According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 35 states have reported either “high” or “very high” levels of influenza for the week ending November 18th.  The current hospitalization rate is 11.3 admissions per 100,000 population.  This is an exceptionally high figure for mid-November and is approaching the severity of the 2010-2011 influenza season:

Of approximately 120,000 specimens assayed for influenza antigen during the week ending November 18th, 18.2 percent were positive compared to 14.7 percent for the previous week.  Visits to outpatient treatment locations for influenza-like symptoms, but not confirmed as influenza, attained six percent for the week, above the national baseline of 2.5 percent.  The national flu, pneumonia or COVID-19 mortality rate is 9.4 percent, above the epidemic threshold of 6.3 percent.  Among 1,861 deaths reported for the week, 807 were attributed to COVID-19 with 66 listing influenza as a contributory cause of death.  For the season-to-date, 6.2 million cases of influenza have been confirmed with 53,000 hospitalizations and 2,900 influenza-related deaths. If eligible recipients of vaccine do not wish to be protected against COVID, there is a strong case to receive the annual influenza vaccine.

All who come into contact with live poultry should be immunized against influenza to avoid the rare possibility of an interchange of genetic material between an infected person and an infected flock that could conceivably result in a strain with the potential for human-to-human transmission.