The first time I got the flu, I was a senior in high school and fell sick just in time for finals week. I didn’t plan it, I swear! And believe me, it was so awful I truly would have rather been in class. So I’ve been diligent every year since to get vaccinated every mid to late September. That includes this year, and I credit it with keeping me out of the hospital when I caught the flu for the second time ever last month. Even without needing hospitalization, this flu is no joke, friends. More than anything else I think I was rattled by the persistent aches and chills. I knew it was bad when my lovey-dovey pup My Guy stopped snuggling with me and kept to the other end of the couch and/or bed. It hurt, but I don’t blame him! Well, on Monday the CDC published data for the last week of 2025, and it confirms that this flu season is the worst in the US in 25 years, reaching “high” or “very high” levels in all but four states. And the main culprit, a strain dubbed subclade K, is still spreading.

A banner year: “This is definitely a banner year,” said Dr. Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist and senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “It’s the worst we’ve had in at least 20 years. We’re seeing a majority of the country is experiencing very high levels of activity, and we’re still in the thick of it.” It’s striking to see such an intense season coming off last year’s bad flu season, she noted, as bad years don’t typically occur back to back. Nationally, about 8.2% of doctor visits were for flu-like symptoms during the last week of the year. At the same point last season, which was also brisk, that number was 6.7%.

Get vaccinated! “This is a moment for clarity, urgency, and action,” [Massachusetts] Public Health Commissioner Dr. Robbie Goldstein said in a news release. “These viruses are serious, dangerous, and life-threatening. We are seeing children who are seriously ill, families grieving devastating losses, and hospitals under capacity strain. “There is a simple, effective, and available way to address these concerns: vaccines,” he added. “They can prevent serious illness and hospitalization. And they save lives. If you have not yet been vaccinated against flu or COVID-19 this season, now is the time. It is not too late. Choosing vaccination is choosing to protect yourself, your family, your friends, your colleagues, and your community.”

Nine kids have died this season: The CDC estimates that at least 11 million people have had the flu this season, 120,000 have been hospitalized with it and 5,000 people have died. The agency also received another report of a child’s death, bringing the total number of children who’ve died of influenza this season to nine. Flu vaccinations have been dropping in children, from a high of 53% over the 2019-20 flu season to 42% at the same point this season.

Secretary Brain Worm meeting the moment: The new flu data came the same day the US Department of Health and Human Services announced a plan to modify the childhood vaccine schedule. The changes would recommend that kids get flu vaccines after a consultation with a health care provider, a provision called shared clinical decision-making, which could make the shots harder for people to access. “To back off on a flu recommendation in the midst of a pretty severe flu year seems to me to be pretty tone-deaf, and that’s coming off an influenza year where we had the most childhood deaths from influenza in many years,” said Dr. Sean O’Leary, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Infectious Diseases.

[From CNN]

Like I said on Monday, avoid this flu at all costs! I’m masking on the subway and other high-volume places again. And like the experts here say, if you haven’t yet already there’s still time to get vaccinated. The other day My Guy and I ran into some familiar faces on the dog walk circuit; we asked about each other’s holidays, and I mentioned how bad the flu was. This woman responded with, “I’m just so torn, because I’ve never gotten the flu shot before and haven’t ever had the flu.” This is an acquaintance I see on the street, mind you, not really a friend, so I didn’t feel we were close enough for me to yell back at her “That’s not science, it’s superstition!!” Or statistics, for having dodged the virus for so many years without the benefit of the best defense we have available. And don’t get me started with HHS overhauling the childhood vaccine schedule, it makes me so mad. And I don’t even have kids.

photos credit: Tima Miroshnichenko, Cottonbro Studios and Anna Shvets on Pexels