Another historic U.S. flu season is largely over, with the number of cases and hospitalizations trending downward over the last couple of months.
But child flu deaths continue to be reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: a worrying trend that America saw last year and further signals the dangers of spreading vaccine hesitancy.
A dozen more child flu deaths were reported during the first week of April, agency data shows. That brings the total number of child flu deaths this season to 139.
While that number is still expected to rise, it may come as a surprise that the number of child deaths during the previous flu season is also still ticking up, and now stands at 296. Flu deaths can rise after a season ends because the deaths are reported with a lag and data may take weeks or even months to be processed and analyzed.
Last season was also historic, resulting in at least 51 million flu cases, 710,000 hospitalizations and 45,000 deaths from October to May, the CDC says. This season has seen a total of at least 31 million illnesses, 370,000 hospitalizations, and 23,000 deaths. Those tallies are markedly below the same week in April 2025.
By the week of April 5 last year, there were at least 46 million illnesses, 590,000 hospitalizations, and 26,000 deaths.
Yet one thing has remained the same: the majority of child flu deaths have been in children who were not fully vaccinated against the virus.
Last season, 89 percent of child deaths were in kids who were not fully vaccinated, researchers said in September. And, the CDC says that percentage is at 85 percent right now.
Getting a flu shot is crucial to prevent severe illness that can lead to deadly complications – especially in kids, who are more vulnerable to the virus.
This year’s vaccine is between 38-41 percent effective against related outpatient doctor visits for children and 41 percent effective against influenza-associated hospitalization, interim estimates in March show.
Even so, not enough kids are getting vaccinated.
By last month, more than 135 million doses of flu vaccine had been distributed for both kids and adults, CDC data shows. That’s nearly 12 million fewer doses than last season.
As of March 14, 48.5 percent of kids had received a flu vaccine, a percentage that the CDC said was “similar to last season at this same time point.”
The next flu vaccine numbers will be released by the CDC on Wednesday.
Although the rate of childhood flu vaccinations is similar to last season, the child flu vaccine coverage rate was the lowest it had been for 15 seasons last season.
Just over half of children under the age of 17 were covered, which was a decrease of 5.3 percent from 2023-2024 and a drop of 13.5 percent from the 2019-2020 flu season.
A March 2026 report also found that vaccine coverage by age two dropped from 61 percent among children born between 2019-2020 to 53.5 percent for those born during 2021–2022 during 2022-2024.
That report cited vaccine hesitancy - a years-long problem that’s gained momentum since the Covid-19 pandemic - as a reason for falling rates.
The report’s authors pointed to a study that found more than 30 percent of children under the age of 17 had a parent who was hesitant about the flu vaccine.
A new poll of more than 3,800 adults shows nearly half of U.S. adults believe the science on vaccines remains up for debate and nearly 40 percent said they would take the risk of allowing vaccine-preventable disease to return.
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