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Flu Season Looms as COVID-19 Rages

Steve Baragona

   WASHINGTON - As if the COVID-19 pandemic isn't bad enough, flu season
   is about to begin in the Northern Hemisphere, adding millions of
   illnesses, hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and tens of
   thousands of deaths to the already-strained American health care
   system.

   "We really, really want to emphasize the potential for disaster,
   actually," said Jeanne Marrazzo, director of the Division of Infectious
   Diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a member of the
   Infectious Diseases Society of America board of directors, at a recent
   briefing for reporters.

   Experts are urging everyone to get flu shots in order to take some of
   the load off of health workers and hospitals.

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