Sorry to say, but the flu season is not that far off. Here’s some advice to keep the family healthy.
Last week, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, a group of the nation’s leading scientists and engineers, released a report on the H1N1 flu virus. The forecast seemed grim. A more aggressive mutation of the virus, they said, could infect 30% to 50% of the population, lead to as many as 1.8 million hospitalizations and cause between 30,000 to 90,000 deaths compared to the annual number of 36,000. Yet to Dr. Philip Alcabes, an epidemiologist and professor at Hunter College School of Health Sciences in New York, the estimate is a “plausible scenario,” not a prediction. “Should the public be alarmed?” he says. “Absolutely not.” Besides, it’s impossible to know whether the virus will mutate until the day it happens. – From Forbes