Has your huge medical schooling given you any perception as to why (in keeping with the Oregon Well being Authority) our most up-to-date flu season in Oregon has been so gentle in comparison with earlier years? —Curious GeorgeThe of us on the CDC, despite their position within the woke liberal conspiracy to disclaim People their God-given proper to die of measles, do a fairly good job of monitoring the sort of factor you’re speaking about, George. In accordance with them, the present flu season (it’s technically not over until September) was neither gentle nor extreme, however right-down-the-middle reasonable. How boring!However that’s simply the evaluation for america as an entire. As you and the OHA (and I, since I completely knew and positively didn’t study it simply now) have noticed, in Oregon the severity of this season’s flu stayed at “minimal” or “low” throughout each week however one. Attention-grabbing! Solely two different states (Minnesota and Vermont) managed an analogous feat this yr.How? It’s tempting for us card-carrying weenie-liberal followers of Dr. Fauci to present these states a pat on their huge blue backs. Clearly, we beat the flu as a result of our folks imagine in science, and masking, and vaccination! Suck it, Meatball Ron!Sadly, it’s most likely not that easy. Oregon’s flu vaccination fee is fairly respectable, however we’re a superb 5 proportion factors behind reigning champs New York, they usually nonetheless hit the excessive finish of the severity spectrum final winter. So did our fellow socialist utopias Washington and California. In the meantime, if you have a look at the county-by-county breakdown, mask-skeptical Southern Oregon stayed simply as flu-free as we did up right here within the Leninist Shangri-La of Portland.It will get worse: Final yr’s winner of the no-flu sweepstakes was live-free-or-die New Hampshire, the place Republicans management each legislative chambers and the governor’s mansion. The yr earlier than that? On-the-bubble swing state Michigan. In different phrases, we most likely simply obtained fortunate: A lot of flu’s severity (or lack thereof) is pushed by random likelihood.The timing of superspreader occasions, a change within the climate simply because the illness is getting a toehold, the immunological make-up of the area’s inhabitants—any of those might be the distinction between a couple of sniffles and a veritable plague. Taking primary precautions can assist on the margins, however there are not any ensures. (That mentioned, states whose governors encourage licking bus station doorknobs as an act of patriotism will at all times have an uphill climb.)Questions? Ship them to dr.know@wweek.com.