By Bara Vaida
Updated October 2022
The southern hemisphere just wrapped up the most severe flu season since the pandemic began, suggesting the possibility that a long-feared “twindemic” of flu and COVID-19 cases overwhelming hospitals could occur in the upcoming 2022-23 winter season.
Journalists should take this time to get up to speed on covering the flu — a disease that is often considered a nuisance winter illness, but health experts say needs to be considered a disease that can cause serious health complications, especially for pregnant women, children and older Americans.
Like COVID-19, the flu can be a deadly virus that attacks the lungs. Prior to the pandemic, the CDC estimated that the flu caused about 140,000 to 710,000 hospitalizations and 12,000 to 52,000 deaths annually.
Masking, stay-at-home orders, school closings, travel restrictions, social distancing and other preventive measures made the 2021-2022 flu season mild, with less than 5% of suspected flu-like illnesses testing positive for the virus. However, since most Americans have returned to pre-pandemic activities (e.g., school, athletic events, large social gatherings and international travel), public health officials are preparing for a surge in flu cases.
“We should be worried,” Richard Webby, Ph.D., an infectious disease specialist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, told NPR about this year’s upcoming flu season. “I don’t necessarily think it’s run-for-the-hills worried. But we need to be worried.”
There is a flu vaccine that targets circulating strains of the flu (the vaccine changes annually because the flu virus mutates), but prior to the pandemic only about half of the American public ever got the shot. Public health officials are worried that COVID-19 vaccine fatigue may mean that even fewer people will get the flu vaccine this year leaving them vulnerable if there is indeed a surge in COVID-19 and flu cases.
If the long-feared “twindemic” comes this winter, it would further strain the U.S. health system which is already under duress from two and half years of COVID-19 response.
To help you prepare for coverage, here are some resources:
More about the flu
The flu is endemic to humanity and typically emerges in the late fall or winter seasons. This is likely because high humidity and warm temperatures hinder the spread of the virus. The word “influenza” comes from the Italian word “influence,” meaning an illness influenced by the cold. The height of flu season is usually December through February, but officially begins Oct. 1 and lasts through the end of May the following year.
The flu is dangerous because the influenza virus attacks the respiratory system. It can weaken the immune system leaving the body vulnerable to contracting other serious diseases like COVID-19, pneumonia and tuberculosis. Older people, pregnant women, children, and those with certain chronic health conditions are most at risk for flu complications that can lead to death. In the 2019 to 2020 flu season, the CDC said a minimum of 199 children died from the flu and likely the number of those who died was two to three times higher. Eighty percent of kids who died from the flu were unvaccinated.
Over the past few years, there has been an increasing number of studies showing that, like SARS-CoV-2, the influenza virus can damage the heart and brain and cause lingering inflammation. That’s why preventing the flu, rather than taking a risk of becoming ill with it is the best option, public health experts say.
Official flu data
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Check out the CDC’s weekly national flu vaccination dashboard, which lists key points about the current flu season and vaccination, with data visualizations.
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FluView, the CDC’s weekly flu surveillance report provides detailed weekly information about where flu is circulating and breakdowns of flu impacts on age groups.
Vaccine efficacy
The flu vaccine isn’t 100% effective. In fact, it is far below that. Effectiveness (meaning reducing the chances of becoming sick from the flu) have ranged between a low of 10% in in the 2004 to 2005 flu season, to a high of 60% in the 2010 to 2011 flu year, according to this CDC chart. Flu viruses mutate each year, making it challenging for scientists to develop a shot to target all the circulating strains correctly. For the 2019-2020 flu season, the flu vaccine, on average, was about 39% effective against different flu strains, according to the CDC. For flu vaccine effectiveness trends, look at this history of vaccine effectiveness from 2004 to 2021.
A “universal” flu vaccine?
Researchers continue to work on a “universal” flu vaccine that targets a part of the virus that doesn’t mutate. In June 2022, the National Institutes of Health began the first stage in human clinical trials of a universal flu vaccine that scientists hope will protect the body from multiple strains of the virus. However, a universal vaccine is likely still many years away from a commercially available product. Two companies, Pfizer and Moderna are also making use of the mRNA technology used in the COVID-19 vaccines to try to develop a better flu vaccine. They too are likely years away from a new flu vaccine.
Media-friendly experts to call
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Louise Aronson, M.D., M.P.H, professor of geriatric medicine at the University of California, San Francisco; Louise.Aronson@ucsf.edu (Can speak to infectious disease and those 65 and older)
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William Borden, M. D., associate professor of medicine, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences; 202-741-2233. (Can speak to the connection between heart attacks, strokes, and the flu)
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Maria Carney, M.D., chief of geriatric and palliative medicine at Northwell Health; mcarney@nshs.edu (can speak to aging population and infectious disease_
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Camille Clare, M.D., M.P.H., C.P.E., chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology Department at the SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University; 212-423-6262 (can speak about pregnancy and the flu vaccine)
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Robert H. Hopkins M.D., professor of medicine and pediatrics and director of Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences; 501-686-5236 (Can speak to national efforts to boost flu vaccination)
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Preeti Malani, M.D., internal medicine physician at Michigan Medicine pmalani@med.umich.edu (Can speak to infectious disease and geriatric care)
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Litjen (L.J.) Tan, Ph.D., M.S., chief strategy officer with the Immunization Action Coalition and member of the Health and Human Service Department’s National Vaccine Advisory Committee; 651-647-9009, lj.tan@immunize.org (Can speak to national and local efforts to boost flu vaccination rates)
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Cedric “Jamie” Rutland, M.D., CEO of West Coast Lung and COVID-19 medical director of Private Health Management and vice president of the Association for Healthcare Social Media, which aims to dispel health care myths, including those about the flu vaccine. Contact him via media specialist Lauren Schmalz; lauren.schmalz@evokegroup.com, 267-987-1428 (Can speak to reaching the African-American community about flu vaccination)
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Laura Riley, M.D., chair of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Weill Cornell Medical Center; 646-962-9564. (Expert on women’s health and the flu, can offer advice on pregnant people and how to reach this population, as well as minority communities for vaccination)
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William Schaffner, M.D., professor of preventive medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, 615-322-2037, mwilliam.schaffner@vanderbilt.edu. (Can speak on every aspect of the flu, from vaccination to why it is dangerous in all age groups)
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Patricia (Patsy) Stinchfield, R.N., M.S., C.P.N.P., C.I.C., president of the National Foundation of Infectious Diseases, and affiliate faculty member at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing. Media contact: Lauren Schmalz; 267-987-1428 (Can speak about kids, adolescents, and advice for parents about the flu vaccine)
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Richard Webby, Ph.D., infectious disease researcher and head of the Webby Lab at St. Jude’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital and director of the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Centre on the ecology of influenza in animals and birds; richard.webby@stjude.org, (901) 595-3014 (Can speak to global efforts to stop the flu, efforts to match the flu vaccine to circulating strains and flu in children)
Patient stories
If you are looking for patient stories about the flu, contact Families Fighting the Flu, a nonprofit representing families who have been injured or died from the flu.
