More Flu, Still Mild

Last week U.S. influenza cases doubled. Said a Public Health Serviceman: "This attack is so widespread, I feel rather good about it." Reason: the cases were mild (TIME, Dec. 14), and people who get flu now will probably be immune if the bugs return later in more virulent form. Some "lucky" U.S. areas:

>In Washington, D.C., 90,000 people (one tenth of the population) have had flu since Thanksgiving.

>The Midwest was hard-hit. In some communities around Chicago, 30% of the people were sick.

>At least 23 New Jersey schools closed. A quarter of the workers at some Essex County war plants stayed home.

>In New York City, flu reports were spotty. The Journal-American said there was "no cold epidemic"; the Post said there were "thousands of flu absentee's." Many offices were flu-decimated, but others were not. The Health Department's records showed only "a slight increase in illness which is to be expected at this time of year."

Britain's flu epidemic is already the country's worst since the war began. The King got over his attack last week, but British influenza deaths in the major towns increased to 709 (previous week's figure: 375). Army doctors were helping take care of sick civilians. It has not yet reached the proportions of the 1937 epidemic, is nowhere near the World War I pandemic which in 1918 killed 114,207 people in Britain.

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