As the 2024-2025 flu season continues, early data suggest that flu vaccines this year have significantly reduced hospitalizations and outpatient visits in vaccinated individuals. Public health experts highlight the value of flu vaccination, especially in light of the possible virulence of strains present this season. With attention on vaccine efficacy, the present situation of flu cases, and flu vaccination's future, here's what you should know.

Inital reports by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that the 2024-2025 flu vaccine has shown remarkable effectiveness in avert severe cases of the flu, especially among children. The findings, extracted from two healthcare center networks under the surveillance of the CDC, show that the vaccine has been as effective as 78% in averting hospitalization in children and teens.

For adults, the effectiveness of the vaccine in avoiding hospitalization has been between 41% and 55%. Furthermore, flu vaccines have decreased outpatient visits, such as doctor visits, urgent care, and emergency room visits. In children and adolescents, the effectiveness of the vaccine for outpatient visits was found to be 32%, 59%, and 60% in various healthcare networks, while in adults it was between 36% and 54%.

Despite variations in regional effectiveness, experts maintain that this year’s flu shots offer strong protection comparable to previous high-efficacy flu seasons over the last 15 years.

Influenza viruses can be grouped into two broad categories—A and B—which, in turn, split into subtypes. For the current season, influenza A viruses, including H1N1 and H3N2, have prevailed in flu cases across the country. Although flu shots have conferred robust protection against H1N1, against H3N2, it has been moderately lower. In areas where H3N2 is more concentrated, according to studies, flu shots have less frequently prevented cases among pediatric outpatients.

Laboratory testing research on ferrets, the typical animal model used for influenza research, has shown that the flu vaccine this year is not quite as good a fit for the spreading H3N2 viruses as it is for H1N1. Even so, general flu vaccine effectiveness is in line with previous flu seasons, and public health authorities continue to recommend widespread immunization.

Changes in Flu Shot Formulation- What's Different This Year?

For the first time since 2012, the U.S. flu vaccine has changed from a quadrivalent (four-component) to a trivalent (three-component) formula. This year's vaccine protects against two influenza A subtypes—H1N1 and H3N2—and one influenza B strain called the Victoria lineage. The fourth component from last year, the Yamagata lineage of influenza B, has been dropped, since international data show it might have become extinct.

Is It Too Late to Get Vaccinated for Flu?

Although the best time to get vaccinated is early fall before flu cases start to peak, it's never too late to get the flu shot. The CDC advises annual flu vaccination for all individuals above six months of age, and since flu cases can persist until May, getting vaccinated even later in the season can be of great benefit.

For those who still need to get their flu vaccination, infectious disease specialists say immunization is still important, especially for vulnerable populations, including:

• Pregnant women
• Elderly patients aged 65 and above
• People with pre-existing chronic health conditions
• Young children aged less than five years

Although the number of cases of flu might start decreasing towards spring, getting vaccinated can keep severe complications low and curtail the virus transmission.

In spite of the effectiveness of this season's flu shot, the next year's vaccine hangs in uncertainty. Generally, an FDA advisory panel gathers in early spring to choose strains for the upcoming year's vaccine. But this year, the meeting that was planned was abruptly canceled, leaving public health experts anxious.

Manufacturing of flu vaccine takes months because the chosen virus strains have to be grown in chicken eggs prior to mass production. Delaying strain selection will affect supplies of vaccines for the 2025-2026 season, which could translate to higher rates of severe illness and hospitalization.

In spite of these obstacles, the World Health Organization (WHO) has persevered with its yearly flu strain selection process, and only time will tell if the FDA will proceed on their own with strain selection in time for manufacturers to achieve the production timeline necessary.

Why Flu Vaccination Remains Essential?

Influenza is a potentially serious disease that can result in hospitalization and even death, especially in high-risk populations. Although some flu seasons are less severe than others, flu vaccines are essential in preventing complications, curbing the transmission of the virus, and reducing the burden on healthcare systems.

With the 2024-2025 flu season demonstrating promising vaccine efficacy, public health officials continue to emphasize the need for universal immunization. With flu cases continuing across various regions, vaccination remains the best method in preventing yourself and your loved ones from getting sick.

The 2024-2025 flu season has shown the power of this year's vaccine to prevent severe illness and hospitalizations. While there are regional differences, especially from the H3N2 strain, overall vaccine effectiveness is strong, matching some of the most protective flu seasons in the last 15 years. With flu season still present, health professionals recommend that individuals who have not yet been vaccinated get vaccinated as soon as possible.

Flu activity is increasing all thanks to the holiday season. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data shows that due to a surge in holiday travel and gathering, the flu cases have gone up. The CDC estimates that there have been at least 4.6 million illnesses, 49,000 hospitalizations and 1,900 deaths from flu this season so far.

Public health experts have also revealed that many of this season's cases are linked with the new flu strain, called the subclade K. This is a variant of the H3N2 virus, which is a subtype of influenza A.

According to the CDC, 89% of the 163 H3N2 virus samples collected and genetically analyzed since September 28 belonged to subclade K.

So far this season, three pediatric flu deaths have been reported, based on an ABC News tally. Last season, 288 children died from the flu in the U.S., matching the toll seen during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. A CDC study published earlier this year found that about 90% of those children were unvaccinated.

Read: New Aggressive Flu Strain Is Now A Health Threat In US

Will The Old Flu Vaccine Protect You Against The New Subclade K?

The real reason why concerns are prompted about the effectiveness of the seasonal vaccine is because the virus underwent more mutation than scientists expected over summers. This mutant is called the 'subclade K' or 'super flu'. While it is true that most cases this season are of the 'super flu' strain, experts say that the flu jab is still offering a strong protection.

"The vaccine remains the most effective means to prevent disease. We still want to encourage people to get the vaccine," said Professor Antonia Ho, Professor and Honorary Consultant in Infectious Diseases at the University of Glasgow. Experts have stressed enough on the immunity that one can receive from the vaccine that that these flu jab remain the best defense against the flu, even though the current strain circulated may have drifted away from the strain included in this year's jab.

Data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) also show that vaccines is performing as expect, despite the emergence of subclade K.

Every year, experts from the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other global health agencies closely track flu trends around the world. They study which strains are spreading and use that data to predict which ones are most likely to dominate the upcoming flu season. The annual flu vaccine is then designed to protect against three or four of those strains.

It’s also worth understanding that more than one influenza A strain usually circulates at the same time. So even if the vaccine is not an exact match for a newer H3N2 strain, it still protects against other common flu viruses, which matters, notes Stony Brook Medicine.

When a new variant emerges, the flu shot can still offer what doctors call cross-protection. In simple terms, the antibodies your body makes after vaccination can recognize similar flu viruses and respond to them. You might still get sick, but the vaccine greatly lowers the chances of severe illness, hospitalization, or worse.

The vaccine offers protection against both types of influenza, including A and B.

Claire Brosseau, 48, an actress, who lives in Toronto was hopeful when a new change to Canadian law allowed people who were living with incurable medical condition, but not near death to ask a doctor to end their lives. This happened in 2021. This gave her relief. But now, almost five years later, she is still alive, mostly surrounded with headlines and debates on who in Canada has the right to avail medically assisted death.

She suffers from a debilitating mental illness, which has no treatment. The sadness has succumbed her that sometimes she has tried to eat peanuts to trigger her severe allergy, in a hope that she would die. Other times she has overdosed on drugs or cut her wrists. A New York Times report notes that her sadness is so severe that sometimes she sobs until her bones ache.

What Happened To Claire Brosseau?

When she was just a 14-years-old honors student in Montreal, who enjoyed her life as wildly as any student of her own age would, she sometimes would turn rather cruel. Her parents took her to a psychotherapist who diagnosed her with manic depression. It came with diagnoses like eating disorder, anxiety disorder, personality disorder, substance abuse disorder, chronic suicidal ideation, and many more mental health issues.

It is not that she has not tried to get better. She has tried at least 25 medications, two dozen different talk, art behavioral therapies, even electroconvulsive therapy and guided psychedelics. She did feel better for sometime, only to return to the feeling of monsters stalking her when she is awake and in her dreams.

Read: Can Right To Die Be Practiced By Non-Terminally Ill Patients?

A shift in Canadian law briefly offered her another option. In 2019, three years after assisted death was legalized for people whose natural death was reasonably foreseeable, two people with chronic conditions challenged the law. They argued that excluding those suffering unbearably from incurable illnesses, simply because they were not dying, violated their right to equality. The courts agreed, and in 2021 the law was expanded to include people who were not at the end of life.

One group, however, remained excluded: people whose sole underlying condition was mental illness. The government said it needed time to draft special safeguards. Of the nine countries that allow assisted death for people not nearing death, only Canada made this distinction. The exclusion was set to end on March 17, 2023, and Ms. Brosseau planned to apply that day. But the deadline was delayed again, and then postponed once more the following year.

Childhood filled With Trauma

In hindsight, her family believes her illness began in early childhood. As a young girl, she cycled through rage and despair, sometimes sitting on train tracks, convinced everyone would be better off without her. At eight, she wrote in her diary that she wanted to die.

At home, her behavior created constant tension. Her older sister, Melissa Morris, recalls being perpetually anxious around her. At just 12, Ms. Morris used money from her first job to install a lock on her bedroom door to shield herself from the chaos.

Also Read: Australia Social Media Ban Explained: Why Government Plans to Restrict Accounts of Under-16s

At school, Ms. Brosseau appeared to flourish. She was popular, academically strong, and deeply involved in theater, even as she skipped classes and experimented with drugs. She was recruited into elite programs, studied theater in New York, and began acting professionally. But she struggled with eating disorders, periods of deep depression, and substance use.

In her early twenties, she returned to Montreal and experienced a severe manic depressive episode that led to months of hospitalization. She recovered enough to restart her career, performing comedy in two languages, acting in commercials, writing, and earning well. Manic episodes, however, continued, sometimes requiring friends to send her home for treatment. At 34, she underwent electroconvulsive therapy and returned to work soon after.

By 2021, she believed she was in remission. Then, during a downturn, her mother called police out of fear she might harm herself. Ms. Brosseau was involuntarily hospitalized, restrained twice despite no recorded threats, and left deeply traumatized. Complaints against the hospital were dismissed. For her, that decision marked the end of trust in the mental health system and any remaining desire to try to get better.

Amber cold health alerts have been announced for parts of northern England after forecasts warned that falling temperatures could lead to more deaths, particularly among older and vulnerable people. The UK Health Security Agency has issued two amber-level alerts for north-east and north-west England, which will be in effect from 8pm on Sunday until midday on Monday 5 January.

UK Under Amber Cold Health Alert: Elderly And Vulnerable People At Highest Risk

The agency said the expected cold spell is likely to increase pressure on healthcare services, with more vulnerable people needing medical attention. Officials warned this could lead to a rise in deaths, especially among those aged 65 and above and people with existing conditions such as heart disease, respiratory illnesses, and other long-term health problems.

UK Under Amber Cold Health Alert: UKHSA Gives Alert

UK Under Amber Cold Health Alert: Concerns Over Indoor Temperatures

The agency warned that indoor temperatures in buildings such as hospitals, care homes, and clinics are expected to drop. Maintaining the recommended indoor temperature of 18C may be difficult, increasing health risks for patients and residents. While all other regions in England will be under a lower-level yellow alert, officials said there is still potential for added pressure on health services. Staffing shortages linked to travel disruption were also flagged, along with possible impacts on essential services such as transport and energy.

How Does Cold Weather Affect People In The UK

Cold weather in the UK can worsen existing health problems and create new risks, particularly during prolonged spells of low temperatures. It places extra strain on the heart and lungs, increases the likelihood of infections, and can make daily life harder for people who struggle to keep warm. Those living in poorly insulated homes or facing high heating costs are often hit the hardest.

The Met Office said much of England will remain cloudy overnight, with patches of frost and fog likely to develop. These conditions could lead to difficult and potentially hazardous travel on Monday morning.

Sub-zero Temperatures Forecast In Parts Of The UK

Overnight temperatures are expected to fall to around minus 1C in Penrith and hover close to freezing in parts of the Lake District where the amber alert is in place. In northern areas of Scotland, temperatures are forecast to drop further, reaching between minus 6C and minus 7C, as per Sky News.

A brisk northerly breeze is also expected along the north-east coast of England, making conditions feel colder and more uncomfortable. Dr Agostinho Sousa, head of extreme events and health protection at UKHSA, as per Sky News, urged people to look out for friends, family, and neighbours as the cold weather sets in.

“The temperatures we are expecting can have a serious impact on health,” he said. “They increase the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and chest infections, particularly among people over 65 and those with existing health conditions.”