VERIFY: Cold and flu fast facts

SOURCES:

CDC, University of Maryland, UT Health & Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital

PROCESS:

The flu epidemic is taking a turn for the worse--just look at how it's spread. The CDC already reporting 30 child deaths since October. We know people are worried and have questions, so our Verify team went to work to separate flu fact from fiction with our fast facts.

Maybe you saw this number going around, claiming eighty-five percent of the children who died this season were not vaccinated? That's false. We reached out to the CDC, and they say, they don't have that information right now on which kids were vaccinated and which weren't. That stat comes from past seasons, where the CDC said, "in general, eighty-five percent of pediatric deaths are unvaccinated."

Next fast fact, can you get flu just from breathing in the air of a sick person? This is true. The University of Maryland did a study that says breathing spreads tiny infectious droplets that stay suspended in the air for a very long time.

Finally, do at home remedies like chicken soup and Airborne help cure you of the flu? Sorry this one is false.

Dr. Michael Chang, at UT Health & Children’s Memorial Hermann told WUSA9 researchers "If it makes you feel better I think go ahead but really none of the home remedies have clear evidence that they're going to treat the flu.”

So keep your hands clean, get vaccinated and stop the spread.