The flu season is about to rev up in the United States and is a serious public health challenge. From 2010 to 2020, between 12,000 and 52,000 people in the United States die of flu annually. Many of these deaths could have been prevented by flu vaccines, but many Americans fail to get them even though they know they should.

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Flu is the prototype of a respiratory disease that requires repeated – yearly -- vaccination to prevent infection. Although annual seasonal flu vaccines are invaluable tools for controlling the spread and severity of influenza, they do not provide immunity against every strain of the virus, which constantly mutates, sometimes radically. Although from 2010 to 2020, between 12,000 and 52,000 people died of flu in the United States annually, many Americans fail to get flu shots.

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Last week, the FDA and CDC presented their recommendations for the newest round of COVID-19 vaccines. As with everything COVID, there are proponents and detractors, or, putting it another way, both knowledgeable experts and disinformation-spreading attention-seekers. The reality is that a group of experts made a judgment based on actual data. We discuss the evidence here so you can make your own informed decision.

The images come mainly from PowerPoint presentations to the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Links to our sources are at the end of the article.

Who's at Risk of Severe Disease?

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It is not uncommon for legislators to introduce bills that they know won't pass, but that have symbolic value of some sort, like renaming a bridge or freeway to honor a constituent. Every so often, however, they propose something that is so completely idiotic, anti-social, and authoritarian that it becomes the very personification of irresponsibility. Two examples come to mind, one last February, the other this month.

The first example is legislation making it a criminal misdemeanor to administer a COVID-19 or other mRNA vaccine in Idaho. State Senator Tammy Nichols and State Representative Judy Boyle, both Republicans, cosponsored House Bill (HB) 154, which states simply:

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​​​​​​Diversity, equity, and inclusion has insinuated itself into many aspects of people's lives, from corporate hiring to college admissions. Over much of the past few years, diversity officers have been some of the hottest hires in business , university, and government bureaucracies. But recently, they've begun to feel left out in the cold.

According to the Wall Street Journal , "Companies including Netflix, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery have said recently that high-profile diversity, equity and inclusion executives will be leaving their jobs. Thousands of diversity-focused workers have been laid off since last year, and some companies are scaling back racial justice commitments."

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