Where's the hand sanitizer?

new york state flu mapWe seem to have been encountering a lot of people lately with sniffles, coughs or just plain generalized feelings of uckiness. And, as it turns out, our incredibly unscientific observations seem to match up with some real data. According to people who track this kind of stuff (you know, professionally), we are right in the thick of flu season. Those red spots on the map of New York (over on the right) are counties reporting recently confirmed cases of influenza as of February 2 (here's a bigger version with more information from the NYS Department of Health). And it's not just New York, the whole country has seen a jump in reports of "influenza-like illness" over the last few weeks.

So, cover that cough. Wash your hands often. Get some sleep. And, if you have kids, state health officials are recommending that you get them a flu shot.

map: New York State Department of Health

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