Yet it is not always winter that need be the concern.

The first three months of 2019 notched up more than double the number of NSW influenza cases as the same period in the previous two years.

The high rate coupled with a milder 2018 season has some believing our natural immunities have been lowered.

The unseasonable spike in flu offers a strong reminder that the jab is almost certainly less serious than the disease.

Given influenza can strike particularly hard at those aged over 65, it will be incumbent on those who believe they can simply endure their sickness to remember that they are potentially infecting others as they do.

Put simply, the higher the rate of immunisation, the lower the chance that you or someone else will pass the disease to someone less equipped to deal with it.

In 2017, more than 650 people died from influenza-related illness in this state.

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The shot is free for those over 65, pregnant women, children under five, Indigenous Australians and groups deemed medically at risk for influenza.

"Flu during pregnancy has the potential to be much more severe, so for those women due to give birth before April, we'd encourage them to get a jab," Hunter New England Health public health physician Dr David Durrheim said in January.

"Anyone else at risk should discuss it with their GP."

Beyond the jab, NSW Health offers three simple steps to prevent the disease's spread.

The health body recommends sneezing into elbows instead of hands, staying home until 24 hours past the fever's subsiding, and washing hands thoroughly and often.

These are simple steps that can, at the very least, prevent the onset of symptoms including fever, sore throats, coughing, congestion, muscle aches, fatigue, vomiting, nausea and diarrhoea.

It must be remembered this is a disease that can prove fatal.

If inconvenience or a quick jab of pain is the worst of the symptoms we must contemplate in flu season, then we are lucky indeed.