Return Of U.S. Flu Season Brings Worries About A Virulent Replay
U.S. health officials are trying to increase the rate of flu vaccinations this year after a severe outbreak last season killed a record number of children and led to spot shortages of antiviral medications like Tamiflu.
In a panel hosted by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Washington on Thursday, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams took a nasal vaccine — an effort, he said, to make flu prevention “go viral.” The lighthearted demonstration was accompanied by grim statistics from the 2017-18 flu season: 80,000 deaths overall, including 180 children.
“I’m tired of hearing people say, ‘Well, I didn’t get sick and I didn’t get the flu shot.’ Or, ‘I don’t like it, my arm hurts,’” said Adams. “Those 80,000 people who died last year from the flu, guess what? They got the flu from someone. So it’s critically important that we impress upon folks that it is not just for them. It’s their social responsibility to get vaccinated.”
Boldfaced emphasis added by me.
If you’re not afraid of the flu, you damn well should be.
See my prior posts.
Stop thinking, “It’s just flu.” Start thinking, “Here’s come the seasonal plague.”
Previously here:
BBC: The Flu That Killed 50 Million
Flu Season. Remember 1918.
Today’s Freakout
1918. 2018.
China Edges Into Rogue Nation Status
Flu 2018: Science Catches Up To Common Sense, Part Two
Flu 2018: Science Catches Up To Common Sense
Flu 2018
Mike Cane's Atomic Supermen 