TBH I'm not sure where I'm getting the 2.5% number from; it's the one that stuck in my memory from the last time I dug into this data. It's entirely possible t

TBH I'm not sure where I'm getting the 2.5% number from; it's the one that stuck in my memory from the last time I dug into this data. It's entirely possible that my memory is wrong or the data I was looking at represented an outlier in flu deaths. For the 2023 / 1.5%, I referred to the provisional vital statistics for 2023: https://wonder.cdc.gov/controller/datarequest/D176;jsessionid=46AC35A44FC3A6AF54FC1F82FE4B https://wonder.cdc.gov/controller/datarequest/D176;jsessioni... Looking at past years (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db355_tables-508.pdf#page=2 https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db355_tables-508.pd...), I get more like 2%, even for bad flu years like 2018. So that 2.5% number is probably either completely misremembered or based on provisional data that has since been revised downward.