This is shaping up to be a serious influenza season. Cold weather states are already experiencing high rates of illness, reportedly closing schools, restricting hospital visitation and setting up triage areas for people coming into hospital ER’s with flu or flu like symptoms. The CDC reports no sign of a peak for this year’s early and intense flu season in which the numbers are startlingly higher than recent past years. 
To prevent the flu, get your flu shot if you haven’t already, stay home from work if you are sick, call your primary care physician early to see what treatment options there are.
Flu widespread, leading a range of winter’s ills
The New York Times reports that it is not your imagination – more people you know are sick this winter, even people who have had flu shots. The country is in the grip of three emerging flu or flulike epidemics: an early start to the annual flu season with an unusually aggressive virus, a surge in a new type of norovirus, and the worst whooping cough outbreak in 60 years. Influenza is widespread, and causing local crises. On Wednesday, Boston’s mayor declared a public health emergency as cases flooded hospital emergency rooms.