BOSTON — Health officials are saying we are on track to have one of the worst flu seasons in 15 years with doctors seeing many more cases right now than COVID-19.
“Every year we try to predict what’s going to happen and it’s really quite difficult,” Dr. Paul Sax, the Director of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, told Boston 25 News.
Right now in Massachusetts and across the country, hospitals are seeing a surge in flu cases. So far, the CDC estimates there have been at least 24 million flu illnesses, 310,000 hospitalizations, and 13,000 deaths.
Just 38% of Massachusetts residents got vaccinated for the flu this season. Sax says he’s not surprised.
“I think there is a lot of fatigue in the community about vaccines in general and I think that this is not surprising after all of the push to get people vaccinated for COVID-19,” Sax explained.
Sax says in a typical year the flu vaccine is usually 30-50% effective, but he noted that the shot does help in reducing the severity of the illness.
“Our hope is that in the future, not too distant future, there will be a universal vaccine so there won’t have to be this guesswork about choosing the strain to use in the flu vaccine,” Sax added.
Despite the surge in flu cases, there is some light at the end of the tunnel, according to Sax.
For the first time in a while at Mass General Brigham, Sax said the number of positive flu tests slightly declined in the last data collection period.
Flu season typically ends by the spring.
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