The worst of an unusually severe flu season is behind us, but there are still plenty of Central New Yorkers getting sick. The virus continues to be especially dangerous for children.
It’s late March, and officially spring, so many might think flu activity is declining.
Dr. James Alexander said that's not the case. He's Senior Medical Director at the Onondaga County Health Department.
“We're absolutely not out of the woods," he said. “Typically later in the season, we see influenza B start to peak. And that's where we are now.”
He said flu A fueled an earlier and higher peak than previous years, and we avoided the typical February surge.
“But we still do have a significant number of cases going on," Alexander said. "And interestingly, we have higher case rates in Central New York than any other region in New York State.”
He said it’s hard to know why. The region’s vaccination rate is on par with the rest of the state. And, Alexander added this year’s flu vaccine has been pretty effective at reducing the risk of illness, hospitalization, and death. He said he’s noticed an interesting pattern with immunizations this year.
“Our flu vaccine numbers, they're lower, but significantly higher than COVID vaccine numbers," Alexander said. "So people are going to the pharmacy, they're going to their doc[tor]s, they're getting immunized against influenza and declining COVID vaccines.”
Alexander said that can be attributed to misinformation and messaging from “other sources.” He said flu cases among children were especially high, and pediatric deaths are still being reported elsewhere in the state. He added that most adult hospitalizations are due to COVID.
