Flu Chart

This chart was recently whipped up by a doctor in a few seconds with a tool called Amalga. It shows total visits to hospitals for "Influenza-Like Illness" for different years. I don't think you need to be told that 2009 is the gray line:

This is from the Freakonomics blog, which also includes a link to a "screening algorithm" from Emory that tries to tell people when they should just stay home and when they should go to the hospital. (link)

I better keep washing my hands ...