As anyone with a respiratory system will tell you, flu season isn’t fun.

But as any investor holding pharmacy and flu-related, coughing-sniffling remedy stocks will tell you it’s one of the best times of the year.

So far, this year, according to CNBC, “It’s been more than a decade – since the H1N1 swine flu pandemic – since flu hospitalization rates have been this high at this point in the season. The CDC estimates that there have been at least 880,000 illnesses, nearly 7,000 hospitalizations and 360 deaths from flu in the US this season. The first pediatric death in the country was reported this week.”

About 128 million doses of flu vaccine have been distributed this season, compared with 140 million at this point last year and 156 million the year before that, according to the CDC.

Worse, “Seasonal influenza epidemics cause 3 million to 5 million severe cases and 300,000 to 500,000 deaths globally each year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The United States alone sees 140,000 to 710,000 influenza-related hospitalizations and 12,000 to 56,000 deaths each year, with the highest burden of disease affecting the very young, the very old, and people with coexisting medical conditions,” notes the NEJM.