If Colorado follows the pattern set in the southern hemisphere this spring, the flu season could start early and be relatively severe.
The flu typically starts circulating widely around Thanksgiving in the United States and peaks in December or January, said Dr. Michelle Barron, senior medical director for infection prevention and control at UCHealth. If the country follows the pattern set in Australia, that could mean the flu season kicks off in late October or early November, she said., during which 3,546 people were hospitalized with influenza in Colorado, Barron said.
“This year has the potential to be a bad flu year. A lot of the measures used during the COVID-19 pandemic such as masking and limiting gatherings that helped limit the spread of flu are no longer in place. We also have less immunity to flu since we haven’t had the same exposures we normally have from year to year,” Barron said.
Children younger than 5 and adults older than 65 are at the highest risk of severe illness from flu. Colorado doesn’t track adult flu deaths, which are lumped in with pneumonia from other causes in the statistics. Pediatric deaths typically fluctuate between three and seven per year. Dr. Hector de Leon, a pediatrician at Kaiser Permanente’s Fort Collins clinic, said he’d seen a small increase in respiratory viruses as of late August, though not a large number of flu cases. Some people try to time their flu shots to have the most protection when the season peaks, but it’s better to get vaccinated early, he said.