U.S. flu vaccinations are over 2 million doses behind last year<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
By I. Edwards HealthDay Reporter<\/b>
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THURSDAY, Nov. 20, 2025 (HealthDay News) \u2014 A new flu variant spreading overseas may set the stage for another tough winter in the United States, experts warn.<\/p>\n
The strain, called subclade K, has caused a rise in flu<\/a> cases in the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan. And now signs suggest it is beginning to take hold across the United States as flu activity rises.<\/p>\n According to the latest U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) FluView report<\/a>, reported flu activity in the United States remains low but is climbing quickly.<\/p>\n Last year\u2019s flu season was the worst the United States had seen in nearly 15 years and led to at least 280 child deaths, according to the CDC<\/a>.<\/p>\n Most cases this year are from the H3N2 virus and about half of those belong to the subclade K variant, the same strain that fueled a difficult flu season in the Southern Hemisphere.<\/p>\n Because it wasn\u2019t circulating widely when strains were selected for the vaccine update, this year\u2019s flu shot targets close strains of the virus.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s not like we\u2019re expecting to get complete loss of protection for the vaccine, but perhaps we might expect a little bit of a drop-off if this is the virus that sort of dominates the season, and early indications are that\u2019s probably going to be the case,” Richard Webby<\/a>, a researcher at St. Jude Children\u2019s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, told CNN.<\/em><\/p>\n Early findings from the UK Health Security Agency<\/a> suggest the variant carries seven genetic changes on a major part of the virus, making it a bit harder for the body’s immune system to recognize.<\/p>\n Even so, they found that the flu shot has reduced the risk of hospitalization or emergency care by about 75% in children and 30% to 40% in adults so far this season.<\/p>\n What worries experts even more is that fewer Americans appear to be getting the flu shot.<\/p>\n Data from IQVIA<\/a> shows that pharmacies gave 26.5 million flu vaccinations from August through October, down from 28.7 million during the same period last year.<\/p>\n “I\u2019m not surprised,” Jennifer Nuzzo<\/a>, professor of epidemiology and director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, said.<\/p>\n She said recent debates about vaccine safety have “left people confused but possibly at the worst have left people worried about getting vaccinated.”<\/p>\n Australia\u2019s flu shot rates also fell this year and the country went on to record more than 443,000 cases.<\/p>\n “What they saw in Australia is that they had a bad season. And so it\u2019s concerning for you and us, what\u2019s coming,” Dr. Earl Rubin<\/a>, division director of infectious disease at Montreal Children\u2019s Hospital, told CNN.<\/em><\/p>\n Several early indicators already show flu levels rising in the U.S.<\/p>\n The WastewaterSCAN<\/a> network found type A flu in 40% of samples in November, up from 18% in October, according to Marlene Wolfe<\/a>, an assistant professor in the department of environmental health at Emory University in Atlanta.<\/p>\n Only four U.S. monitoring sites in Maine, Vermont, Iowa and Hawaii have officially crossed the threshold for declaring flu activity high, but experts say the trend is clear.<\/p>\n While it\u2019s not yet clear whether subclade K could cause more severe illness, a rise in infections alone could cause hospitalizations to skyrocket, Rubin noted.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s not too late. Go and get your flu shot,” Dr. Adam Lauring<\/a>, chief of the division of infectious diseases at the University of Michigan Medical School, in Ann Arbor, said.<\/p>\n These results<\/a> are preliminary and have not yet been peer-reviewed.<\/p>\n More information<\/strong><\/p>\n The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) has more on the flu vaccine<\/a>.<\/p>\n