Flu Comes Early to Alabama
Experts Predict Bad Flu Season
Have you gotten your flu vaccine yet? Officials at The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the flu season is starting earlier this year (the earlier start in a decade), and they predict it will be a bad flu year. Alabama and four other southern states are seeing the most flu activity right now.
The strain of flu that’s most prevalent this year is H3N2, not to be confused with the H3N2v that sickened kids at county fairs over the summer. Just how do they name these viruses? Here’s an explanation. There are 17 “H”s (#1-7 and #9 are all found in humans; the rest are found in birds, swine or other animals). There are 9 “N”s (#1 and 2 found in humans, the rest in various animals species). In 1918, H1N1 (aka Spanish Flu) killed up to 50 million people worldwide (many of them young, healthy people), making it one of the deadliest pandemics in history.
Officials say this year’s vaccine is a good match. Each year in the United States there are 15M – 60M cases of seasonal flu. There are 54,000 – 430,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 – 49,000 deaths, depending on the size and severity of the outbreak.
Crew of fatal US military crash included Alabama father recently deployed
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Alabama poised to drastically overhaul utility regulation. Will it lower electric bills?
The Alabama Senate unanimously voted to expand the public service commission, and create a Secretary of Energy to address rising electricity prices. A bill in the House would go even further, requiring rate case hearings and limiting utility profits.
Musher from Alabama is going for back-to-back Iditarod wins
Riches and paid appearances haven’t followed Jessie Holmes since he won the world’s most famous sled dog race, the Iditarod, last year. He doesn't mind.
Bill would move Alabama to closed primaries
Right now, any Alabama voter can participate in a primary election. Lawmakers in Montgomery took up a bill this week that would change that system.
Auburn football player uses NIL funds to open a community hub in Birmingham
Jourdin Crawford, a freshman defensive lineman at Auburn, used earnings from a Name, Image, and Likeness deal to give back to his hometown.
Ivey commutes death sentence of inmate whose accomplice fired fatal shot
Charles “Sonny” Burton was sentenced to death for the killing of Doug Battle during a 1991 robbery. However, another man shot Battle when Burton had left the building.
