This is

This is Scientific Americans 60 Second Science.

I'm Karen Hopkins.

This will just take a minute.

Planning to attend a Super Bowl party in Boston or Seattle this Sunday?

If so, you might think twice about... Bowl party in Boston or Seattle this Sunday?

If so, you might think twice about sticking your chips in the communal dip.

Because such dipy activity is cited in a new study that

finds that cities with a team in the Super Bowl go on to experience a spike in deaths from

influenza.

The findings are described in an article by researchers at Tulane

University and the College of William and Mary.

Football is a contact sport, and watching the game is lousy with contact too.

On Super Bowl Sunday, fans gather close together on couches and bar stools to cheer for their teams.

But the contest takes place at the height of flu season, which made researchers wonder whether spectators

in close quarters might be sharing more than nachos and wings. So the investigators looked at mortality data from

1974 through 2009 and they found that sending a team to the Super Bowl caused an 18% increase

in flu deaths among those over 65 in the two towns.

The senior citizens don't even have to watch the game to be at increased risk.

They could catch the virus from someone else who picked it up at a party or the pub.

And the death tolls higher in years when the flu is more severe, like this season.

So when you watch, also wash your hands, frequently.

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