by Mike Shea on 8 January 2004
Ten to twenty percent of the US population gets the flu. 114,000 people are admitted to hospitals and twenty thousand a year die from it. (source) I'm within the first statistic, having been home from work for three days now with all of the symptoms; sore throat, fever of 101, a nose running like a faucet, coughing that feels like the swallowing of broken glass, diarrea, and a left ear that feels like it was filled with melted plastic and bangs like a war drum when I cough, sneeze, or lie down on it.
Forget SARS, forget Mad Cow. The flu is this year's danger and has been every year as far back as we can remember. Get a flu shot. I sure wish I had.
On the Mike Shea Threat Matrix the Flu comes in at "Interest / Concern" with fifty five people per day dying of the Flu. That is a little over half of the people dying in a car wreck.