FLU SEASON:
The flu season is finally in our rear-view mirror, thankfully. A recent report outlines what we knew, this year’s flu vaccine was not as effective in preventing people from getting sick. Part of the problem was that a newer version of the H3N2 Influenza A virus, subclade K, was more infectious and spread more easily. The strains for next years vaccine have already been chosen. These traditional vaccines requires months to produce. mRNA vaccines require less time and allow better matching for the most recent strains. According to an article published last fall in the New England Journal of Medicine, they are more effective in preventing illness than traditional egg-grown vaccines but have a slightly higher risk of side effects such as soreness at injection site and fever. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2416779?logout=true
Unfortunately, last August, the Department of Health and Human Services cut $500 million in vaccine research.
NEW YORK (AP) — As the U.S. flu season winds down, health officials say the flu vaccine didn’t work very well, with one of its worst effectiveness rates in more than a decade.
A new strain that dominated the early winter was not well matched to the vaccine, leading to an intense early onslaught of flu.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday posted data that showed a continued decline in doctor’s office and hospital visits for flu symptoms through last week. The number of states reporting high flu activity dropped to 16, many of them in a belt stretching from Colorado to Virginia.
“The winter respiratory virus season is slowly coming to a close, and we’re all very grateful for that,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University vaccine expert.
This season’s vaccines were around 25% to 30% effective in preventing adults from getting sick enough from the flu that they had to go to a doctor’s office, clinic or hospital, according to a CDC report this week. Children who were vaccinated were about 40% less likely to get treatment at a doctor’s office or hospital.
Officials generally are pleased if a flu vaccine is 40% to 60% effective. Judging from past CDC research, this season saw one of the lowest effectiveness rates in the last two decades.
Relatively low flu vaccination rates did not help, but experts also blamed the new flu strain that was causing most infections.
The new strain belonged to a category of flu virus, called A H3N2. This new version, subclade K, seemed to spread more easily — though it did not necessarily cause more severe illness.
The vaccine available for this season was built to address a different version of H3N2, and the new strain’s explosion is a likely explanation for why the vaccine was less effective, Schaffner said.
CDC scientists estimate there have been at least 27 million illnesses, 350,000 hospitalizations and 22,000 deaths from flu so far this season. At the same point last year, the estimates were at least 40 million illnesses, 520,000 hospitalizations, but about the same number of deaths.
At least 101 children have died so far this season. For those whose vaccination status is known, about 85% were not fully vaccinated against flu.
The flu vaccine may not protect everyone from getting sick, but it can prevent people from becoming severely ill and dying. That’s why getting a flu shot remains worthwhile, Schaffner said.
CDC data suggests adult vaccination rates are up slightly this season, to 46.5%, following an unusually bad season last year that set a record for the most child deaths this century.
An estimated 48% of U.S. kids were vaccinated against flu around the end of last month. That’s about the same as last year, but down from the 52% vaccinated at this point in 2024, according to CDC data.
Starting in 2010, the government recommended annual flu vaccinations for Americans 6 months and older. In January, however, the Trump administration stopped broadly recommending flu shots for all children, saying instead that it’s up to parents and family doctors to decide.
Meanwhile, work is already underway for next winter’s flu season. Last month, the World Health Organization announced its recommendations for which virus strains to address in the vaccines for the 2026-27 northern hemisphere flu season. The vaccines should be built to handle subclade K, the organization said. This week, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory committee endorsed the WHO recommendations.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Speaking of vaccines, a federal judge blocked the overhaul of the childhood vaccine schedule, something that had been challenged by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Federal Judge Blocks Administration From Overhauling Childhood Vaccine Schedule
The New York Times (3/16, Mandavilli) reports a federal judge in Massachusetts on Monday blocked the Administration “from implementing a series of decisions on vaccines made over the last year by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.” The ruling by Judge Brian Murphy, of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, “also reversed, at least for the time being, all decisions made by the panelists that Mr. Kennedy appointed to the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices. … The court decision will prevent the committee from meeting later this week, as it was scheduled to do.”
Reuters (3/16, Raymond, Aboulenein, Douglas) reports that in his ruling, Murphy “sided with the American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical groups, which said health regulators had acted unlawfully to carry out Kennedy’s agenda of upending immunization policies and warned the changes will reduce vaccination rates and harm public health.” Murphy stated that for decades, the US had been focused on the eradication and reduction of diseases using vaccines, which were developed through “a method scientific in nature and codified into law through procedural requirements.” Under Kennedy, Murphy said, the government “has disregarded those methods and thereby undermined the integrity of its actions.”
MEDICARE ADVANTAGE PLANS CHANGES
As I warned in this October Blogpost, Medicare Open Enrollment: Caveat Emptor – Mark Thornton, there have been changes made to these plans. If you are on one, you need to make sure that we are providers on it by contacting them. If there is a different physician’s name on your card, we can still see you, but we cannot make referrals, order tests or x-rays. There has been so much chaos surrounding these changes that they are allowing you to make changes until the end of the month. If we are not providers on the plan, you may ask them to change you to a similar plan on which we are.
There will be additional changes coming as the Federal Government is getting tired of paying the additional costs of these plans.
MedPAC Estimates Federal Government Will Overpay Medicare Advantage Plans By $76B This Year
Fierce Healthcare (3/13, Minemyer) reported the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), in its March report (PDF) released to Congress last week, estimated the “federal government will pay $76 billion more for individuals enrolled in Medicare Advantage than it would have for enrollees in the traditional program.” MedPAC stated “that favorable selection and coding intensity are the largest factors driving up payments in Medicare Advantage. In the former case, individuals with risk scores that overpredict what they’ll spend on care enroll in an MA plan, and they generally cost less to cover than an individual in traditional Medicare. Coding intensity, meanwhile, reflects the likelihood that more diagnostic codes are recorded for MA enrollees.” In addition, MedPAC “estimates that on average, MA plans will be paid $2,660 each year in rebate payments that go toward supplemental benefits for enrollees.”
NEW RECEPTIONIST/MEDICAL ASSISTANT!
Welcome Lucy Gonzalez.
“Hello, my name is Lucy. I am the mother of four, the “Mimi” for 4 grandbabies and a wife. I have been in healthcare for almost 22 years after 15 years as a hairdresser (helping people look good) to now helping patients with their needs. This has allowed my more time with my family (they keep me going). I am blessed not just with my personal family, but with my work family. Drs. Thornton and Wallace, Amber and Sieglinde are AMAZING! Thank you all for allowing me to be part of the work family. Lucy G.”
I’ll be back with some thoughts on Summer which will be here all too soon.
Wishing you the best of health!
Mark L. Thornton, M.D., F.A.C.P.
