Down under

Should that be ‘Down, down under’?

Believe it or not, it’s winter somewhere. While an Arkansan might break into a sweat walking from the parking lot to the office door these days, half the globe is getting the opposite weather. Imagine Christmas in the summer. Or snow in July. It happens below the equator.

Scientists in these latitudes keep an eye on countries in the deep, deep, deepest south, especially when it comes to the flu virus. Countries in the Southern Hemisphere can sometimes give us hints on how bad our flu will be this coming year. If our flu season starts in, say, October, then theirs starts in

May.

And there has been a spike in flu cases in Australia this year, especially among children.

The flu is a hard one, because it’s so destructive yet so common. Few people will get through their lives without a good case of it. And every winter somebody in your orbit is going to be out with it for a week.

But because it’s so common, some of us don’t take it seriously. The bug costs the United States about $10.4 billion every year for hospitalizations and outpatient visits alone—and that’s just among adults. No telling how much money is taken out of the economy from lack of production when people get ill.

Oh, yeah, the flu also kills: Maybe more than 50,000 Americans a year. We remember going to a hospital in central Arkansas this last winter. February, to be specific. A member of the family had a non-emergency problem on a weekend that couldn’t wait till Monday, and there was no place else to take her. When we finally got behind the doors at the hospital, patients were sprawled on gurneys in the hallways, waiting their turn. The place looked like a M*A*S*H unit. A frazzled nurse who stopped for a sec said the place was crawling with flu, covid and RSV cases. And most of them could have been prevented with a shot.

Come Oct. 1, get a flu vaccine. Those nurses aren’t going to need another patient in February.