Numbers in context

POLS 235 students, in the "Numbers" chapter from our Unit 3 textbook Policy Paradox, Deborah Stone argues numbers only make sense in context. So I was glad to see this Washington Post story, and another I heard earlier on NPR, contextualizing the important number early. Here's the first paragraph of the Post story:

Swine flu could infect half the U.S. population this fall and winter, hospitalizing up to 1.8 million people and causing as many as 90,000 deaths -- more than double the number that occur in an average flu season, according to an estimate from a presidential panel released Monday.