CDC: Flu season is already here with over 6,900 hospitalizations and 360 deaths

You know all those questions about whether you should wait until a few weeks before flu season starts to get the flu shot? Well forget the wait. The flu season has already started in the US and is starting over a month earlier than usual this year. And there are signs that the coming months could be a big flu for you to America. According to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Weekly US Influenza Surveillance Report is called flow viewhas recorded at least 880,000 flu cases, 6,900 flu-related hospitalizations and 360 flu-related deaths, including one child, this season in the United States to date. Those numbers far exceed the numbers for the same time of year in 2021 and 2020. In fact, the cumulative hospitalization rate for the past week — the 42nd week of 2022 — was higher than the rate for the 42nd week of any year since 2010.

Angela Rasmussen, PhD, a virologist at the Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Organization at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, tweeted about this bad start to the flu season — bad if you’re human, but good if you’re the influenza virus:

Rasmussen quoted a tweet from Helen Branswell, Senior Writer for STAT messages, which included a chart of childhood flu-related deaths since fall 2019. Note the green hill for winter 2019-2020 and then the relative lack of green for winter 2020-2021 and then a bit of green for winter 2021-2022. Expect things to potentially get really bad in this chart for winter 2021-2022.

If you haven’t noticed the flu around you, it’s not like the influenza virus will say, “Look out, everyone, I’ve entered the building.” People can be infected with the virus, not showing symptoms, but still infect others. The CDC only counts reported cases from their chosen Sentinel monitoring sites and anything local authorities might tell them. Many people who get the flu do not report their case to the authorities. Instead, they suffer in silence while they stay home and watch Love Is Blind Netflix or something like that.

Also, not every part of the country has the same flu activity yet. So far it has been highest in the Southeast and Southern United States. But the flu virus isn’t like this weekend in Las Vegas, which involved a chandelier, a crowbar and whipped cream. What happened in one place will not stay in that place. Expect flu activity to steadily increase in the US over the coming weeks.

Does this early start necessarily mean the rest of the flu season will be particularly bad? No, like the TV show True Blood shown, A strong start does not guarantee continued high activity. But a number of factors point to an I Knew Flu Were Trouble season. There is the issue of “everybody forgot that Covid-19 is in the air”. Many people seem to throw away face masks as if they were blinds or micro-sunglasses. Also, many places don’t seem to care about keeping their spaces well ventilated and the air filtered and purified. These interventions and social distancing likely contributed to the 2020-2021 flu season being virtually non-existent and the 2022-2022 flu season remaining fairly mild.

As of week 42, this was a very A season of influenza with 97.7% of the samples tested containing influenza A strains. The most common specific strain was influenza A H3N2, present in 74.6% of the samples, followed by (H1N1)pdm09 in 25.4% of them. This has not been a very B flu season so far, with influenza B present in only 2.3% of the samples tested. Keep in mind that this distribution could very well change over the flu season.

Getting the flu is certainly not the same as catching a cold. Compared to a common cold, which is typically self-limiting and might make your head feel like a hot pocket that’s been in the microwave for too long, it’s common to have a “flu was rocking me all night” situation to have. The flu can really knock you out for days. In addition, there is always a risk of even more serious complications. Family doctor Gretchen LaSalle, MD, tweeted a reminder that “I’m healthy” is no reason not to get the flu shot:

As you can see, LaSalle included a tweet from Families Fighting Flu, a nonprofit advocacy group that describes itself as “committed to protecting children, families and communities from the flu” and “includes families whose loved ones have experienced serious medical complications or died of the flu”. Her tweet mentions the tragic story of Brandon Gonzales, who died of the flu from a healthy nine-year-old who was driving go-karts and eating pizza.

Not only can vaccination prevent you from becoming infected in the first place, but it can also reduce the severity of your symptoms if you do become infected. Sure, the flu shot can’t offer 100 percent protection. Of course, getting vaccinated doesn’t mean you can dive into mosh pits or lick doorknobs with impunity. But like clothing, some protection is much better than no protection. During most flu seasons, the vaccine’s effectiveness is usually at least 40%.

For this reason, the CDC recommends that you get the flu shot every year, provided you are at least six months old. If you are less than 6 months old and reading this, you should wait until your immune system is more developed before you vaccinate. But congratulations on your reading ability.

If you haven’t been vaccinated against the flu yet, don’t wait any longer. It takes about two weeks for full protection from the flu shot to take effect. So if you get vaccinated now, you should be protected until National Fridge Cleaning Day on November 15 and Thanksgiving the following week

Oh, and if you’re wondering, you can get the flu vaccine and the Covid-19 vaccine at the same time, as filmmaker and author Norlaine Thomas, PhD, tweeted here:

This could be a harsh winter respiratory virus, and the viral party may just be getting started.