More on the Flu

This, from the CDC, here, is a pretty good representation of what is going on right now.
All of a sudden, entire nursing homes are filled with really sick people.
You can clearly see we are nearly at the death level from the bad winter of 2005-2006 and we are on track to top the horrendous "SARS" season of 2004-2005.
All I know is the people I X-ray are significantly sicker than they were a week ago, with deep, rasping coughs and outrageous fevers. North Carolina Health and Human Services reports that nearly 5% of those tested are positive for flu, higher than it has been since 2003 when NC hit nearly 8%.
Two things about those numbers strike me, though...
1. The 7.7 high in 2003 was in December, and the exactitude of flu swabs were not as good as they are now, so I suspect there were lots of false positives.
2. The good news is it is not December right now. As spring arrives, it is possible the worst of the epidemic is behind us.
We can hope.