6. There were no pediatric #flu deaths reported last week. 🙏
There was a report from Vermont of a person who contracted H1N2v, a #flu virus that circulates in pigs. Not clear how he/she caught the virus or whether any close contacts were also ill. The person recovered. www.cdc.gov/fluview/surv...

5. The UK & Japan had early starts to their #flu seasons, due to subclade K. But the start to the US season seems on a par with several recent seasons. The dotted red line is this season. When the dotted red curve crosses the black line (which I added), it's considered that flu season has started.

4. #CDC reports that most of the #flu viruses typed so far have been flu A, & ~70% of the flu A is #H3N2. Of the H3N2 viruses that were analyzed, ~56% were the mutated version, subclade K. We'll have to see how it plays out, but it could be a big flu year.

3. If you haven't got a #flu shot yet, now's the time. You may have heard that there's likely a mismatch this year — the #H3N2 virus mutated after the vaccine strains were picked. More on that in a bit. But that's not a reason to skip getting a shot this year. www.statnews.com/2025/11/20/f...

2. As is generally the case with #flu, it starts to spread first among little kids. You can see activity in kids & teens (the top 2 lines) starting to climb sharply. If kids (or their parents) bring flu to Thanksgiving celebrations, the lines at the bottom of the graph will start climbing soon.

As of earlier this year thimerosal was in about 4% of flu doses administered in the US. The new ACIP recommended only thimerosal-free flu vaccine be used going forward, and Kennedy accepted that recommendation.