Flu hitting Long Island, New York State, nation hard this year
Fewer people getting flu shots and the vaccine not working as well with some strains are among the reasons experts said this year's season was particularly severe. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
The flu has hit Long Island — and the rest of the nation — hard this season with the most lab-confirmed cases the state has seen in at least six years.
State health officials said because of the higher flu activity, they are "extending the surveillance season beyond May" until activity decreases.
Experts attributed the severe year to many reasons, including especially active influenza virus variants, fewer people getting shots and the vaccine not working as well with some strains.
"Influenza has always been underestimated. Some years it’s relatively mild and some years it’s horrible," said Dr. Bruce Farber, chief of public health and epidemiology at Northwell Health.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has labeled this a "high severity season" for all age groups, the first with that designation since the 2017-2018 season.
The agency estimates that so far this season there have been at least 46 million illnesses, 590,000 hospitalizations, and 26,000 deaths. There were 40 million illnesses last season, compared with 31 million the previous year and 11 million in the 2021-2022 season, while the nation was in the grips of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In New York State, there have been more than 524,000 lab-confirmed cases so far this year, compared with 403,000 and 336,000 over the last two years.
Nassau and Suffolk, which have reported 54,998 and 55,691 cases, respectively, are at the highest in at least four years, the years for county flu statistics that were available. Lab-reported cases only represent a portion of actual flu cases since not everyone seeks a test.
This was also the first year since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic that deaths from flu surpassed deaths from COVID. At one point in February, statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed flu mortality was at 2.6% of all deaths over a two-week period compared with COVID-19 at 1.5%.
"This is another sign that we are out of the COVID pandemic," said Andrew Pekosz, a virologist and researcher who runs a lab studying respiratory viruses at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Now, he said, COVID is "one of those respiratory viruses that is going to contribute to cases, but may no longer be the dominant virus causing respiratory illness in the winter."
One trend that has been troubling infectious disease experts in recent years is the steady drop in people getting the influenza vaccine in the U.S.
The percentage of children between 6 months and 17 years of age receiving an influenza vaccine in the 2023-2024 season was 55.4%, the lowest since the 2011-2012 season, according to CDC estimates. Among adults 18 and older, 44.9% were vaccinated last season — the lowest since the 2017-2018 season.
Experts have said interest in vaccines overall has waned since the "vaccine fatigue" of the pandemic and other concerns about side effects. And some people have said they skip getting the flu shot because it may not prevent them from getting the illness.
Farber said he is extremely concerned about this trend and pointed out the vaccine is still effective in decreasing death and hospitalization rates.
"This year I saw a 45-year-old unvaccinated man who's going to lose his arms and legs from influenza," Farber said. "He developed secondary pneumonia and shock ... Influenza has never been a benign disease."
He’s also frustrated the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also canceled the "Wild to Mild" public education campaign that urged people to get the flu vaccine because it can prevent severe illness.
"We are fighting a very bad battle right now against people who normally in the public health service and in the public health sector would be advocating for preventive vaccines such as influenza, a very safe, long established vaccine," he said.
The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Pekosz said while the lower vaccination rates won’t provide herd immunity that could help protect a community, it is still helpful for families.
"In a household where you've got three generations living under the same roof, getting everybody vaccinated helps keep flu out of the household," he said.
Pekosz said the drop in vaccinations on its own does not explain the larger number of flu cases this year. Another reason could be that "the two strains of the influenza A virus, H1N1 and H3N2 appeared at the beginning of the season, each have at least two different versions that have been circulating and so there are at least four different variants of influenza circulating that may have different properties and be able to infect different people more efficiently," he said.
Within those strains, there are variants that seem to be responding differently to the flu vaccine.
"We’re really going to have to look deep at the data to see how the different cities have been in terms of how they've been affected, and which viruses have been traveling through there," he said.
The flu has hit Long Island — and the rest of the nation — hard this season with the most lab-confirmed cases the state has seen in at least six years.
State health officials said because of the higher flu activity, they are "extending the surveillance season beyond May" until activity decreases.
Experts attributed the severe year to many reasons, including especially active influenza virus variants, fewer people getting shots and the vaccine not working as well with some strains.
"Influenza has always been underestimated. Some years it’s relatively mild and some years it’s horrible," said Dr. Bruce Farber, chief of public health and epidemiology at Northwell Health.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
This has been a rough influenza season in New York with the most lab-confirmed cases in at least six years.
Infectious disease experts said there is no clear reason for the uptick but said a combination of fewer people getting the vaccine and the virus have very active variants that can infect some people more easily are some reasons.
- Because of the "persisting elevated influenza activity" throughout New York, the state Health Department is extending the surveillance season beyond May.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has labeled this a "high severity season" for all age groups, the first with that designation since the 2017-2018 season.
The agency estimates that so far this season there have been at least 46 million illnesses, 590,000 hospitalizations, and 26,000 deaths. There were 40 million illnesses last season, compared with 31 million the previous year and 11 million in the 2021-2022 season, while the nation was in the grips of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In New York State, there have been more than 524,000 lab-confirmed cases so far this year, compared with 403,000 and 336,000 over the last two years.
Nassau and Suffolk, which have reported 54,998 and 55,691 cases, respectively, are at the highest in at least four years, the years for county flu statistics that were available. Lab-reported cases only represent a portion of actual flu cases since not everyone seeks a test.
This was also the first year since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic that deaths from flu surpassed deaths from COVID. At one point in February, statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed flu mortality was at 2.6% of all deaths over a two-week period compared with COVID-19 at 1.5%.
"This is another sign that we are out of the COVID pandemic," said Andrew Pekosz, a virologist and researcher who runs a lab studying respiratory viruses at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Now, he said, COVID is "one of those respiratory viruses that is going to contribute to cases, but may no longer be the dominant virus causing respiratory illness in the winter."
Vaccine uptake continues to decline
One trend that has been troubling infectious disease experts in recent years is the steady drop in people getting the influenza vaccine in the U.S.
The percentage of children between 6 months and 17 years of age receiving an influenza vaccine in the 2023-2024 season was 55.4%, the lowest since the 2011-2012 season, according to CDC estimates. Among adults 18 and older, 44.9% were vaccinated last season — the lowest since the 2017-2018 season.
Experts have said interest in vaccines overall has waned since the "vaccine fatigue" of the pandemic and other concerns about side effects. And some people have said they skip getting the flu shot because it may not prevent them from getting the illness.
Farber said he is extremely concerned about this trend and pointed out the vaccine is still effective in decreasing death and hospitalization rates.
"This year I saw a 45-year-old unvaccinated man who's going to lose his arms and legs from influenza," Farber said. "He developed secondary pneumonia and shock ... Influenza has never been a benign disease."
He’s also frustrated the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also canceled the "Wild to Mild" public education campaign that urged people to get the flu vaccine because it can prevent severe illness.
"We are fighting a very bad battle right now against people who normally in the public health service and in the public health sector would be advocating for preventive vaccines such as influenza, a very safe, long established vaccine," he said.
The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Pekosz said while the lower vaccination rates won’t provide herd immunity that could help protect a community, it is still helpful for families.
"In a household where you've got three generations living under the same roof, getting everybody vaccinated helps keep flu out of the household," he said.
Pekosz said the drop in vaccinations on its own does not explain the larger number of flu cases this year. Another reason could be that "the two strains of the influenza A virus, H1N1 and H3N2 appeared at the beginning of the season, each have at least two different versions that have been circulating and so there are at least four different variants of influenza circulating that may have different properties and be able to infect different people more efficiently," he said.
Within those strains, there are variants that seem to be responding differently to the flu vaccine.
"We’re really going to have to look deep at the data to see how the different cities have been in terms of how they've been affected, and which viruses have been traveling through there," he said.
Lisa joined Newsday as a staff writer in 2019. She previously worked at amNewYork, the New York Daily News and the Asbury Park Press covering politics, government and general assignment.
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