Google.org has come up with a new service in cooperation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The Flu Tracker, to help people find out what's happening with influenza where they live. Lysol offers a similar service at www.lysol.com/coldflu/forecast.shtml. But knowing about the status of the flu season, and having resources to serve yourself and your family, are two different things.

If you want to be considerate of others, you are supposed to stay away from work if you have flu symptoms, so that you are not coughing or sneezing your flu germs all over the place. Virtually all of us have been on the receiving end of somebody who is hacking and wheezing during the middle of flu season, and we do not look kindly on such people. Still, this little tip from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can be easier said than done. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that 6.7 million workers who used to be employed full-time by their companies have been cut back to part-time. Furthermore, there are millions more at entry level. Workers in these situations do not normally receive paid sick days, and can rarely afford not to show up for work.

Economic realities lead to another question. Not only for treatment of the flu, but for various ailments, Americans are constantly urged in advertisements and public service message to "see your doctor." That's all well and good for someone who has good access to a long-time family doctor, along with the insurance to pay the fees. But as we all should have learned during the presidential campaign, if not before then, an estimated 47 million Americans have no health insurance whatsoever. That's about one of every seven people who live in the United States. Tens of millions more are underinsured. If you're already being squeezed by the mortgage or rent payment, and the car payment, and the utility bill, and the food bill, how can you afford to see your doctor?

Community clinics exist for some people, and the initial flu shot (effective 70 percent to 90 percent of the time) can be found for as low as $10 in places such as supermarkets. But even $10 is more than chump change for many folks. Maybe an improved form of national health care will be in place for the 2009-10 flue season. For 2008-09, compared to past years, it looks like a lot of people will be on their own.

SOURCES

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/symptoms.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/

http://www.postchronicle.com/news/original/article_212185687.shtml

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081104/LIFESTYLE03/811040384/1040/LIFESTYLE03