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By Jordan King
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For the past two months, deaths from influenza have surpassed ones caused by COVID-19 for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began in 2020, according to Professor Peter Chin-Hong, who cites preliminary mortality data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Newsweek has contacted the CDC via email for comment.
This week, Newsweek covered which states are being worst affected by influenza and COVID-19.
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Why It Matters
Seasonal influenza has continued to increase across the United States, reaching unprecedented intensity and marking the most severe flu season in at least 15 years, according to the CDC.
Besides COVID and influenza, the U.S. is also struggling with an unprecedented spread of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and norovirus in what some doctors are calling a "quad-demic."
Flu season usually occurs in the fall and winter, with activity usually peaking between December and February.
What To Know
COVID-19 has killed almost 42 times more people in the U.S. than the flu since the disease hit in early 2020, according to Bloomberg.
However, this flu season has been a "particularly severe one," Chin-Hong, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, told the outlet.
Since October 2024, the CDC estimates that the flu has killed at least 16,000 people so far this season, while COVID-19's mortality has declined over the years due to vaccination and the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The CDC also estimates that 29 million illnesses and 370,000 hospitalizations have occurred so far this flu season.
This flu season has been driven by H1N1 and H3N2 strains—the latter causing the most severe illness.
"There are two flus going around right now—H3 and H1. H3 is just notorious for causing more serious symptoms. And people feel really bad," Chin-Hong told ABC's 7News earlier this week.
He has also stressed that children have been hit especially hard this season, which he attributes to declining vaccination rates—of the 16,000 influenza deaths reported, 68 were among children, according to the CDC.
"The last time we had so many kids dying was in 2009 with swine flu, H1N1. So, I'm worried because the season hasn't peaked yet," Chin-Hong said.
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Flu Map Shows Highest Levels Across US
Newsweek has also covered the prevalence of influenza around the country, looking at the states reporting people with the highest number of influenza-like illness symptoms.
The states that have seen the most doctor visits (rated "very high" by the CDC) in the week ending February 8 include Washington, Oregon, Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, South Carolina and Virginia, according to the CDC's Influenza Surveillance Report map.
It also includes Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York City, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, North Carolina, Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and Maine.
What People Are Saying
Professor Peter Chin-Hong told Bloomberg: "Flu seasons fluctuate—some years are worse than others, and this is a particularly severe one. High hospitalization and death rates suggest that at-risk people are not being diagnosed early enough for antivirals like oseltamivir to be effective in preventing severe illness."
He added: "We need to change the narrative that respiratory viruses only cause serious illness in older adults, as we saw with Covid. Flu targets the very young as well."
Dr. Ryan Fulton, section chief of general pediatrics at Carilion Children's Hospital and faculty member at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, previously told Newsweek: "The reason this year is seeing more aggressive outbreaks is really a perfect storm of circumstances. Throughout the pandemic, we had an interruption in the normal course of circulation of flu and RSV, so some people—especially little kids—haven't built up the same degree of protection they would in normal times."
He added: "And then to add insult to injury, these viruses are behaving unpredictably post-pandemic, with shifts in seasonality and severity."
What Happens Next?
The CDC has recommended that everyone aged six months and older should get an annual influenza vaccine.
People at high risk of severe illness should start prescription flu antiviral drugs as soon as possible, the agency added.
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