January 29th, 2018 by WCBC Radio

A family is mourning after a beloved Frederick bartender was the first Marylander to die of the flu in 2018. The Frederick News-Post reports Colleen Magrann Morin died last Wednesday at Frederick Memorial Hospital. She was 41. Morin had been sick for at least a week, but those in the restaurant community said they were shocked to hear of her death. “We were expecting good news,” fellow bartender Joan Rambo told the paper. “She was so young, so full of life. Nobody could have ever expected this.”

A GoFundMe effort was launched to support her family, including her widower, as they deal with financial stress following her death. The crowdfunding campaign has raised more than $30,000 toward a $50,000 goal.

In 2014, the last year for which data was available, 4,605 Americans died of influenza or 1.4 out of every 100,000 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While around half of all children and adults aged 50 to 64 get the flu shot, and two-thirds of seniors get the flu shot, less than one-third of adults aged 18 to 49 reported having gotten their seasonal flu vaccine in a 2016 survey