Before 2020, I hardly knew anyone who would have worried about flu and if you had a cold, it was no big deal. Since then, however, people are paying attention to the nature and severity of their symptoms and that alone is changing the view of being sick with a cold. But I would recommend going back even two steps and saying that viral illness (just like any illness), is always the organism's attempt to put something in order. You don't need to protect yourself from it, but when you get it, make use of the usual helpers. This includes rest, sleep, serenity, helping medicines where necessary and the confidence that the organism, which shows typical symptoms, is busy with its own healing.

If one realises that viruses have played the decisive role in the genetic evolution of life from the very beginning, then the fact that all organisms in the biosphere are more or less permeated by viruses is not surprising. Every millilitre of seawater contains 10 million viruses, with every lettuce leaf we take in an average of one billion viruses and even "clean" drinking water is teeming with these creatures. Viruses are the oldest constituents of life.

Probably the most revolutionary discovery of the 21st century is the realisation that large parts of our genome are made up of viruses. There is even much evidence to suggest that ultimately all our genes are derived from viruses. Viruses are the elementary particles of life, without them there would be no evolution and no biodiversity.
Let's ask ourselves: how many types of viruses are there anyway? Until 20 years ago, estimates were still based on 9,000 different virus species on earth, but today we have basically stopped counting; the virus species on our skin or even in the atmosphere alone far exceed our previous ideas, and the most surprising result of all these virome analyses is that over 90 per cent of the viruses found are completely new. By virome we mean the totality of all viruses that colonise humans and live in symbiosis with them. The virome is an integral part of the microbiome, which, as we know, fulfils a wealth of vital functions in the organism, which we will only outline here in brief.

• Development and regulation/stimulation of the immune system; one can consider the microbiome as the basis for the activity and vitality of the immune system.
• Support of digestion through the production of numerous enzymes;
• Production of vitamins; (B1, B2, B6, B12, K, nicotinic acid)
• Hormones; gut bacteria play a role in the synthesis, regulation, secretion and inhibition of numerous hormones.
• Neurotransmitters and other psychoactive substances;
• Short-chain fatty acids such as formic, propionic, acetic and butyric acids; these are essential for numerous functions such as brain development, anti-inflammatory effects, mental functions.
• Gene modulation; microorganisms switch genes on and off and are thus involved in elementary control processes.
• Detoxification; (environmental toxins, carcinogenic substances, toxic drugs);
• Key functions in the defence against infections
• and much more.

I translated it from this German source:
https://ted-arnhold.de/video/dl/Das_Virom_des_Menschen.pdf#vid

Since one does not need to protect oneself from this, it is nonsensical to distance oneself from others, in my view. If you are supposed to get it, you get it. For some doctors dealing with the very old and the very sick, influenza was also called the "gentle death", in connection with the fact that these people also liked to die themselves or welcomed an illness as the initiating end of their lives. This way of thinking is almost taboo today.

All that aside, today I no longer believe in the tales of epidemics, the so-called Spanish flu and AIDS, etc. I think such phenomena (if even existed) have always been hyped up, and if in a hundred years' time, for example, people talk about the "2020 pandemic" and stylise it into a plague, that would be like us talking about the "plagues of pre-past times" today.

People do not die so quickly. They are much more resilient, unruly and recovering than they are given credit for.

A friend of mine joked about her mother some years ago and told me with a twinkle in her eye that her "mom dies for about twenty years now" ;)

Greetings to you.