{"id":520577,"date":"2026-01-16T14:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T14:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/520577\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T14:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T14:49:10","slug":"us-mixed-messaging-on-flu-shots-alarms-experts-children-should-not-be-dying-trump-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/520577\/","title":{"rendered":"US mixed messaging on flu shots alarms experts: \u2018Children should not be dying\u2019 | Trump administration"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the US reaches record-breaking rates of illness and hospitals scramble to care for flu patients, officials have stopped fully recommending the flu<\/a> shot, casting doubt on the necessity and effectiveness of the vaccine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in the midst of a very severe flu season,\u201d said Seema Lakdawala, associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Emory School of Medicine. Despite this, the US is dismantling many of its vaccine recommendations. Flu vaccine recommendations for children changed<\/a> in early January to \u201cshared clinical decision-making\u201d, which has typically meant a provider recommends the shot.<\/p>\n

When asked whether the new restrictions would lead to fewer children getting vaccinated against the flu, \u201cmaybe that\u2019s a better thing\u201d, Robert F Kennedy Jr, the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services and a longtime vaccine critic, told<\/a> CBS News last week. \u201cThere is no scientific evidence that the flu vaccine prevents serious illness, hospitalizations or death in children,\u201d Kennedy claimed, despite extensive studies, including<\/a> from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), showing the effectiveness<\/a> of the flu<\/a> shot<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His comments come after Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, cast doubt on how well flu vaccines work.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year, there\u2019s a flu vaccine. It doesn\u2019t always work very well. That\u2019s why it\u2019s been controversial of late,\u201d Oz said<\/a> on Newsmax. He instead recommended that Americans \u201ctake care\u201d of themselves, so they can \u201coverwhelm\u201d the flu when they encounter it.<\/p>\n

CDC press statements have said<\/a> \u201cthe decision to vaccinate is a personal one\u201d, urging people to consult with their doctors to understand \u201cthe potential risks and benefits associated with vaccines\u201d. Unlike in previous years, there have been no health advisory notices from the CDC on the new variant, top health officials haven\u2019t publicly received vaccines and a successful campaign called \u201cWild to Mild\u201d was halted and not resumed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The dominant flu strain in the US is H3N2, which tends to cause more severe illness, and this particular variant, subclade K, has mutated to get around immune defenses, which means more people may be susceptible to the flu than usual. The last time H3N2 spread through the US, in 2017-18<\/a>, about 51,000 people died, making it the most severe flu season in recent years.<\/p>\n

So far this year, there have been about 15m illnesses, 180,000 hospitalizations and 7,400 deaths from the flu, the CDC estimated<\/a> in its weekly update on 9 January \u2013 with deaths including at least 17 children . \u201cThere is still time to get vaccinated against flu this season,\u201d the CDC concluded in the report, in sharp relief to public statements by health officials and new restrictions on the shots.<\/p>\n

In an earlier CDC report<\/a>, about 8.2% of visits to the doctor were for flu-like respiratory illnesses \u2013 the highest rate for this point in the season since the 1997-98 season. That rate fell slightly to 7.2% last week, but the CDC cautioned that the drop could be due to delays in reporting or seeking care because of the holidays. Some health systems are requiring providers to wear face masks amid surging cases<\/a>. New York, for instance, logged the most hospitalizations it has ever seen in the week ending 27 December.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe flu can be extremely, extremely severe. It can be really scary,\u201d said Megan Berman, professor of internal medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch, and faculty with the Sealy Institute for Vaccine Sciences.<\/p>\n

Berman has seen an influx of patients who need to be hospitalized, and \u201cwhat they all had in common is actually they had not been vaccinated\u201d. Even patients who have already gotten cases of flu A would still benefit from vaccines, she said, because there was often a double peak in flu season with flu B, which the vaccine also protects against.<\/p>\n

Early data<\/a> from the UK, where flu season started early and now seems to be abating, shows that the vaccine is still effective at preventing hospitalizations: 70-75% effective in children and 30-40% effective in adults, a rate similar to previous flu shots.<\/p>\n

While the flu shot may not stop transmission, it is still very effective at preventing severe illness, Lakdawala said. But only 42.5% of children and 43.5% of adults have received the shot this year, according<\/a> to the CDC. Vaccination rates have fallen in recent years after reaching a high of 63.7% of children and 48.4% of adults in 2019-20 \u2013 more than half<\/a> of the US population.<\/p>\n

Covid rates are also high, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is increasing, putting more pressure on hospitals. Both of those childhood shots also saw recent restrictions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The changes in the recommendations will probably further dampen vaccination rates because it \u201cgives the message that it\u2019s not important\u201d, Berman said. Yet \u201cnothing has changed from the science, and I know that physicians are still strongly recommending it to everyone six months and older \u2026 Children<\/a> should not be dying from a preventable illness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Antiviral treatments for flu have also fallen in recent years. About 79% of hospitalized flu patients in 2022-23 received antivirals, compared with 90% in 2018-19. The drop was especially pronounced in children; three out of five children hospitalized for the flu in 2022-23 received<\/a> the medications, compared with four out of five in 2018-19. Only 28% of children under age five who are sick enough with the flu to see a doctor are prescribed antivirals, and only 32% of children who seek care for flu in emergency departments receive the treatments, the CDC says<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the same time, mortality among children is rising, with nearly 300 children<\/a> dying from the flu last season \u2013 the most deaths from the flu outside of a pandemic since the CDC started keeping track.<\/p>\n

If a patient is sick enough to seek care from a doctor, they should receive antivirals, Berman said, and so should patients with underlying medical conditions, pregnant people and older people. There are four antiviral medications for the flu, and they all work well against this variant. It\u2019s best to start them as soon as possible after testing positive.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a risk, as H5N1 bird flu continues to devastate flocks across the US, of two flu variants mixing to create<\/a> another, deadlier variant, a process called reassortment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I worry about most with bird flu is, in five years, it will have reassorted to something else,\u201d Lakdawala said.<\/p>\n

There are effective ways to control the spread of the flu, Lakdawala said, noting \u201cwe have every tool in our arsenal\u201d and \u201cwe should use them when anyone\u2019s sick\u201d. In addition to getting vaccinated and taking antivirals, people can wear face masks, improve ventilation, wash hands, cover coughs and sneezes and stay home when they are sick to keep the flu in check.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe learned something really important about flu transmission during the Covid-19 pandemic, and that is that we can control it. We actually have the capacity to control flu disease burden,\u201d Lakdawala said.<\/p>\n

Berman noted that \u201cpeople are not helpless\u201d, adding: \u201cWe can do something.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the US reaches record-breaking rates of illness and hospitals scramble to care for flu patients, officials have…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":520578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[210,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-520577","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115905335328866328","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}