The tragic stories keep piling up, and even though it may not be the pandemic we all fear could strike one year, H1N1 is still killing people in the prime of their lives. And if you didn't hear us the first time, you should get a flu shot.

46-year-old Nancy Pinnella, who lived in Danville and once worked for KPIX/CBS5, was struck down with the flu last week and died within days. As her family explains, "She left work feeling ill last Tuesday. On Wednesday morning she went to the doctor, and by that night she was on life support. [She] died on Saturday." She had never gotten a flu shot, and while her doctors say the shot might not have prevented her from getting sick, it likely would have saved her life.

As we cautioned twice earlier this month, the current strain of the H1N1 influenza virus has been disproportionately affecting people between the ages of 20 and 50, which is unusual for flu viruses. In the Bay Area alone, as of last week, the death toll had climbed to 29, with many of those victims in that age bracket, and with Pinnella's death and others that have not been reported, we are at upwards of 30 dead now.

And to be clear, you are not immune if you got a flu shot last year or if you had the H1N1 strain that went around in 2009/2010. It has morphed since then. Here's an account from that last bout, via an SFist commenter: "I had the swine flu in the epidemic of 2009. I'd never been sicker. It came upon me so suddenly — one moment, standing , talking; the next, feeling I'd been hit by a freight train and a raging fever. It took me 10 days to feel 'normal' again."

So get a flu shot. It takes 10-14 days to kick in, but you should get one. Without insurance it will cost you $30 at Walgreen's. Just. Go. Do. It.

[CBS 5]