Health researchers urge early flu shots as flu season starts in September

This year's flu season started early, researchers said. Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist (a scientist who studies disease patterns) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said the percentage of people testing positive for flu in the West has been rising steadily since around the beginning of September. She said emergency department visits for flu have also been rising for weeks, and called it "very uncommon" to see flu activity rising this early, at activity normally seen more like November or December.

Rivers said the flu season typically starts in the South and expands from there, but this year it began in Western states such as California, Washington, Hawaii and Alaska. She said flu activity is still very low in most parts of the country but is starting to change as flu picks up nationwide.

It is unclear why flu activity started so early and in such an unusual part of the country. Dr. Alex Greninger, a virologist (a scientist who studies viruses) who heads infectious disease diagnostics at the University of Washington, said a new variant evolved a mutation that appears to make it better at evading existing immunity, especially among teenagers, and called that "our best argument" for the early season. He said doctors there are seeing as much flu right now as they usually would around Christmas, and that the mutated variant appears to be common.

Greninger, Rivers and others are urging people to think about getting their flu shot earlier than usual. Scott Hensley, a virologist at the University of Pennsylvania, said "it's crucial that people get an influenza vaccine," and that this might be a year people want to get a vaccine early.

According to NPR, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not been promoting flu shots as it usually does, and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who oversees the CDC, is a long-time vaccine skeptic. Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who resigned last year as director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases to protest what he called political interference at the agency, said it is disappointing that the CDC is quiet given that flu kills hundreds of children a year and can result in tens of thousands of hospitalizations and deaths.

NPR reported that the CDC declined to make an official available for its story. In a statement, a CDC spokesperson said the agency is developing a communications strategy to provide clear, accessible information about influenza vaccination and other critical steps people can take to protect themselves during respiratory virus season.