Children have been hit especially hard by the early-onset flu season, according to a study from Tennessee that raises concerns about U.S. immunization rates following the pandemic-fueled trend of vaccine hesitancy.
Kids were hospitalized at high levels earlier than usual and were twice as likely as adults to get sick from other household contacts who tested positive in the current season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report on 14 of the state’s 95 counties.
Flu began spreading in September in the U.S., a month earlier than usual, in a season that combined with COVID-19 and RSV, another respiratory disease, to create what U.S. health officials called a “tripledemic.” Hospitalizations for flu alone also peaked early in Tennessee children and teens, reaching 6.9 per 100,000 kids in the week ending Nov. 26, more than twice as many as in the same week in 2019.
