This Season’s Deadly Flu Virus

Reilly Brady, Reporter

New York has had over 1,500 people be hospitalized over the past couple weeks due to contracting the flu virus. In New York alone, many adults and 30 children have passed away due to influenza this flu season. Many people and their loved ones believe that the flu vaccine does not work. Do New Yorkers have a choice?

Governor Andrew Cuomo has been speaking out to New Yorkers as best as he could, encouraging them to get themselves and their loved ones the vaccine because the fatal virus is said to not be leaving the state anytime soon. According to Clayton Guse from The New York Times, the flu virus causes an infection in the lungs. Symptoms include sneezing, headaches, a dry cough, weakness, extreme fatigue, and severe pain in muscle joints. If the virus is severe, the symptoms could get worse.

Recently, a 12-year-old boy named Dylan Winnik from Florida died on January 25. His family thought he had a cold – but a few days later, he died from the flu. He had the “cold” for a couple days. Feverish on Monday, his fever went down on Tuesday. He died later that day.

Dylan’s stepfather Mike Medwin said that he checked Dylan’s fever that day. It was at a normal 98 degrees. “Don’t mess around with the flu,” Medwin told some reporters following in on Dylan’s situation, according to The Washington Post. “It can happen right in your neighborhood. Right in your name. It happened to us. Lightning struck.”

Governor Andrew Cuomo has encouraged New Yorkers to get the flu vaccine.

According to Jackie Salo from New York Post, 37-year-old Karlie Slaven didn’t have the time to get the vaccine due to taking care of her two children who had been sick with the flu. After nursing her children back to health, she herself started to feel sick. She went to the doctor and was sent home with a diagnosis of influenza. After a couple days it then became severe pneumonia. She had her husband bring her kids to the hospital after she had been brought into ICU to see her for what they didn’t know would be the last time. She passed away 24 hours later. Slaven’s family is now getting the word out to encourage people to get the flu shot.

This flu season has caused many deaths and hospitalizations. Does the flu vaccine work effectively? How long will this epidemic last? No one knows for sure. All we can do is take the basic precautions to avoid contracting influenza along with any other viruses.