Reply #10: Hey, I'm the one who said the sky is NOT falling!

[REP]

Death rates from influenza in the US have been pretty steady for decades, no matter who was president or was running the CDC. It's an ugly disease, and people do die from it - mostly the very young, the very old, and people who already have a chronic illness or two.

Are we seeing the beginning of another Spanish flu? Probably not, but as a health (not hype) story, it does have some merit. Of course, medical reporting in this country largely sucks if one reads/listens to non-medical sources, like cable/network news shows or Gannett/Knight-Ridder/et alia papers or sites.