Representative Image. / Canva

The seasonal flu this year is the worst the US has experienced in 15 years according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  

More than 29 million cases of influenza have been reported, leading to at least 370,000 hospitalizations, and 16,000 deaths. Speakers at Ethnic News media briefing discussed the alarming rise in cases of flu, erosion of trust in vaccines, and fear of ICE in the undocumented community that keeps them away from health centers creating a chink in the armour against the flu. 

Just as diseases are infectious, lack of vaccination is also infectious. Anti-COVID vaccine behavior is spreading to immunizations across the board.

Vaccination rates have fallen. The percent of the population reporting receipt of an influenza vaccine is 46.9 percent for children and 45.8 percent for adults age 18+, including 70.7 percent among adults age 65+.

The primary driver of influenza outbreaks is low vaccination rates and human-to-human transmission in enclosed environments. Communities with lower vaccination rates, predominantly Latino black and American Indian populations, face disproportionate risks. 

What's keeping vulnerable communities from seeking care?

“Fear I believe,” said Dr. Daniel Turner-Lloveras, practicing clinician-educator and a founding member of The Latino Coalition Against COVID-19. 22 percent are skipping necessary health care due to deportation concerns, he said. “ This is as per the Experience: The 2023 KFF/LA Times Survey of Immigrants”

“27 percent of undocumented immigrants and 8 percent of documented immigrants report avoiding applying for food, housing and healthcare assistance due to these immigration related fears.”

Dr. Daniel Turner-Lloveras, is working in a hospital in Central California. “There is a fear of showing up to the emergency department, of showing up to clinics for vaccinations for not only preventative care but also when someone is ill.”

“The way infection works, it's a communal effort. When everyone is vaccinated, there's a huge benefit. When only some get vaccinated, then we see vaccines no longer working,” said the speakers. 

Anti-vaxxers are bringing eradicated diseases back

We saw that in California when some people who don't believe in vaccines stopped vaccinating their children. And now for the first time ever, we're seeing diseases that were essentially eradicated in the United States. They are coming back, said Dr. Daniel Turner-Lloveras. “ We are not trained in medical school to deal with that. No one expected this to happen.”

Get vaccinated now

Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, Professor of Medicine and director of the immunocompromised host infectious diseases program, University of California, San Francisco urged people to get vaccinated. It can reduce the risk of hospitalization and make symptoms less severe. The vaccine protects against three flu strains, including H1N1 and H3N2, known for causing more severe illness.

Although two thirds of the severe illness and deaths are in those over 65, a surprising number of children have been seriously ill this year, including deaths.

Recognizing symptoms in children

“We've had about 86 kids die in the US, which is very high for flu and we are not even two-thirds way through the flu season.”

The doctor explained the symptoms for the flu. “Flu is different from a cold or even COVID. All of a sudden you feel like you got hit by a truck. Symptoms for cold are felt above your neck while with flu, they are both above and below the neck for instance cough, shortness of breath, muscle aches all over.”

As flu attacks the airways in the case of RSV, the patient gets the wheezing cough. A young child may look a little bit blue. The early signs are really poor appetite, fatigue, listlessness, loss of appetite and dehydration.  The child will not go to the bathroom, not have as many wet diapers and cry without producing tears.

“If anybody has symptoms right now in California and the US, more likely than not, it's going to be the flu,” says Dr. Hong. 

Is it too late to vaccinate? 

It's not too late to vaccinate for several reasons. We're still in the middle of the flu season. It came a little bit late and will probably end late. Flu is notorious for having a long tail. It goes on until April, sometimes even May. If you've had the flu, vaccinating will still help as the flu strain changes over the season.

The third reason to vaccinate is that we're having parallel outbreaks of flu in humans and bird flu. Bird flu can pick up tricks of human flu in order to enter our bodies more efficiently. By getting the human flu vaccine we can lower the chances of gene exchange occurring between bird flu and human flu as you're diminishing the chances of getting flu to begin with,” said the doctor. 

Other ways of getting protection is with antivirals like Paxlovid for COVID and Tamiflu for influenza. They are really beneficial for those who are older and those who are very young. Children as young as six months can get antivirals If a member of the household has flu they can actually ask for a prescription to give members of his household who are old and young children antivirals like Tamiflu so that they don't get flu. “We've used that also in nursing homes for outbreaks, et cetera, in people, even though they're negative,” said Dr Hong, “to prevent them from getting it because the attack rate is so high with flu that if a person gets exposed to it they are more likely than not going to get it. 

We have drugs, vaccines and diagnostic tests. We have the tools to really soften the blow.  Same for bird flu. We're not starting off at ground zero. 

Herd immunity should not be compromised

Dr. Benjamin Neuman, Professor of Biology and former chief Virologist at the Global Health Research Complex, Texas A&M University said, “We make decisions about health on an individual basis. Should I get vaccinated? Viruses see us as a collective. If a virus gets into one person. Then we seek each other out and the virus has a much better chance of getting to the second, third, fourth, and fifth person. So a virus's success is determined by how many chinks there are in our vaccination armor, essentially.”

Access to care, access to preventative care, is important in reducing hospitalizations and in reducing emergency rooms filling up and reducing avoidable deaths.