As epidemic flu spreads across the United States, with 15 child deaths reported in nine states so far this year, federal health officials said on Tuesday they could not yet predict the severity of the current season.
Four of the children died during the week ending Dec. 20, when flu reached epidemic levels for children and adults, according to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention.
Nine states have reported child deaths: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, North Carolina, Nevada, Ohio, Texas and Virginia, the agency reported.
With flu season extending from the fall into the spring, the toll is likely to increase, said Joe Bresee, Epidemiology and Prevention Branch chief for the CDC’s influenza division.
“Flu is amazingly unpredictable,” Bresee said. “As flu becomes more common and more intense over the next few weeks, unfortunately those death numbers and hospitalization numbers will continue to rise.”
There were 109 child flu deaths in the last flu season, according to the CDC. Read more.
{Matzav.com Newscenter}
This does not make any sense, because many people are getting the flu who were vaccinated. So there is no evidence that the flu shot even works. The influenza vaccine only targets 10% of the different possible influenza viruses. the CDC has to guess which influenza will be dominant? Each year the CDC chooses only 3-5 past Infleunzas and there is no guarantee that any of those 3 influenzas will be popular that year. So be’zH everyone will be protected from it!
Yes, the CDC has to “guess” which strains of flu will be most severe. For technical reasons manufacturers cannot make a vaccine that will protect against all known flu viruses. They have to choose what they think are the 3-5 most likely to occur. This is based on information from previous flu seasons. Since there are no Nevi’im on the staff of the CDC, this is obviously not a perfect system of prediction. Some years we luck out, some years we don’t. This is one of the “don’ts.” Nevertheless, it is always worthwhile getting the flu shot. It will protect against some strains, and even if you are unlucky and get sick, you will be less sick if you have had the shot.
Get the flu shot – especially if you are older or are around seniors or small children. We can’t predict the future, but we can do our hishtadlus.