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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

October 23, 2009

More than 200,000 people are hospitalized in the U.S. each year for respiratory and heart conditions that are associated with seasonal flu infections, according to a study conducted by the CDC and based on records from about 500 hospitals from 1979 to 2001.
Source: CDC

October 22, 2009

Most adults with influenza can spread the disease to others beginning one day before they get sick and up to seven days afterward. Children are contagious for longer than a week.
Source: CDC

October 21, 2009

Over the past 26 flu seasons, flu activity has peaked in February more often than in any other month.
Source: CDC

October 20, 2009

Each year in the U.S., 5 percent to 20 percent of the population on average gets the flu. About 36,000 die from flu-related causes.
Source: CDC

October 19, 2009

China is the world’s top apple producer.
Source: USDA

October 18, 2009

Pumpkins can range in size from less than a pound to more than a thousand pounds. 
Source: University of Illinois

October 17, 2009

Illinois, one of the top four pumpkin-producing states, produced 496 million pounds of pumpkins in 2008.
Source: University of Illinois

October 16, 2009

Forty-nine percent of 18- and 19-year-olds in the U.S. were enrolled in college in 2007.
Source: Census Bureau

October 15, 2009

The average in-state tuition, room and board at U.S. four-year public colleges and universities was $14,915 for the 2007-08 academic year. That’s more than double the cost in 1990. 
Source: Census Bureau

October 14, 2009

Mammography screening rates by state for women aged 40 and older who had a mammogram within the previous year range from 48.7 percent in Oklahoma to 71.4 percent in Massachusetts. 
Source: American Cancer Society