worldwide. It is widely regarded as one of the most lethal epidemics in human history–in just one year, the average American lifespan dropped by twelve years.

Since that horrific episode, the flu has come to represent more of an annoyance than a death threat. While vaccinations are widely available and highly encouraged, many people don’t even bother to get vaccinated, so nonchalant is the American perception of this once terrifying disease.

In the past couple of months, however, the flu has wreaked havoc on the United States, with all states except Hawaii reporting outbreaks and 21 states have reported an unusually high number of cases. Infants, toddlers, and the elderly are among the hardest hit, as they always are, but several adults have been admitted to hospitals presenting severe symptoms. As debilitating as the flu has been, though, there are still those who refuse to take care of themselves.

It should be a simple, logical progression of thoughts. You realize that you aren’t feeling well, so you take some time off, perhaps call it a day a little sooner than you usually do. You go home, make yourself some soup, and then go to bed. Rest is the best medicine, after all. But when you wake up the next morning, you feel even worse. Your joints ache, your throat is burning, and you can actually feel the throbbing in your sinuses (if your sinuses are working correctly, you’re not supposed to feel them). As icing on the cake, you have a fever. Fantastic.

In the best case scenario, you would get yourself to a doctor as soon as humanly possible. Unfortunately, this is not always an option for many people, so the second best thing to do is to take the day off and take care of yourself. Drink fluids, take catnaps during the day, and consume more tomato soup than you have since you were a child. This is what you do when you are ill–you could go so far as to call it the standard procedure.

Funnily enough, though, some people seem to have missed the memo, because instead of taking some time off to rest and recover from the flu, these people just jump right back into the swing of things. We’ve all seen these people: kids who come to school with their noses bright red, eyes bleary, barely any life in their limbs, the sole fire of GPA keeping them afloat in the frigid sea of misery they’ve decided to drown themselves in.

Go! HOME!

If you’re not going to do it for yourself, do it for literally everyone else to whom you’re going to gift the flu. And listen, I understand the plethora of makeup work you will have to do when you eventually return to school. I, myself, have been absent for three days now and I already have a major project and three tests to make up. Obviously, I would rather not have to put in even more time to make up this work, but I know that I will be able to give a better performance when I am not feverish and in pain. Missing a couple of days to give your body a break is not a bad thing, and you aren’t slacking off. So do yourself a favor, do everyone a favor and STAY HOME!

And get well soon!