The frighteningly early and rapid spread of the flu across the U.S. this winter has been "pretty much unparalleled," as John Hick, an emergency physician in Minnesota, put it. Indeed, Boston — the epicenter of an outbreak in Massachusetts — declared a public health emergency this week. Many hospitals say they're overwhelmed with patients showing flu symptoms, and clinics across the country are running out of vaccine. And people might not take the flu as seriously as they should. Gregory Poland, professor of medicine and infectious disease at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., tells USA Today that "we have this cultural thing in the U.S. about, 'Oh, it's just the flu.'" But the wave of illness could be quite deadly, and damage the economy, says Northwood University economist Timothy G. Nash, "if this is a major influenza outbreak, like the Spanish flu of 1918." Just how bad is this flu season? Here, a look, by the numbers:
3,000
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