Public Health

You may know that in a typical year, the flu season generally starts in October and peaks in December through February. Experts usually advise adults to obtain a flu vaccine by the end of October. Because it takes the vaccine a few weeks to get fully up to strength, you…

As kids head back to school, activities begin to move inside, and holiday gatherings begin to pick up speed, it’s virtually guaranteed that you will be exposed to some nasty viruses. Whether they are just a nuisance or instead turn into a serious medical illness may be determined by your…

While there may be some who still insist that climate change isn’t real, no one can credibly deny that heat waves are becoming more persistent and more intense as time goes by. Even the CDC admits that “Climate projections indicate that extreme heat events will become more frequent and intense…

So we’re knee-deep into the hot days of summer, and the perils and predictions continue to get worse. Already this summer, record-breaking temperatures have blasted many areas of Europe, with the death toll across Europe exceeding 20,000 just in June (with limited air conditioning being one of the reasons). While…

The warnings have been evident, as we forecasted in our December post. From both international data and domestic trends, it appeared we were going to have a bad flu season this winter, and now the data confirms that. According to the most recent CDC data, at least 11 million people…

So, are we in for a mild winter, or is the forecast more stormy? In particular, what’s the forecast for “influenza” storms in the coming months? How bad a flu season we will experience is always a bit of a guessing game. But if we look at some of the…