{"id":3337,"date":"2025-02-23T14:00:56","date_gmt":"2025-02-23T19:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/?p=3337"},"modified":"2025-02-23T09:37:23","modified_gmt":"2025-02-23T14:37:23","slug":"more-than-900-californians-have-died-from-the-flu-so-far-this-season-amid-low-vaccine-rates-state-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/?p=3337","title":{"rendered":"More Than 900 Californians Have Died from the Flu So Far this Season Amid Low Vaccine Rates, State Says"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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More Than 900 Californians Have Died from the Flu So Far this Season Amid Low Vaccine Rates, State Says<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\tMore than 900 Californians \u2014 including 15 children \u2014 have succumbed to the flu this season in what has turned out to be one of the worst surges of the respiratory illness in years, according to a report released Friday by the California Department of Public Health. <\/b><\/i>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\tMost of the influenza victims \u2014 701 \u2014 were over 64 years old, which tracks with the conventional notion that the illness disproportionately affects older people.

\n\nHowever, the number of children who have died has raised concerns. Four more kids died from the flu during the week ending Feb. 15, increasing the seasonal pediatric death toll by more than a third, according to the report.

\n\nWith regard to COVID-19, \u201cwe just thought about older adults as getting sick,\u201d said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist and professor of medicine at UC San Francisco. \u201cWe have to reset with flu. Because with flu, it\u2019s not just the very old, it\u2019s also the very young. And they can do very poorly.\u201d

\n\nThe 15 children who died from the flu this season includes four teenagers from San Diego. None of the teens \u2014 aged 14, 15, 16 and 17 \u2014 had received flu shots, according to health officials.

\n\n\u201cThese recent flu deaths among our youth are tragic and concerning as we head into what historically is the peak of flu season,\u201d Dr. Ankita Kadakia, San Diego County\u2019s interim public health officer, said in a statement this month.

\n\nVaccination rates have declined, particularly among children, for the flu and other ailments, according to Chin-Hong.\n\nNationally, roughly 58% of children between 6 months and 17 were vaccinated against the flu during the 2020-21 season, declining to about 45% as of late January of this year.

\n\n\u201cIn the world of vaccines, that\u2019s like falling off a cliff,\u201d Chin-Hong said.

\n\nThe trend is similar in California: 47.7% of California\u2019s children have been vaccinated against flu as of late January, the lowest since at least the 2019-20 flu season. Last year at this time, 53.7% of children were vaccinated against flu.

\n\nThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends everyone 6 months or older get a flu shot \u2014 ideally by the end of October to boost protection against the disease during high-circulation winter months.

\n\nThe two types of flu generally circulating now are H1N1 \u2014 related to the swine flu strain that caused a flu pandemic in 2009 and 2010 \u2014 and H3N2, which \u201cis notorious for just causing more serious illness in general,\u201d Chin-Hong said previously.

\n\nGiven how potent this flu season has already proved to be, officials say those who have yet to be vaccinated should consider doing so.

\n\nWhile flu activity remains high, it may be decreasing. California public health officials\u2019 recent report shows a 3.4% decline in the rate at which flu tests returned positive results at the state\u2019s clinical sentinel labs for the week ending Feb. 15, the most recent for which complete data are available.

\n\nStill, the test positivity rate sits at an elevated 23.3%. COVID-19 and RSV activity is low, health officials said, with positivity rates of 2.3% and 5%, respectively.

\n\nChin-Hong said it\u2019s not yet clear if the downward trend will hold.

\n\n\u201cI think it\u2019s too early to celebrate,\u201d he said, adding that more data points are needed.

\n\nFlu season in the U.S. typically peaks between December and February, though the virus spreads year-round, according to the CDC.

\n\nEven if it\u2019s on the decline, the virus is known for having a prolonged season, Chin-Hong said. It can run through April and sometimes later in the year.

\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s not only the peak that we\u2019re worried about,\u201d Chin-Hong said. \u201cIt\u2019s also the breadth of what\u2019s happening this year.\u201d

\n\nThere were about 500 deaths last season from the flu by this point in time, and 600 the year before, the Mercury News reported.

\nChin-Hong estimates he hasn\u2019t seen a death toll like that of this season in a decade.


\n\nContributors: Lila Seidman and Rong-Gong Lin II\u2013 Los Angeles Times<\/i>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More Than 900 Californians Have Died from the Flu So Far this Season Amid Low Vaccine Rates, State Says More than 900 Californians \u2014 including 15 children \u2014 have succumbed to the flu this season in what has turned out to be one of the worst surges of the respiratory illness in years, according to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-news-and-information"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3337"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3341,"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3337\/revisions\/3341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}