Everyone is Sick: Is it Too Late for a Flu Shot?

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If it seems like everyone around you is getting sick this winter, you’re not wrong.

The U.S. is having one of the worst flu seasons in years, with most states reporting high or very high levels of flu activity. Tens of thousands of patients are filing into hospitals each

week, the latest federal data shows, and so far, 16,000 people in the U.S. have died from the flu this season. At the same time, other bugs, such as RSV (respiratory syncytial virus),

COVID-19 and norovirus, are also swirling about and sickening the masses.  

Steven Furr, M.D., a family physician in Jackson, Alabama, and board chair of the American Academy of Family Physicians, says a few factors are feeding the worrying influenza trends this

year. “One, this is just a tough flu strain that’s going around right now,” Furr says. “Typically, there are two flu strains we deal with, influenza A and influenza B. Influenza B tends to

be a milder strain, whereas influenza A tends to be much more severe. And essentially, every case we’re seeing this year is influenza A.”

Another contributor: Flu vaccination rates are low this year compared to previous years. As of Feb. 8, less than half of the U.S. adult population (45 percent) has received a flu shot this

season, and roughly the same share of children (45.9 percent) have been vaccinated for influenza, the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows. “So that

really hurts when the number of people who are immunized is much less,” Furr says.

Making matters worse, Furr says, is that doctors are seeing more cases of pneumonia following the flu. (Influenza can cause damage to the lining of the lungs, Furr explains, leaving you more

susceptible to other infections that can morph into pneumonia.) In some instances, the subsequent pneumonias are resistant to antibiotics, making them especially difficult to treat.