Regarding cat flu, I find myself wondering a few things:

1. Since the vaccine doesn't actually seem to work, why do we all bother with it anyway?
2. Since calicivirus (disclaimer, this is in my experience) is so very minor anyway, why are we all so bothered about that?
3. Are we really to believe that every cat that ever sneezes or develops runny eyes has cat flu, and if so, is there any breeder anywhere who is absolutely sure that they don't have a cat flu carrier in the house?
4.. Since herpes is supposed to make cats very ill, how can we all start assuming that any cat who starts sneezing and doesn't have tongue ulcers is likely to be suffering from the herpes virus?
5. Since they all seem to grow out of it, is what we are dealing with really more like children with colds at school ie. something we need to expect and live with?

Or is it simply that I've never actually had cat flu even though I have had housefuls of sneezy, snotty kittens?

I don't actually know the answers to any of these and have no particular axe to grind.

I have had kittens (adopted from a household where all of them seemed to be down with cat flu) where the eyes have become ulcerated, one actually went blind or at least nearly blind, he seemed to be able to see something but there was this brown film over his eyes all the time. One actually had to have an eye removed when the eye simply exploded, don't know how else to describe it, it was pretty gruesome! Now admittedly that was 10 or 11 years ago and I haven't got either of those cats now, but I certainly don't recall any sort of outbreak of cat flu in my house resulting from it.

Liz