Last year’s flu season was long, brutal, and ultimately tragic. By the time infections had subsided in May, as many as 1.1 million Americans were estimated to have been hospitalized and as many as 100,000 had died. Among them were 280 children — the highest number recorded in a non-pandemic year since health agencies began tracking the virus in 2004.

Some of that misery was likely avoidable.

Over the past few weeks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released a series of reports analyzing last year’s flu season, and together they point to one simple way to ease the burden of the infection: get more Americans vaccinated against the virus.

That needs to happen soon. October marks the official start of flu season, but the virus has yet to start spreading widely. Because the

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