LEILA FADEL, HOST:
It's that time of year again. Sore throats, coughs, fevers. That's right. Respiratory virus season is back. NPR health correspondent Rob Stein has the story.
ROB STEIN, BYLINE: The flu, COVID-19, RSV. They're all on the rise again. But Alicia Budd, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says the flu is really leading the pack. The flu season started a couple of weeks earlier than usual and is now ramping up big time.
ALICIA BUDD: We're seeing seasonal influenza increasing in most areas of the country right now. We're seeing flu-associated outpatient visits, emergency department visits, hospitalizations and even, to some extent, influenza-associated deaths all increasing at this point.
STEIN: A few states - New York, Louisiana, Colorado - are already getting slammed, and some experts worry the U.S. may be in for another bad flu season. Andrew Pekosz studies respiratory viruses at Johns Hopkins.
ANDREW PEKOSZ: It's very difficult to predict the flu season, but right now we're at the beginning of what we probably are going to see is a pretty severe influenza season.
STEIN: That would be surprising since the last flu season was bad, the worst in about a decade. A record-breaking 288 children died, and it's unusual to have back-to-back bad flu years. But the southern hemisphere had a severe flu season this year, and that's often a harbinger for the northern hemisphere. In fact, the flu is already hitting other parts of the northern hemisphere, like the U.K., really hard now, too. Here's Alicia Budd from the CDC again.
BUDD: Just because we had a severe season last year doesn't mean that we won't this year.
STEIN: And that's not all. The dominant flu strain recently mutated, helping the virus evade the immune system and spread more easily. This so-called subclade K virus doesn't appear to make people sicker. But the more easily a virus spreads, the more people get sick and the more people get seriously ill. The good news is that preliminary evidence indicates the flu vaccine should still provide decent protection.
BUDD: It's not too late to get vaccinated at all. We're coming into the holiday season when folks are going to be around together, so it does continue to be a recommended preventive action this season.
STEIN: Along with staying home if you're sick, washing your hands a lot, and yes, maybe even masking up again in crowded places.
Rob Stein, NPR News.
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