fbpx
[additional-authors]
December 24, 2009

Short work weeks make for short posts, doubly so when virtually all the health-related news is about the healthcare bill in Congress.  So I’ll end the year with two unrelated bits of good news.

The first is that the H1N1 flu pandemic is mostly behind us.  The peak numbers of people getting sick both nationally and in California was about two months ago, with decreasing numbers ever since.  As predicted by yours truly in April, the world did not end (though a bunch of my patients were plenty miserable).

The second bit of good news is that Americans are living longer then ever.  In 2007, the most recent year for which statistics are available, average life expectancy at birth crept up to a record high of 77.9 years.  That’s an average, so many of us will live longer.  So for everyone who had a mediocre 2009, here’s hoping you have many better years ahead.

Learn more:

Follow the H1N1 flu trends at the Centers for Disease Control ” target=”_blank”>Google Flu Trends

The statistic about your increasing life expectancy is from the LA Times Booster Shots post:

Did you enjoy this article?
You'll love our roundtable.

Editor's Picks

Latest Articles

Happy Birthday, Judea Pearl

One thing I am sure of: Judea is inarguably a proud Jew, a steadfast member of this multimillennial Jewish Peoplehood. The other is that I love the man, plain and simple.

Exiled from Zamosc, Survival in the Far-Off Lands

Daniela Gerson’s “The Wanderers” is all that you can ask for from a book. Meticulously researched, exquisitely told, it is an adventure story spanning more than 80 years, even a love story.

The Shofar Blower

Through poetic reflections, Torah wisdom and personal stories, Salem explores the shofar as a tool for mindfulness, healing, surrender and inner transformation.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.