U.S. to review Boeing 787 design, safety

Two new incidents involving the Boeing 787 Dreamliner have been reported in Japan -- a crack in the cockpit and an oil leak. Norah O'Donnell reports.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said Friday it will launch a high-priority and comprehensive review of Chicago-based Boeing's new 787's critical systems, following a rash of malfunctions this week, such as a battery fire and fuel leaks. However, federal transportation officials also supported Boeing, saying repeatedly that the plane is safe.

"We are confident about the safety of this aircraft," said Federal Aviation Administrator Michael Huerta, adding that a priority in the review will be the plane's electrical systems. He said he would not speculate on how long the review would take.

The review, an unusual move for the FAA that will not ground planes or halt production of new 787s, will examine the plane's design, manufacture and assembly, said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

"Through it, we will look for the root causes of recent events and do everything we can to make sure these events don't happen again," he said. "I believe this plane is safe and I would have absolutely no reservation of boarding one of these planes and taking a flight."

Boeing shares were down 2.5 percent in midday trading to $75.15.

The announcement comes amid yet more reports Friday of problems with the highly anticipated "Dreamliner" jet, including a cracked cockpit window and another oil leak on a Japanese carrier. They add to a rash of other reported problems this week, most seriously a battery fire on a parked 787 in Boston, an incident under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The plane model is in use in Chicago for temporary United Airlines flights between Chicago O'Hare and Houston. Chicago-based United has five other 787s in service domestically. "We continue to have complete confidence in the 787 and in the ability of Boeing, with the support of the FAA, to resolve these early operational issues," a United spokeswoman said. "We will support Boeing and the FAA throughout their review."

Next week, LOT Polish Airlines plans to begin operating the region's first regular flight on a 787 between O'Hare and Warsaw, Poland. That inaugural flight is still planned for Wednesday, a spokeswoman said. All told, Boeing has delivered 50 Dreamliners to customers around the world, many to Japanese carriers.

Aviation experts have said the planes are safe and that glitches are common on new models of planes, especially ones as revolutionary as the 787, which uses mostly composite materials instead of metals to create an aircraft that's more lighter, more fuel-efficient and more comfortable for passengers. However, other observers have said the concentration of problems in a short period and the media attention they garner is damaging the reputation of Boeing, which was already under scrutiny for delivering the Dreamliner to customers more than three years late. The plane's list price is about $207 million.

The latest problems came Friday, when Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways said a domestic flight from Tokyo landed safely at Matsuyama airport in western Japan after a crack developed on the cockpit windscreen, and the plane's return to Tokyo was cancelled.

"Cracks appear a few times every year in other planes. We don't see this as a sign of a fundamental problem" with Boeing aircraft, a spokesman for the airline said. The same airline later on Friday said oil was found leaking from an engine of a 787 Dreamliner after the plane landed at Miyazaki airport in southern Japan. An airline spokeswoman said it later returned to Tokyo after some delay. No one was injured in either incident.

Boeing said Friday the 787 logged 50,000 hours of flight, with more than 150 flights occurring daily, and that its performance has been on par with the Boeing 777, which it calls "the industry's best-ever introduction" of a new airplane. "More than a year ago, the 787 completed the most robust and rigorous certification process in the history of the FAA," Boeing said in a statement. "We remain fully confident in the airplane's design and production system."

Ray Conner, president and chief executive officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said Friday that the recent problems were not caused by Boeing's outsourcing of production or by ramping up production too quickly.

"We are fully committed to resolving any issue that affects the reliability of our airlines," he said.

gkarp@tribune.com

Reuters contributed
 

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Abducted Indiana boy found in Minnesota, 19 years later

Richard Wayne Landers Jr. was 5 years old when his paternal grandparents allegedly abducted him in northeastern Indiana in 1994 and the three seemingly vanished, frustrating detectives for nearly two decades.

But Landers, who is now 24, has been found alive and well in Minnesota, where he is married and uses a name that his grandparents gave him after they abducted him, the Indiana State Police said Thursday.

His grandparents, Richard E. and Ruth A. Landers, live about eight miles from him and have been using aliases since the abduction, said Sgt. Ron Galaviz, a spokesman for the Indiana State Police.

Federal prosecutors and county prosecutors in both Minnesota and Indiana are reviewing the case, Galaviz said.

"The fact of the matter is he's been found alive and well," the spokesman said. "There's a lot of policemen here in LaGrange County (Ind.) and the family here in LaGrange County who are awfully excited because 19 long years have come to an end."

Landers' stepfather, Richard Harter, said he and Landers' mother, Lisa Harter, learned Wednesday night that her son had been found.

"It's happened so fast, and we haven't talked to him yet," said Richard Harter, who lives in Indiana. "We are planning on it. We're going to as soon as we can."

Richard Harter declined further comment and referred additional questions to the family's attorney, who could not immediately be reached.

Landers' grandparents "were allegedly upset over pending court proceedings regarding the placement of their grandson" when they abducted him on July 29, 1994, and disappeared from their home near Wolcottville, Ind., according to a news release from the Indiana State Police.

The case was stalled for years until September 2012, when Landers' stepfather gave a state police detective the Social Security card that had been issued to Landers before he was abducted, Galaviz said.

Detectives eventually found a man living in Long Prairie, Minn., who was using Landers' Social Security number and date of birth, the spokesman said.

The man's driver's license photo looked similar to how detectives expected Landers would appear today, Galaviz said.

Police in Minnesota, as well as the FBI and the Social Security Administration, began looking into the case.

Authorities eventually found Landers' grandparents living under aliases in Browerville, Minn., Galaviz said.

He said the couple confirmed their true identities to investigators and verified that the man using Landers' Social Security number and date of birth was their grandson.

Soon after the abduction, authorities issued arrest warrants for Landers' grandparents charging them with interference with custody, a misdemeanor, according to the Indiana State Police. The charges were upgraded to felonies in 1999.

But in 2008, prosecutors decided to drop the charges because neither Landers nor his grandparents had been found.

Galaviz said he did not know whether the grandparents are in custody in Minnesota. The sheriff of the county where they live declined to comment and said his department would issue a news release Friday.

Galaviz also did not know how much knowledge, if any, Landers has of his past.

The spokesman described Landers as "well-adjusted."

"It just appears that (his grandparents) took him out there and they raised him as their own son," Galaviz said.

Landers will have to decide if he'd like to reunite with his mother, Galaviz said.

"Being a young adult now, that's going to be up to him," he said. "We can't force him and say, 'Now you're going back with your mom.' He's 24 years old."

rhaggerty@tribune.com

Twitter @RyanTHaggerty

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Baby Bones Found Scattered in Ancient Italian Village

SEATTLE — The death of an infant may not have been an occasion for mourning in ancient Italy, according to archaeologists who have found baby bones scattered on the floor of a workshop dating to the seventh century B.C.

The grisly finds consist of bone fragments uncovered over years of excavation at Poggio Civitate, a settlement about 15 miles (25 kilometers) from the city of Siena in what is now Tuscany. The settlement dates back to at least the late eighth century B.C. Archaeologists excavating the site have found evidence of a lavish residential structure as well as an open-air pavilion that stretches an amazing 170 feet (52 meters) long. Residents used this pavilion was as a workshop, manufacturing goods such as terracotta roof tiles.

In 1983, scientists uncovered a cache of bones on the workshop floor, consisting mostly of pig, goat and sheep remains. But among the bony debris was a more sobering find: two arm bones from an infant (or infants) who died right around birth.

In 2009, another baby bone surfaced at the workshop, this one a portion of the pelvis of a newborn. [See Images of the Infant Bones]

The bones “were either simply left on the floor of the workshop or ended up in an area with a concentration of discarded, butchered animals,” said Anthony Tuck, an archaeologist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, who presented an analysis of the bones Friday (Jan. 4) at the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America.

Abandoned bones

The discovery of the discarded infant bones in an area used for work could suggest that the people who labored in the workshop had little social status, Tuck said. They may have been slaves or servants whose lost infants would garner little sympathy from the community at large.

However, a third find complicates the picture. In 1971, archaeologists found an arm bone from another newborn or near-term fetus pushed up against the wall of the lavish residence along with other bones and debris. It seems as if someone swept the debris up against the wall, not differentiating between baby bones and garbage, Tuck said. [8 Grisly Archaeological Discoveries]

There’s no way to know whose infant came to rest up against the wall of a wealthy person’s home, said Tuck, who plans to submit the findings to the journal Etruscan Studies. Perhaps the infant belonged to a desperate servant, or perhaps to a member of the family. If so, it may be that even high-status families didn’t consider babies worth mourning when they died in infancy.

The possibility can sound horrifying to modern ears, Tuck said.

“This kind of new data makes people a bit uncomfortable,” he told LiveScience. “People have a tendency to romanticize the past, especially in a place like Tuscany. When we have direct evidence for this kind of behavior, it can be a little tricky to present.”

Death in infancy

Nevertheless, Tuck said, there is reason to think that people have not always given infants the same community status as adults or older children. However, baby bones tend not to preserve well, which makes it difficult to know how ancient Italians in Tuscany treated their deceased infants.

Very few signs of infant burial appear in central Italian cemeteries from this time period, though, Tuck said. The handful of coffins containing baby bones that have been found are loaded with ornaments and jewelry, suggesting that only families of great wealth could have given a lost baby an adult-style funeral.

Even in modern times, societies have sometimes seen babies as belonging to a different category than adults, Tuck said. In areas of extreme poverty and stress that have high infant mortality, the death of a newborn may not trigger many outward displays of mourning, he said.

And many cultures have naming traditions that only recognize the baby’s identity significantly after birth. For example, in traditional Jewish culture, a baby boy’s name isn’t revealed outside the family until the bris, or the ritual of circumcision eight days after birth. According to superstition, naming the baby before then would attract the attention of the Angel of Death.

The Maasai people of Africa give their newborns temporary names until a ceremony as late as age 3, in which the child receives a new name and has his or her head shaved to symbolize a fresh start in life.

On the other hand, not all ancient cultures differentiate between the burials of babies and adults. Stone Age infant graves found in Austria in 2006 date back to 27,000 years ago and contain the same beads and pigments as adult gravesites.

The people who lived in Poggio Civitate more than 2,000 years ago have left little evidence of how they viewed infants, but Tuck and his colleagues expect more finds to emerge as the researchers continue to dig in the Tuscany hills. More evidence that high- and low-class babies were buried differently would suggest that the civilization had a rigid hierarchy, they said.

Images of more than 25,000 objects recovered from the site can be found at Open Context, an open-source research database developed by the Alexandra Archive Institute.

Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas or LiveScience @livescience. We’re also on Facebook & Google+.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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ABC Chief Says Network Needs Hits, Will Abandon “All-Star” Format for “Dancing”

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – ABC entertainment president Paul Lee summed up his fall season by saying his network has “a lot to shout about, and we also have a lot to do.”

Lee’s network finished the fall in fourth place in the key 18-49 demographic and third place in total viewers. He lamented the fall’s lack of any “big breakout hits on broadcast on any of the networks and on ABC in particular.”

NBC, which passed ABC and its other rivals to become fall’s top-rated network in 18-49, might dispute that: It has touted the new drama “Revolution” as a hit.

Lee assessed his network’s fall at a Television Critics Association panel on Thursday. He said he was particularly disappointed not to see better numbers for reality standby “Dancing With the Stars,” which adapted an “all-star” format in the fall and brought back former contestants. He said that for its spring cycle, the show would go back to recruiting fresh talent, in hopes of drawing a younger audience.

Looking for a positive spin on the disappointing ratings for the show – which still averages 16 million total viewers per episode – he said the dancing this fall may have been too good.

“It turns out people like to have bad dancing as much as they do good dancing,” he said.

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F.D.A. Warns Two Producers on Egg Safety

Two large egg producers have received warning letters from the Food and Drug Administration, which said they violated a two-year-old rule aimed at preventing salmonella contamination.

During inspections conducted last summer, the F.D.A. found failures to prevent pests and wildlife from entering barns housing laying hens, poor record-keeping and other infractions that amounted to what it called “serious violations” of the rule.

The failures meant that eggs the companies produced “may have become contaminated with filth,” agency inspectors wrote in the letters, which were sent late last month and posted on the agency’s Web site on Thursday.

The letters offer a window into the way new regulations the agency proposed last week to enhance food safety might work. The proposed regulations, like the rule cited in the letters, aim to prevent food from being tainted rather than addressing contamination after it has occurred.

Both producers, Midwest Poultry Services of Mentone, Ind., and SKS Enterprises Inc., in Lodi, Calif., failed to comply with plans they had submitted to the agency aimed at preventing salmonella enteritidis, one of the most common types of salmonella bacteria, the F.D.A. said. Such plans were required by a rule set out two years ago.

Officials noted the presence of more than 30 wild birds and their nests in three of the five SKS facilities they inspected between May and August, despite the company’s plans for preventing wildlife from coming into contact with its chickens and eggs.

After the inspection, SKS told the agency it would use chicken wire to prevent wild birds from entering its barns, but the agency said it had not received any follow-up report on that correction.

The F.D.A. also said the company was missing pest control records and failed to conduct tests of its birds within time frames specified by the rule.

A woman who answered the phone at SKS’s offices at about 1 p.m. Pacific time said everyone had gone home for the day.

In Midwest Poultry’s facility in Fort Recovery, Ohio, the agency inspector found records of high levels of rodent activity — in one barn, 113 rodents were caught over a five-day period.

Midwest, which produces some 150 million dozen eggs a year, could not give inspectors any record of actions it had taken to correct the problem, and a subsequent response sent to the F.D.A. in August lacked any new strategy for dealing with rodents, the agency said.

The F.D.A. said Midwest failed to maintain records showing that it had refrigerated eggs within the required 36 hours of laying.

“They cited two violations, both of which were about documentation, and all of that documentation has been sent to them,” said Robert L. Krouse, chief executive of Midwest Poultry. “Now we’re waiting to see if they want any more.”

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Boeing to cut 40% of jobs, space at Texas plant

Guest are reflected in a Dreamliner fuselage at the jet's debut July 8, 2007, at the Boeing plant in Everett, Wash. (Robert Sorbo/Reuters / January 10, 2013)

5:06 p.m. CST, January 10, 2013

Boeing Co. said it will cut a little more than 40 percent of jobs, or 160 positions, at its El Paso, Texas, plant in response to planned U.S. defense budget reductions.

The company said it will trim occupied square footage 50 percent at the plant by moving from three buildings to one. The plant in Texas manufactures electronics for a variety of Boeing products.

The cuts will be completed by the end of 2014, the company said.

Boeing announced a major restructuring of its defense division in November that would cut 30 percent of management jobs from 2010 levels, close facilities and consolidate several business units.

The company's shares closed at $77.09 on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday.

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Bucks' strong second half enough for victory over Bulls

New coach Jim Boylan chuckled pregame Wednesday night when asked if he discussed what happened the last time the Bucks visited the United Center.

"I don't think you want to bring up the fact you were down 27 points midway through a third quarter," Boylan said.

This time, the Bucks "only" trailed by 15 in the opening period, but the comeback carried the same weight. Preventing the Bulls from posting their first, four-game winning streak this season, the Bucks stormed back behind a scintillating performance from Brandon Jennings for a 104-96 triumph.

Jennings scored 20 of his opponent-season-high 35 points in the third period, mocking Nate Robinson's winged airplane routine on two of his four 3-pointers in the period. Robinson, starting for the injured Kirk Hinrich, punctuated his 13 first-quarter points with several demonstrative gestures.

"I really don't take kindly to trash talking because I don't do a lot of trash talking," Jennings said. "I warned him. And then I got ticked off at halftime and just attacked."

That the Bucks rallied despite beating the Suns at home on Tuesday while the Bulls rested made the victory all the more impressive. Boylan is 2-0 since replacing the departed Scott Skiles on Monday, getting 16 points and four 3-pointers off the bench from Mike Dunleavy.

"We had a good edge to start but then we started trading buckets," coach Tom Thibodeau said. "They got to every loose ball, made the effort plays. In the first half, we moved the ball. In the second half, we didn't, which led to their 15 blocked shots."

That's the most blocks for a Bulls' opponent since the Magic had the same on April 6, 2005. Larry Sanders posted seven as the Bulls shot 29.8 percent in the second half.

"Larry's presence around the basket is intimidating," Boylan said. "Guys go in there and they're looking for him."

Robinson disputed this as vehemently as he disputed his duel with Jennings got out of hand, emphasizing on the former that the Bulls kept attacking the basket. As for the latter, Robinson said the trash talking is "just basketball."

Robinson finished with 19 points, six assists, five rebounds and a career-high-tying five steals, so it's not like he got distracted. Still, Thibodeau was asked if he would rather see Robinson keep his emotions in check.

"It's a competitive game," Thibodeau said. "Some guys do it and they're fine. To me, if you do it and that's the way you are and you're not distracted … I prefer just to concentrate on doing your job."

Translated: Yes.

The Bulls' last gasp faded when Marco Belinelli missed a wide-open 3-pointer with 69 seconds left and failed to close a 100-96 deficit. Belinelli later followed with a frustration foul on Sanders, who blocked his attempt on the next possession.

Carlos Boozer posted 22 points and 11 rebounds for his sixth straight double-double, his longest streak as a Bull.

"Having Kirk out was a huge factor because of the pressure he applies to Brandon in the backcourt," Boylan said.

Didn't look like much could stop Jennings.

kcjohnson@tribune.com

Twitter @kcjhoop

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‘Liquipod’ takes smartphone waterproofing on the road

Amid a sea of Ultra-HD TVs, smart washing machines and various other gadgets, waterproofing expert Liquipel took to CES 2013 to make two announcements. The firm, which adds an interior and exterior waterproof nanocoating to cell phones, revealed a new and improved waterproofing material that is even more effective than its first-generation solution. Liquipel also unveiled its new “Liquipod,” a portable machine that can waterproof gadgets anywhere in the world while device owners wait, according to TechCrunch. Previously, Liquipel required customers to ship their handsets to the company’s offices for treatment.

[More from BGR: iPhone 5 now available with unlimited service, no contract on Walmart’s $ 45 Straight Talk plan]

This article was originally published on BGR.com

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“Les Miserables” soundtrack tops Billboard album chart

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The soundtrack to the big screen adaption of Broadway musical “Les Miserables” topped the Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday, edging out British folk rockers Mumford & Sons.

“Les Miserables” sold 92,000 albums in the week, according to data from Nielsen SoundScan, a 32 percent decline from last week for the star-studded production featuring the singing of Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman. It was the No. 2 album last week.

The soundtrack had the poorest showing for a No. 1 album since Christian hip-hop and pop artist tobyMac’s “Eye on It” topped the chart in September with 69,000 in sales.

Mumford & Sons’ “Babel” rose to the second spot from No. 8, finishing behind “Les Mis” by only a thousand albums sold. The British band’s second album was boosted by a sale price and heavy promotion on the Apple iTunes Store.

Country-pop star Taylor Swift, whose album “Red” spent the past four weeks atop the chart, dropped to third.

“American Idol” winner Phillip Phillips’ “The World from the Side of the Moon” took fourth and British boy band One Direction’s “Take Me Home” was fifth on the chart.

U.S. album sales for last week, which totaled 6.26 million, rose 8 percent compared to the same week last year.

A total of 34.53 million songs were downloaded last week, a 5 percent increase from last year.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Jackie Frank)

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Flu Widespread, Leading a Range of Winter’s Ills

It is not your imagination — more people you know are sick this winter, even people who have had flu shots.

The country is in the grip of three emerging flu or flulike epidemics: an early start to the annual flu season with an unusually aggressive virus, a surge in a new type of norovirus, and the worst whooping cough outbreak in 60 years. And these are all developing amid the normal winter highs for the many viruses that cause symptoms on the “colds and flu” spectrum.

Influenza is widespread, and causing local crises. On Wednesday, Boston’s mayor declared a public health emergency as cases flooded hospital emergency rooms.

Google’s national flu trend maps, which track flu-related searches, are almost solid red (for “intense activity”) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly FluView maps, which track confirmed cases, are nearly solid brown (for “widespread activity”).

“Yesterday, I saw a construction worker, a big strong guy in his Carhartts who looked like he could fall off a roof without noticing it,” said Dr. Beth Zeeman, an emergency room doctor for MetroWest Medical Center in Framingham, Mass., just outside Boston. “He was in a fetal position with fever and chills, like a wet rag. When I see one of those cases, I just tighten up my mask a little.”

Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston started asking visitors with even mild cold symptoms to wear masks and to avoid maternity wards. The hospital has treated 532 confirmed influenza patients this season and admitted 167, even more than it did by this date during the 2009-10 swine flu pandemic.

At Brigham and Women’s Hospital, 100 patients were crowded into spaces licensed for 53. Beds lined halls and pressed against vending machines. Overflow patients sat on benches in the lobby wearing surgical masks.

“Today was the first time I think I was experiencing my first pandemic,” said Heidi Crim, the nursing director, who saw both the swine flu and SARS outbreaks here. Adding to the problem, she said, many staff members were at home sick and supplies like flu test swabs were running out.

Nationally, deaths and hospitalizations are still below epidemic thresholds. But experts do not expect that to remain true. Pneumonia usually shows up in national statistics only a week or two after emergency rooms report surges in cases, and deaths start rising a week or two after that, said Dr. Gregory A. Poland, a vaccine specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. The predominant flu strain circulating is an H3N2, which typically kills more people than the H1N1 strains that usually predominate; the relatively lethal 2003-4 “Fujian flu” season was overwhelmingly H3N2.

No cases have been resistant to Tamiflu, which can ease symptoms if taken within 48 hours, and this year’s flu shot is well-matched to the H3N2 strain, the C.D.C. said. Flu shots are imperfect, especially in the elderly, whose immune systems may not be strong enough to produce enough antibodies.

Simultaneously, the country is seeing a large and early outbreak of norovirus, the “cruise ship flu” or “stomach flu,” said Dr. Aron J. Hall of the C.D.C.’s viral gastroenterology branch. It includes a new strain, which first appeared in Australia and is known as the Sydney 2012 variant.

This week, Maine’s health department said that state was seeing a large spike in cases. Cities across Canada reported norovirus outbreaks so serious that hospitals were shutting down whole wards for disinfection because patients were getting infected after moving into the rooms of those who had just recovered. The classic symptoms of norovirus are “explosive” diarrhea and “projectile” vomiting, which can send infectious particles flying yards away.

“I also saw a woman I’m sure had norovirus,” Dr. Zeeman said. “She said she’d gone to the bathroom 14 times at home and 4 times since she came into the E.R. You can get dehydrated really quickly that way.”

This month, the C.D.C. said the United States was having its biggest outbreak of pertussis in 60 years; there were about 42,000 confirmed cases, the highest total since 1955. The disease is unrelated to flu but causes a hacking, constant cough and breathlessness. While it is unpleasant, adults almost always survive; the greatest danger is to infants, especially premature ones with undeveloped lungs. Of the 18 recorded deaths in 2012, all but three were of infants under age 1.

That outbreak is worst in cold-weather states, including Colorado, Washington, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Vermont.

Although most children are vaccinated several times against pertussis, those shots wear off with age. It is possible, the authorities said, that a new, safer vaccine introduced in the 1990s gives protection that does not last as long, so more teenagers and adults are vulnerable.

And, Dr. Poland said, if many New Yorkers are catching laryngitis, as has been reported, it is probably a rhinovirus. “It’s typically a sore, really scratchy throat, and you sometimes lose your voice,” he said.

Though flu cases in New York City are rising rapidly, the city health department has no plans to declare an emergency, largely because of concern that doing so would drive mildly sick people to emergency rooms, said Dr. Jay K. Varma, deputy director for disease control. The city would prefer people went to private doctors or, if still healthy, to pharmacies for flu shots. Nursing homes have had worrisome outbreaks, he said, and nine elderly patients have died. Homes need to be more alert, vaccinate patients, separate those who fall ill and treat them faster with antivirals, he said.

Dr. Susan I. Gerber of the C.D.C.’s respiratory diseases branch, said her agency has not seen any unusual spike of rhinovirus, parainfluenza, adenovirus, coronavirus or the dozens of other causes of the “common cold,” but the country is having its typical winter surge of some, like respiratory syncytial virus “that can mimic flulike symptoms, especially in young children.”

The C.D.C. and the local health authorities continue to advocate getting flu shots. Although it takes up to two weeks to build immunity, “we don’t know if the season has peaked yet,” said Dr. Joseph Bresee, chief of prevention in the agency’s flu division.

Flu shots and nasal mists contain vaccines against three strains, the H3N2, the H1N1 and a B. Thus far this season, Dr. Bresee said, H1N1 cases have been rare, and the H3N2 component has been a good match against almost all the confirmed H3N2 samples the agency has tested.

About a fifth of all flus this year thus far are from B strains. That part of the vaccine is a good match only 70 percent of the time, because two B’s are circulating.

For that reason, he said, flu shots are being reformulated. Within two years, they said, most will contain vaccines against both B strains.

Joanna Constantine, 28, a stylist at the Guy Thomas Hair Salon on West 56th Street in Manhattan, said she recently was so sick that she was off work and in bed for five days — and silenced by laryngitis for four of them.

She did not have the classic flu symptoms — a high fever, aches and chills — so she knew it was probably something else.

Still, she said, it scared her enough that she will get a flu shot next year. She had not bothered to get one since her last pregnancy, she said. But she has a 7-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter, “and my little guys get theirs every year.”

Jess Bidgood contributed reporting.

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