, Columnist
This Flu Season Doesn’t Have to Be as Deadly as the Last
It’s that time of year.
Photographer: Marco Bello/Bloomberg
Last year’s flu season was long, brutal, and ultimately tragic. By the time infections had subsided in May, as many as 1.1 million Americans were estimated to have been hospitalized and as many as 100,000 had died. Among them were 280 children — the highest number recorded in a non-pandemic year since health agencies began tracking the virus in 2004.
Some of that misery was likely avoidable.