What’s your immunity IQ?

There are many misperceptions about the cold and flu; take our immune quiz to see how cold/flu-smart you are:

Answer true or false for these questions:

Getting wet in the rain will make you sick. (false) There is no evidence that damp cold weather and the risk of getting a cold are related. Chock it up to being an old wives' tale or the ancient belief in "ill winds," but modern science does not support a connection between being cold and getting a cold or flu.

Flu is a virus, cold is a bacteria. (false) Both cold and flu are viruses. There are well over 200 different strains of the cold virus (rhinovirus being the most common) and flu viruses mutate and change every year.

The flu is harmless. (false) The flu is far from harmless. According to the CDC, in a normal year somewhere between 3,000 and 49,000 people die from the flu (depending on the severity, the spread, and the type of flu virus). In 1918, approximately 675,000 people died in the United States from the Spanish flu. On the other hand, the common cold is rarely harmful—unless it leads to other infections.

Antibiotics are no help for cold or flu. (true) Both the common cold and flu are the result of a virus, and antibiotics cannot help reduce the severity or duration of a cold. Doctors do occasionally prescribe antibiotics to people with colds and flu to help treat secondary bacterial infections such as sinusitis, ear infections, bronchitis, and other infections.

Once you have the flu, you won't have it again that season. (The answer to this one is both false and true.) You won't get the same cold or flu once you have had it, but that doesn't mean you cannot get another strain. There are often multiple types of cold and flu circulating at the same time; it is very possible to have one and then have another. This is also the reason why the flu shot is not 100 percent effective: the flu shot is effective against one strain and there is always the possibility of another strain infecting you.

You are only contagious when you have symptoms? (false) You are most likely to spread the flu five to seven days from when you first feel bad. When you have a cold, you are the most contagious during the first three days of getting that cold (during that sore throat phase). You can transmit either virus to other people by touching your nose or mouth and then touching another surface they touch (doorknobs, phones, etc.) or by coughing or sneezing.

Kids get more colds and flu? (true) According to the CDC, adults have an average of 2 to 3 colds per year, and young children may get as many as 8 to 10 each year before the age of two.