This season's flu is no joke - PSA for anyone whose kids have not had a shot yet

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another child has died from the flu.

Influencer Paul J. Kim’s 5-year-old son, Micah, died on Dec. 31, 2025, after contracting a severe case of the flu.


https://people.com/influencer-paul-j-kim-son-micah-dies-after-severe-case-of-flu-11877386

I came here to ask if anyone knows if he was vaccinated?

I can’t find any reliable source of information on that. Last year, 90% of the nearly 300 children who died from the flu were not vaccinated.

When the parents are silent, the answer is usually “no.” Catholics have not been immune from the anti-vax craziness, conservative ones especially so. In a local mom’s group, one was prepared to let her baby die unless she could get “pure” blood donations. It’s insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We totally screwed up this year and got 4 of our 5 family members vaccinated. This year, dad and two kids went on one day in October. I was at an appointment with the other kid that day and for some reason I kept telling myself, DH got him the shot later. I don’t know why I didn’t even check because I was so certain but seeing all the news, I decided to double check their records and they didn’t get it.

I have health anxiety and made an appointment to take them to the CVS tomorrow. Will it still be helpful? They had to do a 5 day course of antibiotics for a cut and that ended on Tuesday so I’m a little nervous.

It will be helpful as long as they aren’t exposed to flu in the next two weeks. Flu season is long. My kid got Flu A last February and Flu B last April (vaxxed but apparently not much of a responder).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sometimes let myself think the DCUM set is more intelligent than average, but then a thread like this brings me back to reality. Get your flu shot every year. Even a poorly matched shot offers protection. This isn’t new information.

You do realize there is scant evidence for the flu shot’s effectiveness right? There is little statistical or anecdotal evidence despite this thing being given to hundreds of millions of people over 45 years.

It’s only people like you still supporting it. People who are particularly susceptible to marketing and think themselves smarter than they actually are. If they couldn’t advertise the shot anymore, people like you would never take it again.

Even a quick Google search pulls up any number of peer reviewed studies that show you're full of something. Hint: it's not knowledge.

In the realm of vaccines, the flu shot is not very effective.

But it's better than nothing.

One wonders how you define “effective” - effective in terms of preventing hospitalizations and death? Effective in terms of not being infected despite exposure? Effective in terms of turning your hair blue?
It matters.

The CDC reports that “early estimates of 2025–26 influenza vaccine effectiveness in England against influenza-associated hospitalization remained within expected ranges of 70%–75% for children and 30%–40% for adults, suggesting that influenza vaccination remains an effective tool in preventing influenza-related hospitalizations this season.”

So it’s definitely worth it.

It’s always estimates and never raw numbers. One of the vaccine makers favorite tricks.

You’re welcome to roll the dice on your own kid, sweetie.

A $25 shot with no lasting ill effects for nearly 99% of people, or a $250,000 ICU bill followed up by a $25,000 funeral, or worse, $100k in PT and lifelong supportive therapies. Your choice!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here’s the link:
https://www.aha.org/news/headline/2025-07-28-pediatric-flu-deaths-reach-266-2024-2025-season

Digging a few links deep, this comes with a lot of caveats: "Among children who were eligible for influenza vaccination and with known vaccine status, 90% of reported pediatric deaths this season (compared to 82% during the 2023-2024 season) have occurred in children who were not fully vaccinated against influenza."

So at first glance you would expect something like 270 unvaccinated deaths based on the 90%, but it looks like the number would actually be much smaller. How much smaller, we don't actually know since the raw data is nowhere to be found.

Vaccination status is not even an option on their dashboards: https://gis.cdc.gov/GRASP/Fluview/PedFluDeath.html

But what the dashboard does show, is that 154 of the deaths were in a high risk underlying conditions group.

So at the end of the day, its unlikely we even have triple-digit healthy, unvaccinated kids dying of the flu even in a bad year.

I stand by the fact that the flu vaccine, like most vaccines, only nets out for the sickest and oldest tenth of society or so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here’s the link:
https://www.aha.org/news/headline/2025-07-28-pediatric-flu-deaths-reach-266-2024-2025-season

Digging a few links deep, this comes with a lot of caveats: "Among children who were eligible for influenza vaccination and with known vaccine status, 90% of reported pediatric deaths this season (compared to 82% during the 2023-2024 season) have occurred in children who were not fully vaccinated against influenza."

So at first glance you would expect something like 270 unvaccinated deaths based on the 90%, but it looks like the number would actually be much smaller. How much smaller, we don't actually know since the raw data is nowhere to be found.

Vaccination status is not even an option on their dashboards: https://gis.cdc.gov/GRASP/Fluview/PedFluDeath.html

But what the dashboard does show, is that 154 of the deaths were in a high risk underlying conditions group.

So at the end of the day, its unlikely we even have triple-digit healthy, unvaccinated kids dying of the flu even in a bad year.

I stand by the fact that the flu vaccine, like most vaccines, only nets out for the sickest and oldest tenth of society or so.

Fwiw, the odds of death from the flu are small enough I don't think about it at all. I just want to try to avoid getting sick for several days. I've had the flu shot many times, so the chances of an adverse reaction are minuscule. There's basically just an upside with a small cost. The biggest issue is just getting it. I wish they could hand out auto-injectors.

[Anonymous]

I have significant reactions to the flu shots that knock me down for 2-3 days. I’ve had the flu and been bedridden for 2-3 days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have significant reactions to the flu shots that knock me down for 2-3 days. I’ve had the flu and been bedridden for 2-3 days.

I’ve never had that kind of reaction, nor have my kids, my spouse or my parents and we all get the flu vax each year.

My vaxxed kids didn’t get the flu this year unlike many of their classmates (at least some of whom I assume didn’t get vaxxed).

[Anonymous]

The one year I didn’t get a flu shot is the one year that I got the flu - the sickest I’ve ever been in my life. And no, there was never any chance I’d be hospitalized or die, but the morbidity it caused was enough that I and my kids) always get one now.

[Anonymous]

I’m feeling anxious about flu A now that we’re all back to school and work and everyone will be back together after traveling, gathering etc. We’re all vaxxed but my social media is full of reports about how this flu causes staph pneumonia and extremely high fevers, especially in kids. I am not usually one to freak out about viruses but this one is spooking me and other than locking ourselves up, we’re just at the mercy of others to stay home when sick. Is anyone else feeling anxious? There’s a lot to feel anxious about right now but this one is really upping it for me.

[Anonymous]

I got the flu, the real flu, once before there was a vaccine. I was already run down and not taking care of myself and it was really scary.

I have no doubt that I'd handle it better today, but I still get the shot. I never want to feel the way I felt again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m feeling anxious about flu A now that we’re all back to school and work and everyone will be back together after traveling, gathering etc. We’re all vaxxed but my social media is full of reports about how this flu causes staph pneumonia and extremely high fevers, especially in kids. I am not usually one to freak out about viruses but this one is spooking me and other than locking ourselves up, we’re just at the mercy of others to stay home when sick. Is anyone else feeling anxious? There’s a lot to feel anxious about right now but this one is really upping it for me.

I do feel somewhat anxious but not as anxious as you. We're minimizing outings, especially in crowds, but otherwise not much to be done. Kids will bring home from school at some point. We are vaxed and will get tamiflu asap, so focusing on the rational belief it will likely be annoying but fine in the end.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m feeling anxious about flu A now that we’re all back to school and work and everyone will be back together after traveling, gathering etc. We’re all vaxxed but my social media is full of reports about how this flu causes staph pneumonia and extremely high fevers, especially in kids. I am not usually one to freak out about viruses but this one is spooking me and other than locking ourselves up, we’re just at the mercy of others to stay home when sick. Is anyone else feeling anxious? There’s a lot to feel anxious about right now but this one is really upping it for me.

I get it- my friend's 5 year old got Flu A when it just started circulating about a month or so ago and was really sick- 105 fever and all kinds of symptoms. They were all vaxxed and no one else in the family got it. Unfortunately, it's going to hit the worst for folks whose immune systems don't have a lot of exposure to things yet, but, I do find it comforting that people who got the vaccine manage to avoid it entirely, even living in the same house as someone who is really sick with it!

[Anonymous]

I'm surprised by all these people that get tested as soon as they get sick. Why? Whether it's flu or covid there's not much they can do. I wait until there's some secondary issue (usually there's none) like bronchitis and then I get antibiotics which treat the secondary.

I'm asking because I see all these people running around and it's spreading sickness more. We're all pretty sure we got sick from DH who caught it from urgent care where he was having his toe splinted (it was a bad break). What's crazy is that my veterinarian has us wait in our car until we're called in. Why can't they do that at urgent care?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m feeling anxious about flu A now that we’re all back to school and work and everyone will be back together after traveling, gathering etc. We’re all vaxxed but my social media is full of reports about how this flu causes staph pneumonia and extremely high fevers, especially in kids. I am not usually one to freak out about viruses but this one is spooking me and other than locking ourselves up, we’re just at the mercy of others to stay home when sick. Is anyone else feeling anxious? There’s a lot to feel anxious about right now but this one is really upping it for me.

Me too. The highest number of hospitalizations and er visits are 5-18 age group, with numbers double last years peak. This is no joke. We are looking at a really bad flu season.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised by all these people that get tested as soon as they get sick. Why? Whether it's flu or covid there's not much they can do. I wait until there's some secondary issue (usually there's none) like bronchitis and then I get antibiotics which treat the secondary.

I'm asking because I see all these people running around and it's spreading sickness more. We're all pretty sure we got sick from DH who caught it from urgent care where he was having his toe splinted (it was a bad break). What's crazy is that my veterinarian has us wait in our car until we're called in. Why can't they do that at urgent care?

Because they are both treatable. But you have to get the Rx within 48-72 hours.