The numbers for the cold and the flu have gone drastically up in the past month. According to KOCO news 5, it says, “The Oklahoma State Department of Health’s dashboard also says the overall risk for flu is high, and the geographical spread is high. According to the OSDH’s influenza dashboard, the flu positivity rate for the week ending on Feb. 1 was 38.5%, which is about four percentage points higher than it was from the previous week. Just two weeks ago, the flu positivity rate was about 25%. The OSDH’s viral view dashboard also says the overall risk for flu is high, and the geographical spread is high.” From personal experience, Justice, one of our journalists, says that half his family has been sick for a while and he usually doesn’t get sick but this time he did and had to go to urgent care and got tested positive for the flu. They said that he can’t go to school through Friday and Monday until Tuesday if he doesn’t have a fever. Have you ever wondered why the rates of cold and flu are going up so drastically? Well according to Today.com the reason that so many people are getting sick so much is because everyone is being constantly exposed to the virus by other people that don’t want to go home and quarantine themselves from other people. This can always be avoided if people decide to stay home and quarantine until they feel better. Things people can do to help them get better are taking medicine, taking consecutive showers throughout the day, sleeping consecutively, and most importantly resting and not being very active.