U.S. facing most intense flu season in at least 15 years
55 comments
·February 9, 2025moltar
r721
Maybe that was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whooping_cough ?
moltar
I thought and had read the symptoms but I had no whooping sound. Just the cough.
gerdesj
If you don't immunise then you don't benefit from immunisation.
I think that covid is largely considered another 'flu these days or perhaps a cold - I don't know the actual classification. It is certainly virus.
I do know that some of my neighbours, friends and family members have been through a multi week infection of some sort, on top of the usual winter infections.
An old school (pre 2020) cold or flu lasts a few days at most. This thing (whatever it is) lasts at least two weeks.
eterm
> An old school (pre 2020) cold or flu lasts a few days at most
Actual flu always lasted weeks, just lots of people call bad colds "the flu" until they experience the flu for the first time.
rimunroe
> Actual flu always lasted weeks, just lots of people call bad colds "the flu" until they experience the flu for the first time.
People don’t take the flu seriously enough. It’s a major illness and kills plenty of people each year. However, the duration can vary quite a bit.
Other than lingering coughs, neither of my two cases of the flu lasted significantly over a week. Both were confirmed as the flu by tests since both were severe enough to require PCP or hospital visits.
One was when I was in elementary school. I think I was pulled out of school for a little over a week, and knowing my parents I assume that was about how long symptoms lasted. I had terrible sinus/throat symptoms and a fever. The fever reached 104 °F. I remember lying on my mother’s lap, moaning, and at one point asked her if I was dying.
The other was during the 2009-2010 swine flu outbreak. This one was notable because it lasted almost exactly three days. I felt basically back to normal on the fourth, but prior to that I spent three days in absolute misery. My joints felt like they were creaking and were extremely painful. I remember thinking “this must be how Pak Protectors feel”. I spent 24 hours doing nothing but sleeping for an hour, waking up to use the bathroom and drink some fluids, then went back to sleep for another hour. On the fourth day I suddenly felt almost completely fine. From what I recall a very short duration of intense symptoms with a sharp boundary was fairly normal for that outbreak.
CubsFan1060
Learned that lesson like 15 years ago. 2 weeks gone, and lost 11 pounds. That was with tamiflu.
malfist
Technically speaking, the family of viruses that is all coronaviruses (covid-19 isn't the first), are considered part of the common cold group
troymc
There are seven coronaviruses known to adversely affect humans but not all of them cause the common cold [1]. Indeed, one of them (SARS-CoV-2) causes COVID-19, which is not the common cold.
[1] https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/laboratory-b...
juujian
Plus what doesn't kill you might well weaken you enough that the next thing really knocks you down
croes
You get COVID from a corona virus but the flu from influenza viruses.
A different family of viruses.
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pfisherman
This year has been a first hand education in the benefits / efficacy of vaccines for my child. Like the differences in outcomes are so stark that the effect of vaccination is obvious to even a young child.
I have also heard anecdotes of very bad flu / respiratory illness on other continents from some of my coworkers.
yapyap
> I think that covid is largely considered another 'flu these days or perhaps a cold
yeah, but with lasting possibilities such as longcovid
dlcarrier
The flu has long term effects, too: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6596076/
Really, any severe virus infection has long-term effects.
refurb
> If you don't immunise then you don't benefit from immunisation.
It looks like this year's vaccination provides partial coverage.
People often don't know that the flu vaccine manufacturers are guessing which strains will be active each year, because of the lead time required to manufacture it.
"It's important to understand that flu vaccine effectiveness can vary quite a bit from year to year. Over the past decade, effectiveness has ranged from a low of 19% to a high of 60%. During the 2023–2024 season, flu vaccines were estimated to be 42% effective."
https://www.flu.com/Articles/2024/2024-2025-Flu-Vaccine-Effe...
tzs
Only about 45% of US adults bother to get flu shots. It's about 33% for ages 18-49, 46% for 50-64, and 70% for 65+.
I'm not sure why it is so low, as they are available for free under most major insurance plans (other than HMO plans) at the pharmacies of many major grocery chains including Walmart and Albertsons/Safeway and Target and Costco with no appointment necessary so you can get them during one of you shopping trips.
clipsy
My guess is the side effects of the vaccine, the low effectiveness of the vaccine, and the relative rarity of the flu combine to make it a genuinely questionable choice for most healthy adults -- I get the flu vaccine annually now in an abundance of caution (I have an immunocompromised relative), but prior to that I went more than two decades without getting the flu vaccine and did not once get the flu. Since the vaccine itself reliably makes me feel miserable for 1-2 days and the flu makes me feel miserable for 1-2 weeks I came out substantially ahead.
Not saying that's necessarily the right choice from a public health standpoint, etc; just providing my anecdotal experience.
croes
At least the social distancing during the pandemic killed one strain
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/05/health/flu-vaccine-yamagata-s...
silisili
They've actually closed schools in my area for 2 days for mass sickness.
Weird. I don't remember that ever happening in all my years of school. Maybe it's a recent, post COVID thing?
pfisherman
There was no official shut down here. But the teachers and about 45% of the kids @ child’s grade level were out sick last week. So was definitely not business as usual either.
Fomite
It's a thing that some districts have done for a decade or two now, but it's fairly rare.
I wrote a paper on alternatives to full school closure in 2008.
throw03172019
Influenza Type A was awful this year. It took out our whole house. Having both parents and the kids sick at the same time is a whole new type of torture.
throwup238
> Having both parents and your kids is a whole new type of torture.
Tell me about it :)
uxp100
Just anecdotally, my family and some friends both got pretty bad flus this January. I mean, not sure it was flu, wasn’t covid, but mild to moderate respiratory symptoms with lots of fatigue, coughing and sneezing for like 2 and a half weeks. No fever.
ortusdux
Covid & Flu A/B tests are in most drug stores these days and usually run about $5 more than covid only tests.
throwaway89201
In Europe, they're currently even available for under a euro (or under two euros for a 'regular' expiry date and RSV as well) if you buy them online instead of at retail. For example [1] or [2] (I have no affiliation with the shop).
[1] https://altruan.de/products/safecare-covid19-influenza-a-b-a...
[2] https://altruan.de/products/fluorecare-kombischnelltest-rsv-...
1986
I also got this, felt like a cold that just took forever to clear. Wasn't covid, but didn't feel as bad as proper flu. I got my flu shot going into the season late last year.
gerdesj
Hmm check my other comment. I'm from the UK ...
alexwasserman
My 12 yr old just spent a week in bed with flu A, fever over 100 consistently for the week.
A couple of weeks before he was wishing for flu so he could skip school, but I don't think he's ever had it.
Now he's learnt flu isn't worth it to get to skip school
brikym
This is what happens with too much globalization. Commercial aviation is flying cans of viruses.
bdangubic
yup, I think thats the answer … we’ll cancel globalisation and close all airports - problem solved
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roenxi
> The U.S. winter virus season is in full force, and by one measure is the most intense in 15 years.
Well, ok. Little known fact, but on average around every 10 years the worst flu season in 10 years occurs.
> About 44 percent of adults got flu shots this winter, the same as last winter. But coverage of children is way down, at about 45 percent this winter. It’s usually around 50 percent, according to CDC data.
Typically we'd expect to be either above or below average. Is this an unusual level of variance?
For an article that is mainly fact this one is remarkably uninformative. I suppose they do a little puff piece every flu season to remind people that we have flu seasons.
tzs
> Well, ok. Little known fact, but on average around every 10 years the worst flu season in 10 years occurs
And when one of those worst years comes around I like to know about it because I don't like getting the flu.
For instance let's say I make a sandwich for lunch on a Saturday and notice I'm getting low on bread. I add bread to my shopping list and notice that I've got a few other things on there. In a normal year I'd probably go the grocery store after lunch.
If I know its a bad time for the flu though I'd probably instead put that off until Monday morning. Saturday afternoon there are a lot of people in the store. Monday morning it is almost empty.
roenxi
I doubt that strategy would have any detectable impact on whether you get the flu, or how bad your flu is when you do get it. A bad year and a normal year aren't different enough, let alone whether cases are likely to be transferred from random strangers while shopping, or if that visitation strategy actually helps [0]. There is still a roughly 90% chance you catch a flu case in a different year if you are destined to catch something this decade.
[0] If I had the flu, I would be more likely to try and shop on days and times when there aren't many other people shopping.
ei8ths
its been bad, weeks of work missed, my kids 2 weeks missed. literally throwing up day after day, sickness. its been really bad, and we dont get sick often.
kif
This flu has been one of the worst I’ve ever experienced. Fever that lasted five days, and secretions that I needed to clear several times per day almost one month after I was over the infection.
I’ve heard from a few people who were vaccinated but didn’t have an easy go of it.
pfisherman
Yes. I know of two people who had breakthrough infections. I had a mild breakthrough myself. Got the brain fog and fatigue but was thankfully spared the fever, cough, and sore throat.
juujian
Did you have COVID or another respiratory disease before?
elhudy
“ One indicator of flu activity is the percentage of doctor’s office visits driven by flu-like symptoms.”
Sounds like it could also be a measure of post-covid paranoia.
pfisherman
Definitely not paranoia. Near constant respiratory infections are par for the course with grade school aged children. You typically don’t call or visit the pediatrician unless things are especially bad or unusual.
elhudy
Pediatric patients likely make up the vast minority of the measure in question.
I’ve had one of the nastiest flus of all time. The coughs were so strong it was like electric shock thru my body and my muscles spasmed. A few days after my back muscles were sore like after a solid bench press session. They lasted a couple of days and then turned to normal coughs and lasted for another 4 weeks.