Hospitals from New England to the Rockies dealing with flu
outbreak NEW YORK — From the Rocky Mountains to New England,
hospitals are swamped with people with flu symptoms. Some
medical centers have limited visitors, and one Pennsylvania
hospital set up a tent outside its ER to handle the feverish
patients. Flu season in the U.S. has hit early and, in some
places, hard. But whether this will be considered a bad season
by the time it has run its course in the spring remains to be
seen. "Those of us with gray hair have seen worse," said Dr.
William Schaffner, a flu expert at Vanderbilt University in
Nashville. The evidence so far is pointing to a moderate season,
Schaffner and others believe. It just looks bad compared with
last year — an unusually mild one. Flu usually doesn't blanket
the country until late January or February, but it is already
widespread in more than 40 states. What's probably complicating
the situation: The main influenza virus this year tends to make
people sicker. And there are other bugs