Flu Risk Greater This Year

I have blogged about Flu shots before, but it is back in the news, so here is my update.

1.      I have had my shot, got a double strength shot due to age, I think was the explanation. Doubling was an option for over 65. 

2.      As of this week, 37% of American’s have gotten a flu shot this year, a good many more than I would have expected

3.      The CDC recommends that anyone over 6 months get the shot

This year, they say, one of the earlier starts of people having the Flu , and so this signals it might be a SEVERE FLU year.

States already having high (like double normal) Flu --  Texas, Mississippi, Louisana, Alabama.   Moderate (meaning just above normal) = Georgia.

ALERT – Flu leads to about 200,000 hospitalizations in a bad year, and 45,000 deaths – a number of deaths about equal to the annual deaths due to auto accidents. And about 15 times the number of people killed in the 9-11 World Trade terror attack.   But this is the upper number, some years it is about the same number of deaths as 9-11.