During a typical flu season in which we have developed and administered the correct vaccine, approximately 48 million people in the United States become infected, 114,000 require hospitalization, and 35,000 die as a result of complications from the infection. Globally, the flu results in the death of up to 500,000 people each season. The majority of deaths occur in the very young ( 65 yrs old), as members of both age groups have weakened immune systems that have difficulty fighting off the infection.