The big picture: Flu-connected hospital admissions over Thanksgiving week almost doubled over the previous week and were the highest seen for that period since the 2010-2011 season, per the CDC.
- Adults 65 and older and kids 4 and under have been hit particularly hard during the unusually early surge, especially if they had underlying health conditions.
Go deeper: Public health experts say that masking and other pandemic precautions largely kept influenza at bay over the past two years and disrupted its seasonal spread. But the return to pre-pandemic life has left us “immunologically naïve” and more susceptible to infections.
The flu outbreak comes as other respiratory diseases are circulating, including respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, and emerging COVID variants.
- The CDC estimates that so far this season, there have been at least 8.7 million illnesses, 78,000 hospitalizations and 4,500 deaths from the flu.
What we’re watching: There’s particular concern about pregnant women and some racial and ethnic groups. Flu vaccine uptake at this point for pregnant women is 12.1 percentage points lower than in 2021 and 21.7 percentage points lower than in 2020, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota noted.
https://www.axios.com/2022/12/05/flu-outbreak-decade-hospltalizations