I not sure whether this is the point you were making or not, but without the inflammation perhaps you would have simply died from the flu infection due to insuf

I not sure whether this is the point you were making or not, but without the inflammation perhaps you would have simply died from the flu infection due to insufficient white blood cells around to kill it before it spread elsewhere in your body. But it's perfectly possible to acknowledge the damage inflammation does while also acknowledging its necessity (or at least the possibility of its necessity). Just like e.g. you can acknowledge that chemotherapy drugs do damage to the body while still acknowledging that they're necessary sometimes.