Early, Bad Flu Season Expected

Get your vaccination, you slacker

Flu season arrived early this year. And according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it's shaping up to be a bad one.

CDC director Dr. Thomas Frieden announced today that Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas have reported enough seasonal flu cases to officially mark the beginning of the flu season.

"We're seeing the beginning of the uptick start at least a month before we'd generally see it," Frieden said, explaining that flu rates typically start to rise in early January.