Oh my god, you have got to take the flu seriously! This is Healthcare Triage News.

[Intro]

We've covered the flu many, many times here at Healthcare Triage. And, you can go watch all those episodes, because they're all good, they're all still relevant, and they're all still accurate. Nevertheless, so much crap abounds on the internet about influenza.

Last year, a record number of people in the United States died of the flu. The CDC reports that 80,000 people died. Like I said, that's a record. It's the highest number since the CDC began tracking flu deaths in 1976. The previous record was 56,000 in 2012-13. Last year was way worse by a high margin.

There were a record number of hospitalizations, at around 900,000. The previous record was 710,000 in 2014-15.

There were 180 child flu deaths, the highest since the H1N1 flu epidemic of 2009. It's the highest number of child flu deaths in any regular season. 80% of the children who died from the flu last year were unvaccinated. Speaking of which, vaccinate your kids!

Yes, last years vaccine wasn't matched as well as many other years' have been, and sometimes that happens. But, every bit helps and not vaccinating means you get no protection instead of sub-optimal protection.

I mean, 80,000 people died. Do you remember how much the country lost its mind about Ebola a few years ago? You know how many people caught the disease and died in the United States? None! And we were going crazy. 80,000 people!

Imagine if we covered the news on influenza like we did things like Ebola. Imagine if we tallied up the deaths every day, told you about the kids who died, profiled them in the news. Would that make a difference? Because right now, we're pretty much sweeping 80,000 deaths under the rug. I cannot tell you how many tweets I see from supposed experts minimizing the flu.

Proper hand-washing is the first and best line of defense. Not going out into the world when sick will help. But, for the good of others as well as yourself, herd immunity is also a really, really, really good thing, and the only way to get that with immunization.

We're going to put links to our older videos in the description below. Share the ones you liked the most. At the very least, it'd be good to get the word out to the nerdfighter community, but the more the better. Protect yourselves! Protect others. Protect those who can't protect themselves.

I got my flu shot weeks ago. Already done! Our kids will get them soon. Go get yours.

[Outro]

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As always, go to hctmerch.com to pick up good Healthcare Triage merch, and my book, The Bad Food Bible, still on sale in stores.