How much do you know about flu-related mortality? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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At this point you’ve probably gotten really tired of Covid, but it’s not time to stop thinking about viral illnesses yet. That’s because we’re on the cusp of flu season, and that’s a potent threat most people don’t even consider. Amesh Adalja, a critical care medicine physician and pandemic preparedness expert at Johns Hopkins, says history bears out just how bad flu can be.

Adalja:I think when you look at infectious disease threats flu is a perennial one that kills 10s of thousands of Americans every year. That's something that people aren't aware of. They don't recognize it because it's something that's familiar, that's sort of baked into life. It also causes stress on hospitals. I think that people have lost appreciation for what it is, maybe because the 2009 pandemic of H1N1 wasn't as severe as people predicted. And our flu vaccines aren't the best shots, there are sometimes our mismatches. What we have to recognize is that flu vaccines are the way to blunt the impact.    :31

Adalja notes that eligibility for flu vaccination spans the lifespan, and includes women who are pregnant. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.