South Carolina during one week in early December was the sickest state in the country, with 4.3 percent of the population (about 176,300 people) experiencing flu-like symptoms, according to Kinsa, a company tracking where flu-like illness is spreading in real time with the help of its smart thermometers.

Kinsa has collected more than 10 million (anonymous) temperature readings (averaged 40,000 per day last flu season) and the Kinsa Insights team tracks outbreaks of the flu by studying aggregate data of where fever and other symptoms are popping up around the country.

Kinsa says its numbers are nearly perfectly aligned with the CDC’s influenza data over the past three years.

And the data show South Carolina is having a tough go in 2018. The number of illnesses represents an 89 increase over this time last year and a

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