Posted on 03/23/2025 5:44:27 PM PDT by DoodleBob
Americans are facing the highest death toll from influenza since 2018, just as more people become vulnerable because of growing vaccine skepticism taking hold in statehouses and the Trump administration.
Flu-related deaths hit a seven-year high in January and February, the two months that usually account for the height of flu season, according to a Stateline analysis of preliminary federal statistics. There were about 9,800 deaths across the country, up from 5,000 in the same period last year and the most since 2018, when there were about 10,800.
Despite that, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has canceled or postponed meetings to prepare for next fall’s flu vaccine, when experts talk about what influenza strains they expect they’ll be battling.
The cancellations raised protests from medical professionals and state and federal officials. U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, said in a statement that her state is having its worst flu season in at least 15 years, with more deaths from flu and other causes as the state’s health care system struggles under the strain of flu patients.
Some experts say putting off vaccine planning will only feed false narratives that discourage lifesaving vaccinations.
“These delays not only weaken pandemic preparedness but also undermine public confidence in vaccination efforts,” said Dr. Akram Khan, an Oregon pulmonologist and associate professor at Oregon Health & Science University who has studied attitudes toward vaccines.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. has expressed doubt about the need for vaccines, including flu vaccines, despite evidence that they reduce deaths and hospitalizations.
Deaths fluctuate naturally from year to year depending on the severity of current flu strains and the effectiveness of that year’s vaccines. But some see a hesitancy to use any vaccine, fed by misinformation and political mistrust of government, already taking a toll on lives.
“It’s been a bad winter for viral respiratory infections, not just in the United States but across the Northern Hemisphere,” said Mark Doherty, a vaccine scholar and former manager for GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, a vaccine manufacturer.
“The U.S. does appear to be hit a bit harder, and it’s possible lower vaccination coverage is contributing to that,” Doherty said.
Flu vaccine distribution in the United States has been declining in recent years, and as of the first week of 2025 was down 16% from 2022, according to federal statistics.
The flu was a factor in 9,800 deaths in January and February, according to the analysis, using provisional data collected by states and compiled by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The highest death rates were in Oklahoma, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Kentucky, all at about four deaths per 100,000 population so far this year. Some counties in Florida, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, as well as Oklahoma and Kentucky, were even higher — at about six deaths per 100,000.
The highest rates have been among older people. Statistics show the deaths hit white people and American Indians especially hard.
Tragedies are happening across the country to people of all ages and races, however. A 43-year-old Indiana father died after a brief bout of the flu, according to family members. After two 10-year-olds died in Prince George’s County, Maryland, area schools drew crowds to vaccine clinics.
Doug Sides, a pastor at Yulee Baptist Church in northern Florida, has held funerals for three congregation members who died from flu — all within one month, all of them over 70 years old. That compares with only one victim of COVID-19 from his congregation during the pandemic, he said.
“Flu death is a reality,” Sides told Stateline on a phone call from a Jacksonville hospital, where he was visiting another 84-year-old congregation member who was rescued from her home with severe pneumonia from an unknown cause.
“I encourage my church members to keep their hands clean, use hand sanitizer and to stay home if they’re feeling sick,” he said. He said he hasn’t personally gotten a flu vaccine recently because he gets conflicting advice about it — some doctors tell him to avoid them because he and some family members have cancer, while another “rides me all the time about getting a flu shot.”
“We’re all getting conflicting advice. We’re living in strange-o times,” he said. (The American Cancer Society says vaccination for people with cancer may or may not be recommended depending on individual circumstances.)
Many states are relaxing vaccine requirements as public skepticism rises. But many are taking action to warn residents and reassure them that vaccinations are safe and can help prevent deaths, despite misinformation to the contrary.
Burlington County, New Jersey, has had the highest flu-associated death rate of any county this year, according to the analysis, with 31 deaths among fewer than 500,000 people. The county held 30 free vaccine clinics from September to January, then extended them into February because of the severity of the flu season, said Dave Levinsky, a spokesperson for the county health department.
In Oklahoma, death rates are highest in the eastern part of the state where the Cherokee Nation is centered. A state publicity campaign stresses that flu shots are safe, effective and free at many community health centers. However, vaccination rates in the state are low compared with other states as of December, according to federal statistics: Only about 16% of Oklahoma residents had gotten flu vaccinations by then. Rates were even lower in Louisiana (just under 16%), Mississippi (12%) and Texas (10%).
States with the highest flu vaccination rates by December were Maine (37%), Connecticut and Vermont (33%), and Wisconsin and Minnesota (31%). But even those were down since 2022.
People have become less likely to get vaccinated in recent years, a phenomenon researchers call “vaccine hesitancy.”
A report published last year in the medical journal Cureus found three-quarters of patients in a rural New York state community refused flu vaccine with comments such as “I do not trust vaccines” or “I do not believe in vaccines.” The most common reasons cited were that earlier vaccinations made them feel sick, that they got the flu anyway, or that they thought they shouldn’t need a new shot every year. (Doctors recommend flu vaccinations annually and note that even vaccinated patients who get the flu usually face less severe forms.)
And in a paper published in February in the journal Vaccine, researchers found that people refuse flu vaccinations for many of the same reasons they refused COVID-19 shots: a feeling of “social vulnerability” that leads to distrust of government and medical guidance. One hopeful sign, the report noted, is that vaccine recommendations from trusted health care professionals can turn around such attitudes.
“Unfortunately, vaccine hesitancy is deeply entangled with misinformation, political rhetoric and public distrust,” said Khan, the Oregon pulmonologist and the study’s author. “Scientific data alone may not be enough to shift public perceptions, as many vaccine decisions are driven by gut feelings and external influences rather than evidence.”
-January 2025 was the coldest in the US since 2011,
-looking at the data at this CDC site: https://wonder.cdc.gov/controller/datarequest/D176 :
-the CDC data for 2025 are still PROVISIONAL.
-It appears that the influenza-tagged death totals include instances where the virus was NOT identified AND the CONCURRENCE of other respiratory problems : J09 (Influenza due to identified avian influenza virus); J10.0 (Influenza with pneumonia, influenza virus identified); J10.1 (Influenza with other respiratory manifestations, influenza virus identified); J10.8 (Influenza with other manifestations, influenza virus identified); J11.0 (Influenza with pneumonia, virus not identified); J11.1 (Influenza with other respiratory manifestations, virus not identified); J11.8 (Influenza with other manifestations, virus not identified)
-If you ask JUST for J.09 deaths, NOTHING comes up.
-Deaths tagged J.10.1 (Influenza with other respiratory manifestations, influenza virus identified) comprise 1,094 and 2,602 of the provisional deaths for Jan + Feb 2024 and 2025, respectively, or 28-30% of the PROVISIONAL totals.
In other words, the hysteria is based on deaths where the influenza virus wasn’t identified AND provisional data. And frankly, a 138% increase in provisional influenza deaths to 2,602 in a nation of 330MM people given a really cold January 2025 isn’t getting me worried.
And the media wonder why they are viewed as a joke by normal Americans.
BS story
Last 4 years numbers were so low cause they were all covid deaths, ya know.
Now they are complications from the vax, ya know.
First of all, they just came out a couple of months ago stating the recent flu vaccine was completely ineffective.
So, there’s that.
That along with the fact that 70% of 3000+ worldwide COVID deaths this year are in the USA alone.
The graph looks like it is giving me the finger.
I was wondering how many deaths were of people who had 2 or 3 Pfizer boosters. How many were elderly who were vitamin D deficient (as with covid).
Why was it zero in 2021?
WHY WAS IT ZERO IN 2021?
Quit the fear porn, now.
Sadly, I’d expect to see a bit of a bump by the heavily vaxxinated. The Covid 19 ‘vax’ can cause ADE which would be clinically indistinguishable from flu or Covid19. The immune system is impaired and yet, it can overheat, causing cytokine storm..
Yep. And was there flu “disinformation” in 2018? Or just a rough flu season?
How influenza data is classified and collected is the mystery box. Are the numbers of 2010 collected differently than in 2025?
...”with more deaths from flu AND OTHER CAUSES and as the state’s health care system struggles under the strain of flu patients.”
President Trump has said hundreds of times that the vaccine and boosters saved 100s of millions of lives from COVID. He has said the COVID vaccine is a great accomplishment and his encouragement of the vaccine is a major reason the CDC is still strongly recommending the vaccine and asserting that it is “100% safe and effective.” So the poisoning continues and the deathcount rises well into the millions.
If any chart can undermine the veracity of the CDC, this one does. 2021-2022 number is a gross anomaly. Clearly, hospitals were diagnosing the flu as Covid to access federal dollars.
Never had a flu shot, never plan to. I don’t recall ever having the flu, either, though perhaps I did when I was a little kid and just don’t remember it.
So far my immune system is working OK.
Exactly.
Started taking D and zinc everyday in the winter for about the past 10 years.
Had almost no viral infections.
Did take ivermectin when I was exposed to Covid. My friends who didn’t were in bed for 5 days. When I got it sneezed times 5 times!
I suppose I was exposed to Covid but never got it as far as I know. I was taking D3 and zinc for a while, and I still have some horse paste around here somewhere.
Am I wrong in thinking the flu vaccine may not even be based on the most current strain?
Because everyone who got gassed er vaxxed has a damaged immune system. 🙄
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