New Vaccines in the Pipeline 2020
CDC: Flu Season Is Here Already With Over 6,900 Hospitalizations, 360 Deaths
The cumulative hospitalization rate for influenza this past week—the 42nd week of 2022—-has been ... [+] higher than the rate for the 42nd week of any year since 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (Photo by: Joan Slatkin/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Education ImagesYou know all those questions about whether you should wait until a few weeks before flu season starts to get vaccinated against the flu? Well, forget the wait. The flu season has already arrived in the U.S., this year starting over a month earlier than usual. And there are signs that the coming months could be a big flu you to America. According to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Weekly U.S. Influenza Surveillance Report called Fluview, this season has had at least 880,000 flu illnesses, 6,900 flu-related hospitalizations, and 360 flu-related deaths including one child to date in the U.S. Such numbers far exceed the numbers seen at the same time of the year in 2021 and 2020. In fact, the cumulative hospitalization rate for this past week—the 42nd week of 2022—-has been higher than the rate for the 42nd week of any year since 2010.
Angela Rasmussen, PhD, a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, tweeted about this bad start to the flu season—bad if you are human but good if you are the influenza virus:
Rasmussen quote-tweeted a tweet from Helen Branswell, Senior Writer for STAT News, that included a chart of the flu-related deaths among children since the Fall of 2019. Notice the green mound for the Winter of 2019-2020 and then relative lack of green for the Winter of 2020-2021 and then a bit of green for the Winter of 2021-2022. Expect things to potentially really go green on this graph in a bad way for the Winter 2022-2023 if more isn't done to protect people against the flu.
If you haven't notice the flu around you yet, it's not as if the influenza virus is going to say, "attention, everyone, I have entered the building." You can't really tell when the virus first starts circulating in your workplace, your household, your sauna, or your Extreme Ironing Bureau meeting location. People may be infected with the virus and not display any symptoms, yet still infect others. The CDC is only counting reported cases from its selected sentinel surveillance sites and anything that local authorities may tell them. Remember, many people who get sick with influenza don't end up reporting their case to the authorities. Instead, they suffer in silence while staying at home binge watching episodes of the TV reality show "Love Is Blind" on Netflix or something like that.
Plus, not every part of the country is having the same level of flu activity yet. It's been highest in the southeast and south-central parts of the U.S. So far. But the influenza virus isn't like that weekend in Las Vegas that involved too many drinks, a chandelier, a crow bar, and whipped cream. What happened in one location won't stay in that location. Expect flu activity to steady increase throughout the U.S. In the coming weeks.
Actress Katie Holmes is seen wearing a face mask in New York City. (Photo by Jose ... [+] Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)
GC ImagesDoes this early start necessarily mean that the rest of the flu season will be particularly bad? No, like the TV show True Blood demonstrated, a strong start doesn't guarantee sustained high activity. But a number of factors presage a "I Knew Flu Were Trouble" season. There's the did-everyone-forget-that-Covid-19-is-airborne problem. This year many people seem to be tossing away face masks like they were shutter shades or micro sun glasses. Also, many places don't seem to be bothering about keeping their rooms well-ventilated and air filtered and purified. These interventions plus social distancing likely helped keep the 2020-2021 flu season practically non-existent and the 2022-2022 one quite mild. So imagine what may happen when a lot fewer people are following Covid-19 precautions, allowing various viruses to get into their respiratory systems like a restaurant would allow Hollywood A-listers to enter.
As of week 42, this has been a very A-lister influenza season, with 97.7% of the tested samples having Influenza A strains in them. The most common specific strain has been influenza A H3N2, being in 74.6% of the samples, followed by (H1N1)pdm09 in 25.4% of them. This has so far been a not too B flu season with influenza B appearing in only 2.3% of tested samples. Keep in mind that this distribution could very well change as the flu season trudges along.
Getting the flu is certainly not the same as catching a cold. Compared to the common cold, which is typically self-limited perhaps leaving your head feeling like a Hot Pocket that's been in the microwave too long, it's common to have a "Flu Shook Me All Night Long" situation. The flu can really knock you out of commission for several days. Plus, there's always the risk of even more severe complications. Family physician Gretchen LaSalle, MD, tweeted a reminder that "I'm healthy" is not a reason to not get the flu shot:
As you can see, LaSalle included a tweet from Families Fighting Flu, a nonprofit advocacy organization that describes itself as being "dedicated to protecting children, families, and communities against the flu" and including "families whose loved ones have suffered serious medical complications or died from influenza." Their tweet mentioned the tragic story of Brandon Gonzales who in a matter of days had gone from being a healthy nine-year-old riding go-carts and eating pizza to losing his life from the flu. Gonzales was not vaccinated against the flu. This was just one example of how flu can take the life of even a healthy person so quickly and how getting vaccinated could make a big difference.
Getting vaccinated can not only keep you from getting infected in the first place but can also reduce the severity of your symptoms if you do end up getting infected. Sure, the flu vaccine can't offer 100% protection. Sure, getting vaccinated doesn't mean that it's OK to dive into mosh pits with impunity or lick doorknobs. But as is the case with clothes, some protection is much better than no protection. In most flu seasons, vaccine effectiveness tends to be at least 40%.
That's why the CDC recommends that you get the influenza vaccine each year, assuming that you are at least six months old. If you are less than six months of age and reading this, you should hold off on the vaccine until your immune system is more developed. But congratulations on your ability to read.
If you haven't gotten the flu vaccine yet, no need to wait any longer. It takes about two weeks for the protection from the flu vaccine to fully kick in, so getting vaccinated now should get you protected by National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day on November 15 and the Thanksgiving Holiday the following week
Oh, and if you are wondering, you can get the flu vaccine and the Covid-19 vaccine at the same time as Norlaine Thomas, PhD, whose Twitter profile dscribes her as a "filmmaker, hockey player, Mom, domestic goddess, political geek, writer," tweeted:
Her stated reasons for her and her husband getting the Covid-19 booster and flu shots: "We did this because we are responsible adults & we trust science. We don't want to get sick & don't want to risk making anyone else sick." Imagine that. Caring about yourself and others.
Following science is what's going to help get through this Winter, which could be rough respiratory virus-wise with the Covid-19 coronavirus, the influenza virus, and other viruses like the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Ultimately the viruses don't care about your ideology. They don't care about your freedom. They just know that if you aren't protecting yourself with vaccination, face masks, hand hygiene, and appropriate social distancing, they'll have the freedom to up your nose and in your mouth.
Influenza (Seasonal Flu) Information
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Flu Statistics And Facts In 2024
Flu Statistics by YearAccording to the CDC, the estimated number of annual flu cases in the U.S. Each year since 2016 is as follows:
Estimates aren't available for the 2020-2021 flu season due to minimal influenza activity.
"The most important trend we saw was the dramatic decrease in flu that occurred with the onset of the COVD-19 pandemic and all the mitigation strategies for COVID," says Dr. Mark Roberts, M.D., director of the public health dynamics laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health. He explains that many COVID prevention measures, such as masking and social distancing, also work to prevent the spread of influenza, which is why the U.S. Witnessed such a significant drop in the 2020 and 2021 flu seasons. "The CDC won't give you flu rates for the 2020-2021 season because it doesn't have enough data to be confident about them because they were so low," he adds.
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Flu Statistics in the U.S.While the U.S. Observed a decrease in flu cases in recent years, Dr. Roberts says it's possible to expect an increase in the next season. "When there's so little influenza, that substantially decreases the immunity to influenza in the population," he says.
Infection is a key component of building immunity to influenza, explains Dr. Roberts. Since so few cases presented in the last few years, that higher level of immunity isn't there. Furthermore, vaccination rates decreased slightly, likely due to the growth of anti-vaccination rhetoric and the shift to telehealth—where it's more challenging to convince patients to come in and get a flu shot—he hypothesizes. Those factors may contribute to a rise in total flu cases in the 2022-2023 season.
"We're seeing a lot of flu this season already," says Dr. Roberts. "[It] has been much more widespread and higher [in 2022 and 2023] than previous years."
Flu Shot StatisticsUnlike an infectious disease like measles, which requires a single vaccination in one's lifetime, the influenza virus mutates rapidly and frequently, so people are encouraged to get the flu vaccine annually to protect against the latest strain the CDC predicts to be most prevalent in a given season. Dr. Roberts explains that when deciding which strains to include in the annual flu vaccine, the CDC observes the strains that appear during the winter in the southern hemisphere, as they're most likely to affect the northern hemisphere the following season.
There are a couple of reasons one should get a flu vaccine, says Dr. Roberts. First, the mortality rate of vaccinated individuals is significantly lower than that of those who are unvaccinated. Second, the vaccine can reduce the severity of flu symptoms should you contract an infection.
The CDC states that the flu shot is appropriate for most people. However, children younger than 6 months, people with life-threatening allergies to vaccine ingredients and people who have had severe allergic reactions to flu vaccines previously shouldn't get the flu vaccine.
Flu History StatisticsOne way influenza viruses develop is through a genetic process called antigenic drift, in which small mutations in the viruses' genes change the surface proteins of the viruses. Such changes are small and occur over time, typically producing new viruses closely resembling one another. However, the viruses are antigenically different, so a person's existing antibodies may not protect against each version of the virus.
Influenza viruses can also change through antigenic shift, a significantly abrupt virus change of the flu A subtype. This shift typically occurs when animal flu viruses start affecting humans. These shifts tend to lead to flu pandemics because the human population lacks immunity to the new viruses. The last antigenic shift occurred in 2009.
The best defense the human population has against the flu is the flu vaccine, which is continually improved as researchers and experts learn more about influenza viruses. Dr. Roberts explains that vaccines went from protecting against three flu strains to four flu strains in the last decade alone. He also notes that the mRNA vaccines used to protect against COVID-19 opened the doors to new technology that could help further improve flu vaccines.
"The advantage of an mRNA vaccine is that it can be made much more quickly," says Dr. Roberts. "You can wait longer to see what strains have been circulating in the southern hemisphere before you make the one for the northern hemisphere, so you don't have to guess as much. There's always a risk of missing the strains that come through, but if we get mRNA vaccines for the flu, that'll help that problem."
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