This is PEDYACAST.

Welcome to Pediacast, a pediatric podcast for parents.

And now, direct from the campus of nationwide children's, here is your host, Dr. Mike.

Hello, everyone, and welcome.

Once again to Pediacast, it is a pediatric podcast for moms and dads.

This is Dr. Mike, coming to you from the campus of nationwide children's hospital.

We're in Columbus, Ohio.

It is episode 443 for October 1st, 2019.

We're calling this one influenza and flu shots.

I want to welcome you to the program.

So it is that time of year again, time for the leaves on the trees to start changing color.

Time for apple picking and corn mazes and college football.

Soon the kids will be dressing up and going trick-or-treating.

And after a long, hot, humid summer, for many of us, at least here in the Midwest, this is a favorite time of the year.

However, in the world of pediatrics and parenting, as we think about keeping our children and our families healthy this time of year, we also have to consider influenza because flu season will soon be upon us.

And it turns out it could be a doozy of a flu season this year as we look at other parts of the world,

Australia, for example, which often provides a preview of our own upcoming flu season here in the United States. Because the way

the virus sort of travels around the globe, it often hits that area of the world first as it

makes its way to us. And this year in Australia, it turns out the flu hit early and hard, health

officials there calling it their worst flu season on record, with nearly 260,000 confirmed cases of the flu and 587 deaths.

Now, the flu, of course, has contributed to many deaths in the United States in previous years, with 79,000 deaths two years ago. That's the last year with confirmed

numbers of all cases. But just let that sink in. Seventy-nine thousand deaths in the

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