Last flu season the project might have observed historic low levels of ‘flu but on the up side, I got a whole season free of illness. This time around it seems as if I’ve been ill with one thing or another since the start of December and I’m still trying to shake the remnants of the illness my best friend’s son had been incubating for me when I went to visit in the New Year. When I logged in to Decipher My Data after the holidays I thought to myself “there certainly better be something to show for it!”
The good news is that we have a flu peak, the bad news is that just like last year, the data seems to have been peaking in the run up to a holiday so we’re potentially missing data from one of the most important weeks of the year. Our school has been following the national trend quite nicely and it seems as if I have been personally following the national trend as well! At first glance it looks like the national peak this year has been quite broad compared to previous years but Dr Rob thinks this is just down to our narrower graph range.
Data is coming in now from the most important weeks before Christmas and it looks as if the worst is definitely behind us. My classes will be getting onto the Microbes and Disease topic in the next month or so. It’s a relief to have a ‘flu peak this year a little bit earlier as last year we didn’t see the modest one we got ’til the middle of February. This will make it much easier for my students to use the data this year.
