Good morning and welcome to Kid News. I'm Tori. It's Tuesday, February 16th, 2021.

And we begin with the pandemic four shutdown, actually bringing some good health news,

at least when it comes to the flu. This is normally the time of year when lots of people come

down with aches, pains and running noses from the influenza virus. Last season, about 400,000 people

were hospitalized with it. But this year so far, that number is only 165, according to the CDC.

And the biggest reason is kids. Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt

University, tells NPR Radio that children are usually super spreaders of the flu. But because

they are mostly staying at home this winter, the virus hasn't been much of a problem. Of course,

mask wearing and frequent hand washing have helped as well. And the German doctor warns that

because fewer people got the flu this year means we don't have as many antibodies inside us

and the virus could hit people harder than normal next year. So he says it'll be even more important

to get a flu shot in the fall. A California man was quite shocked to have a wallet return to him

that he lost in Antarctica 53 years ago. Retired Navy meteorologist Paul Grisham said he totally

forgotten about the item that went missing back in 1967. The worn wallet was discovered while

demolishing some old buildings and it still had his ID card tucked inside, along with his driver's

license and a recipe for a homemade beverage. Mr. Grisham's granddaughter says the wallet brought

back a lot of memories and she loves to hear him talk about his year at the ice as they called it

where the temperatures could go down to minus 65 degrees and a soda can would burst if you left

it outside for just 14 minutes. It wasn't quite that cold but it was close in parts of North America

over the weekend where the mercury plummeted minus 40 in Dunkirk, Montana according to Weather.com

Thanks to the polar vortex and a town in northwest Canada called Wekweedy reported a reading of

minus 61. The coldest recorded temperature in that country since 2017. Europe is also dealing with

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