From the Boston Globe comes this disturbing report of the massive underdiagnosis of influenza in children:

Doctors fail to diagnose the flu in the vast majority of young children, depriving them of medicines that could shorten their illness and keep them from spreading it to others, a study suggests.
Flu infections were missed in four out of five preschoolers who were treated for flu symptoms at a doctor’s office or emergency room and in about three-quarters of those who were hospitalized, researchers report.
“Many of the children did not have a test performed and few of the children were sent home with a specific diagnosis of influenza,” said Dr. Katherine A. Poehling, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., who led the government-funded study.
If more doctors used a rapid flu test, more cases of flu could be detected and steps taken to prevent its spread, the researchers suggested. About a third of the children would have been candidates for medicines like Tamiflu, which work better to ease symptoms when given early, they said.

First, we’re needlessly exposing at-risk populations to influenza carriers: grandparents, don’t visit the grandkids when they have influenza. Second, this emphasizes why we should shift our vaccination strategy towards young children who are the primary disease vectors of influenza. Such a shift could cut influenza deaths by 80%: that’s 29,000 deaths per year.
You would think that 29,000 lives are more important than flag burning or gay marriage.