Doctors’ visits for flu-like symptoms — fevers, sore throat, extreme fatigue and body aches — have hit the highest level in nearly 30 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and are likely to continue to rise in the coming weeks. At least 5,000 people have died this season, including nine children.
For the week ending Dec. 27, the CDC reported that nearly 1 in 10 outpatient visits nationwide — 8.2% — were for flu-like illnesses. That’s the highest logged since the CDC started tracking such visits in 1997. The flu has accounted for more than 11 million illnesses this season and 120,000 hospitalizations.
Forty-five states are experiencing high to very high levels of flu activity.
Only Montana, South Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia are experiencing low to moderate flu spread. Data for Nevada was “insufficient,” the agency said.
Because the latest data is from the week of Christmas, it doesn’t yet reflect illnesses caused by holiday travel and gatherings.
“It’s still too soon to know what the impact of the holiday season is going to be on flu activity,” said Krista Kniss, an epidemiologist in the CDC’s influenza division. “We’re not anywhere close to being done.”
Dr. Nick Cozzi, emergency medical services director for Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, said the flu is keeping his team “incredibly busy.”
“I see a lot of patients coming in with cough, runny nose, shortness of breath, diarrhea and bone-chilling body aches,” he said.
Compounding the problem, many patients are dealing with other viruses, like Covid or RSV, on top of flu, Cozzi said.
A significant number of patients, he said, are also having trouble breathing. “We’re admitting patients at a higher rate than we normally do,” he said. “Their oxygen levels are lower than normal, creating a potential situation which can be life-threatening unless they receive supplemental oxygen.”
At Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, flu hospitalizations more than doubled in the last two weeks compared with the previous two-week period, said Dr. Emily Boss, director of pediatric otolaryngology at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.
“This rise is earlier than last year by about a month,” Boss said. “We don’t know yet what the peak will look like compared to prior seasons.”
HHS no longer recommends flu shots for all kids
The 2025-26 flu season, which is just getting started, follows the deadliest season for children since the CDC began tracking pediatric deaths. On Monday, the CDC reported an additional death of a child last season, bringing the total to 289, eclipsing even the number of pediatric deaths from the 2009 H1N1 pandemic.
It’s too soon to know how harsh this season will be for children, although under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s guidance, the U.S. is no longer recommending that all children get annual flu shots.
On Monday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a major overhaul of the childhood vaccination schedule. Effective immediately, the administration said, the flu vaccine will be taken off of the official childhood vaccine schedule.
“To back off on a flu recommendation in the midst of a pretty severe flu year seems to me to be pretty tone-deaf,” Dr. Sean O’Leary, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ committee on infectious diseases, said on a call with reporters. “And that’s coming off an influenza year where we had the most childhood deaths from influenza in many years.”
As of Monday afternoon, the CDC’s website still stated: “Everyone 6 months and older, with rare exceptions, should get a flu vaccine.”
Flu 'really is that big of a deal'
Flu’s potential to wreak havoc on otherwise healthy young children is playing out in Naya Kessler’s hospital room at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.
Naya, 3, has been vomiting and running a fever since she was diagnosed with the flu on Dec. 29, Kessler said.
“She was getting pretty dehydrated. She wasn’t taking anything in. Her fevers were continuously spiking,” Kessler said. “There was just something screaming at me in my mind that something was wrong.”
Naya was hospitalized Wednesday. She remains in the hospital, nearly a week later. Kat Kessler said everyone in her family, including Naya, got this year’s flu shot.
“I can’t even imagine how much worse it might be for her if we didn’t,” she said.
