According to health officials, 38 people have been confirmed dead in North Texas from the flu, four are from Denton county. A large number of these recent deaths include young, healthy people.

However, even with the upcoming flu season, not everyone in the school is getting their flu shot.

“I think it’s dumb,” Junior Cara Shoemaker said. “They are putting the virus in my body. I will get the flu with or without it.”

Most people associate the flu shot with actually getting the virus because the flu shot is shooting the dead virus into a person’s blood flow so that the body can build up immunity to the unknown virus. It takes 10- 14 days for a person to develop the right amount of white blood cells to fight against the foreign antibody.

“The best thing to do is to get the flu shot,” School Nurse Marco Boyd said. “Getting sick from the flu shot is not supposed to be a possibility.”

The only way for a person to get sick with the flu shot is if they have been exposed to the virus before the body was able to produce the proper immune system strength.

The newest shot available covers two strands of type A and one of type B, committed to taking as much precaution against the virus as possible. The fact that the medical field offers such protective proactive care really increases the oddity of the recent deaths in North Texas.

“I would say it’s unusual to have healthy, young people [affected],” Boyd said.

In recent years, the handful of people were some of newborns, elderly or had underlying health problems such as Asthma.

On top of the North Texas deaths caused by the flu, the school had it’s own loss to it just a year ago. Max Schwolert, 17 at the time, passed away due to flu complications.

Students can wash their hands more, and be sure to have vitamin C to build up the immunity to the virus.

The influenza outbreak has caused multiple CVS pharmacies to run out of the Flu shot as well as Tamiflu, the only prescription recommended to take care of the flu virus. However, there are some pharmacies in the area that hold the vaccine.

“The best thing to do if you’re not going to get the shot is to take extra precaution,” Boyd said.

To see where the flu shot is available in your area, visit: http://flushot.healthmap.org/